Questions/Observations about the Lakers/Mavs game.

[WayOutWest]

Observations:

1.) The Mavs played terrible but where in striking distance in the 4th WITHOUT Dirk.
2.) Twan looks good playing point forward. I like Twans attitude, reminds me of NVE.
3.) Nash and Howard played very well, if they would have gotten a little help it could have gone the other way.
4.) Finely was a no show AGAIN.

Questions:

1.) Why doesn't Jamison get any plays run for him? There is nobody on the Lakers that can handle him. Kobe/Payton/Devean are too small to guard him in the post and Malone/Slava/Shaq are too slow to guard him on the perimeter. Same goes for Walker but Walker is mainly perimeter so I can understand that but Jamison looks like a waste playing for the Mavs. Outside of Dirk, Jamison would cause the biggest matchup problems for the Lakers until Fox comes back, even then I think Fox would get lit up if the offense ran through Jamison when the outside shoots aren't falling.

2.) What happend to Danny? Najera has no buisness guarding Shaq. He's not big enough, not strong enough and not tall enough. At least Fortson has the bulk and strenght to bother Shaq, Eddie is just useless so what gives with Danny? I didn't notice Danny do anyting that horrible other than not make a play on that Payton wide open layup.

3.) Despite all the big talk the Mavs didn't walk the big walk. The Mavs did NOT get blown out in this game but they sure acted like they did, what is with the loser mentality vs. the Lakers? They cut the lead to 8 in the 4th but still played like they were down 20. Does the choke from last year still linger? Does not having Dirk in the lineup bring the Mavs phycie down?

Nice game, I believe the Kings and Mavs will cause the biggest problems for the Lakers. The Kings and Mavs are not built like the Lakers and they're comfortable playing an uptempo game which is the ONLY way you will have a shot vs. LA, no team other than the 1986 Celtics or the 1988 Lakers could beat this years Lakers in a half court set. The new found Lakers fast break offense will get LA into trouble if they start getting away from Shaq and the half court set. The Lakers defense is not geared to handle an uptempo game for a long period of time.

[LRB]

WOW as long as we have the balless wonder of Nellie as our coach, the Lakers should never fear losing more than a game a year to the Mavs at most and shouldn't worry about playing us in a playoff series. What every talent we have, Nellie will find a way of negating it enough to make sure the Lakers stay dominant.

You have more to fear from the Chicago Bulls than the Mavs as coached by Nellie. It seems that this is a special fear that Nellie has of the Lakers. Against other teams we can do OK. But if you want a gimmee series in the playoffs pray to play against a Nellie coached Mavs. Once we get rid of his sorry ass we'll start showing you how tough we can be. Until then no since staying up late at night worrying about us. The Bulls maybe, but not us.

[FilthyFinMavs]

It's hard to run plays for Jamison when you don't know if he is going to make a layup. This guy can hit you a floater for mid range and even hit a bank shot from the side of the goal but never in my life seen a player miss as many gimmies as Jamison has done this season.

[Fah Q]

Originally posted by: FilthyFinMavs
It's hard to run plays for Jamison when you don't know if he is going to make a layup. This guy can hit you a floater for mid range and even hit a bank shot from the side of the goal but never in my life seen a player miss as many gimmies as Jamison has done this season.

Whats really odd about Jamison is even though he misses all those lay ups he has almost a %50 shooting percentage.

[View Sonic]

You guys still have the same problem. You need a C, and a commitment on the defensive end. Otherwise, it will be the same problem against Shaq and the Lakers time and again. The playoffs are geared for the half court. Until you play defense, get a legitimate C, and learn to execute in the half court during crunch (i.e. playoffs) you'll only go so far. You guys have already taken a step back with the chemistry issues, and influx of new players, but that core issue still remains.

[WayOutWest]

Originally posted by: FilthyFinMavs
It's hard to run plays for Jamison when you don't know if he is going to make a layup. This guy can hit you a floater for mid range and even hit a bank shot from the side of the goal but never in my life seen a player miss as many gimmies as Jamison has done this season.

Could that be from a lack of playing time or touches? In the games I've seen him he seems to score in the paint alot more than I remember from his GS days. I saw him in pre-season vs. the Clips and most of his work was inside going to the rim.

I'm hoping to see the Mavs live again next week against the Clips, I'm a season ticket holder, but I may have to work that night. I hope I can weasel my way out of work cause that game is one of the games I had circled this year.

I'd really like to see Bradley get the same help everyone else gets on Shaq, to me that would be the most effective tactic against him. Portland had success sending big help on Shaq, with Dirk/Walker/Bradley, the Mavs could gang guard Shaq alot better than Najera/Jamison/Nash. Sending a small guy to help on the double is pretty useless against Shaq, I would have thought Nellie would have learned that by now.

