Mavs vs Spurs gameday thread - without Dirk

[DubOverdose]

There were a lot of iffy calls both ways in the first quarter.

[dude1394]

Herr stud...

[MavsFanFinley]

Dirk has 19/11 but it doesn't look like anyone else has really stepped up.

[MavsFanFinley]

Dampier needs to practice his ft's.

[Bayliss]

Dampier can't made a free throw.

[rakesh.s]

ugly ugly game...

stackhouse is shooting way too much..i hope you enjoyed those two good games that he had..because this is the real stackhouse

[madape]

Once again Bradley gets stuck on Nelsons bench. Once again a good season turns to shit.

[MavsFanFinley]

Stackhouse continues to suck. Let the excuses roll on.

[4cwebb]

It's a little disappointing that Dirk is the one playing on a gimpy ankle, and is basically the only one playing well enough for his team to win.

And, I've been critical of Dirk's defense in the past on this forum, but I have to give him his props tonight...sounds as if he's doing alright against Duncan, and it doesn't sound as if Duncan is spending too much time guarding Dirk (I'm not watching the game, so I'm not entirely certain).

[dude1394]

I would really like to see terry and harris out there instead of stack. Terry is a much better 3 pt shooter and stack hasn't been taking ti in because duncan keeps making him eat it. Having stack throw up 3s isn't going to get it done at all.

[MavsFanFinley]

SA lead 74-67 after 3 quarters:

Dirk (27) 7-15, 1-1, 6-7, 21pts, 11rbs, 1to

Howard (23) 3-7, 0-2, 6pts, 4rbs, 2tos, 1stl

Dampier (28) 0-4, 1-6, 1pt, 3rbs, 2tos, 1blk

Harris (20) 3-7, 0-1, 0-1, 6pts, 2as, 2tos

Daniels (25) 3-4, 6pts, 6rbs, 2as, 3tos, 3stls

Terry (16) 3-5, 1-2, 7pts, 2rbs, 1as, 2tos, 1blk

Stackhouse (24) 4-10, 1-1, 6-6, 15pts, 1rb, 1as, 1to

Booth (9) 0-1, 3rbs, 1to, 1stl

Henderson (8) 2-2, 1-1, 5pts, 1rb

[MavsFanFinley]

Dirks gone cold here.

Stackhouse is a joke.

[cheesestar]

sick

hard to be a mavs fan this point in time

im beginning to think our start was a fluke

[Max Power]

We need an outside shooter to make our offense work - hopefully Fin will be back soon.

[MavsFanFinley]

Mavs lose 80-94:

Dirk (34) 7-18, 1-1, 8-9, 23pts, 11rbs, 1as, 1to, 1stl

Howard (35) 3-8, 0-2, 1-4, 7pts, 8rbs, 2tos, 1stl

Dampier (30) 0-4, 1-6, 1pt, 4rbs, 2tos, 1blk

Harris (28) 4-9, 0-1, 4-5, 12pts, 1rb, 2as, 2tos, 2stls, 1blk

Daniels (25) 3-4, 6pts, 6rbs, 2as, 3tos, 3stls

Terry (