[LRB]

Originally posted by: Fah Q

Whats really odd about Jamison is even though he misses all those lay ups he has almost a %50 shooting percentage.

What Jamison needs is a Tuna like coach to kick his ass everytime he misses on of those damn easy shots.

[WayOutWest]

Originally posted by: View Sonic
You guys still have the same problem. You need a C, and a commitment on the defensive end. Otherwise, it will be the same problem against Shaq and the Lakers time and again. The playoffs are geared for the half court. Until you play defense, get a legitimate C, and learn to execute in the half court during crunch (i.e. playoffs) you'll only go so far. You guys have already taken a step back with the chemistry issues, and influx of new players, but that core issue still remains.

I don't agree because last year the Mavs showed that junk defenses can work against dominant post players. While the Mavs didn't become a defensive powerhouse last year but Nellie was able to throw alot of junk defense at the Spurs and really disrupted the Spurs inside game. While Shaq is a much better passer out of the double team than TD, I think mixing it up on the Lakers is the way to go but I agree that there doesn't seem to be an emphasis or DESIRE to execute the defensive schemes Nellie employs. It takes a tougher mindset to buckle down on D, the Mavs just don't seem to have that mindset. They're not chopped liver on defense, it's just going to take MORE intensity and dedication from the players they already have to improve their D.

[FilthyFinMavs]

Originally posted by: WayOutWest

Could that be from a lack of playing time or touches? In the games I've seen him he seems to score in the paint alot more than I remember from his GS days. I saw him in pre-season vs. the Clips and most of his work was inside going to the rim.

I'm hoping to see the Mavs live again next week against the Clips, I'm a season ticket holder, but I may have to work that night. I hope I can weasel my way out of work cause that game is one of the games I had circled this year.

I'd really like to see Bradley get the same help everyone else gets on Shaq, to me that would be the most effective tactic against him. Portland had success sending big help on Shaq, with Dirk/Walker/Bradley, the Mavs could gang guard Shaq alot better than Najera/Jamison/Nash. Sending a small guy to help on the double is pretty useless against Shaq, I would have thought Nellie would have learned that by now.

He gets shots. It hink it's more of a mental thing if anything. He can hit some tough shots but will turn around and miss a gimme.

[FilthyFinMavs]

Originally posted by: Fah Q

Whats really odd about Jamison is even though he misses all those lay ups he has almost a %50 shooting percentage.

I know. I would love to see more flushes then tips though. I think he is athletic enough to do so.

[Simon2]

Originally posted by: WayOutWest
Observations:

1.) The Mavs played terrible but where in striking distance in the 4th WITHOUT Dirk.

That was a good sign. If not the only good sign.

2.) Twan looks good playing point forward. I like Twans attitude, reminds me of NVE.

Do you mean Toine?

3.) Nash and Howard played very well, if they would have gotten a little help it could have gone the other way.

Howard didn't look scared which is a good sign. Daniels was intimidated though.

4.) Finely was a no show AGAIN.

Finley was so disappointing. 6-22?! Come on.

Questions:

1.) Why doesn't Jamison get any plays run for him? There is nobody on the Lakers that can handle him. Kobe/Payton/Devean are too small to guard him in the post and Malone/Slava/Shaq are too slow to guard him on the perimeter. Same goes for Walker but Walker is mainly perimeter so I can understand that but Jamison looks like a waste playing for the Mavs. Outside of Dirk, Jamison would cause the biggest matchup problems for the Lakers until Fox comes back, even then I think Fox would get lit up if the offense ran through Jamison when the outside shoots aren't falling.

Plays do get run for Jamison. They even isolated him against Shaq several times. I think it just looks like he doesn't get any plays called is he's a "garbage" type player. He picks up a lot of garbage and makes them into points. Think Ceballos.

2.) What happend to Danny? Najera has no buisness guarding Shaq. He's not big enough, not strong enough and not tall enough. At least Fortson has the bulk and strenght to bother Shaq, Eddie is just useless so what gives with Danny? I didn't notice Danny do anyting that horrible other than not make a play on that Payton wide open layup.

No one is big enough to guard Shaq. You don't expect Fortson to muscle up to Shaq and actually out-muscle him do you? Fortson is 260 while Shaq is 330. I think Eddie got the nod because he can hit the outside jumpshot. Then again, do the Mavs hope on making Eddie beat the Lakers with his outside shot?

3.) Despite all the big talk the Mavs didn't walk the big walk. The Mavs did NOT get blown out in this game but they sure acted like they did, what is with the loser mentality vs. the Lakers? They cut the lead to 8 in the 4th but still played like they were down 20. Does the choke from last year still linger? Does not having Dirk in the lineup bring the Mavs phycie down?

Only Nash talked and he did walk the walk. Mavs were trying in this one.

Nice game, I believe the Kings and Mavs will cause the biggest problems for the Lakers. The Kings and Mavs are not built like the Lakers and they're comfortable playing an uptempo game which is the ONLY way you will have a shot vs. LA, no team other than the 1986 Celtics or the 1988 Lakers could beat this years Lakers in a half court set. The new found Lakers fast break offense will get LA into trouble if they start getting away from Shaq and the half court set. The Lakers defense is not geared to handle an uptempo game for a long period of time.

[/quote]

I think the Kings have a way better chance of stopping the Lakers with Divac and Miller. Shaq won't have a 6'7 guy guarding him with the Kings. Also, Brad Miller is his best firend. :-)

[kg_veteran]

Excellent post, WOW. Nice to have a few Lakers fans that are regular contributors to our board that see both teams pretty objectively.

Was about to start a thread to talk about the game, but saw this one and thought I'd just post here. A few thoughts to add to what has already been said:

The Mavericks just didn't play intelligent basketball last night. We can debate until we are blue in the face as to whether it was coaching or the players, but I think this quote from Phil Jackson pretty much sums up the difference between the two teams at this point:

"We felt we were in control the whole game,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "We had an idea of what we wanted to do and we did it.''

The Lakers have an idea of what they want to do, and they do it. The Mavericks have no idea of what they want to do, and that's the biggest problem.

On offense they just jacked up jumper after jumper after jumper with a hand in the face of the shooter. There didn't seem to be any kind of offensive plan whatsoever. As Bayliss calls it, they were running the "scatterf**k" offense. Steve and Antoine showed up and tried hard on that end, but they couldn't do it all.

And it wasn't just the offense they were/weren't running. The Mavericks want to push the ball against the Lakers, or at least so I'm told. So why in the HELL is Steve Nash inbounding the ball after made baskets???? I can't count how many times that happened last night (and has happened this season), and it's just fundamentally stupid. Your point guard should be receiving the inbounds pass, not throwing it. At some point, Nellie and the coaches need to see this on the tape and inform their big guys that they need to go get the ball and throw it in before running down the damn court.

Defensively, I have no clue what they were thinking.

Najera should NEVER be asked to try and guard Shaq. Ever. As Kenny Smith astutely pointed out after the game, Najera was a forward in COLLEGE. The dude is just too small to be trying to flop around in the paint with Shaq. If he wants to give help defensively, that's fine. If you want to put him on Malone for stretches, that's fine. But putting him on Shaq is unfair to Eddie and fundamentally stupid. You have two guys on the bench who at least have one attribute or the other (Bradley - height, weight; Fortson - strength, weight) which gives them a bit of a better shot to deal with Shaq. And they're both going to need help. They logged a total of 11 minutes, and Dirk wasn't even here playing center. It makes no sense. Like WOW said, I'd like to see the Mavs actually give Bradley some help when guarding Shaq instead of asking him to stop Shaq one-on-one. Using Bradley's height in combination with a help defender at least has the potential to be effective against Shaq. Using a 6'7" 220 lb forward against him doesn't.

Also, why was Tony Delk in the game? All he does is bog down the offense, chunk up shots, and cause us to be overmatched in the backcourt defensively. He can't guard Kobe Bryant. He's not even tall enough to get in Bryant's sight line. He can't guard Gary Payton, and that pushes Nash over to match up with George or Bryant, which is also ridiculous.

I love Mike Finley, but is he intimidated by the Lakers? He played better in the second half, but I just get the impression that he didn't think the Mavs had a realistic shot to win the game.

Josh Howard continues to impress me. He is still lacking some offensive sophistication at this level and needs to improve the consistency and range on his jumpshot, but the guy should be either starting or the first guy off the bench. The things he does well are things that not many other Mavericks do well, and we need him in the game.

Antawn Jamison was completely underutilized last night. Instead of so many damn jumpshots, it would have been nice to see Jamison down on the block against George or Russell. That's particularly the case when Dirk was out. Sure, he missed a bunch last night, but the guy continually gets good shots. I'd rather have him missing from 10 feet and in than guys missing from 20 feet and out, especially when those outside jumpers aren't falling.

Why did Nellie bail out on the team last night? Kiki has discussed this in another thread, but that was such a sorry thing to do. It wasn't like he was fired up or trying to motivate the team. He just wanted to leave, and so he did.

All in all, I took some positives away from the game. I firmly believe the Mavs CAN beat the Lakers. But they have to play intelligently, and they have to have a better gameplan. The Lakers are NOT invincible. I just wish that Nelson and the majority of his players would start believing that.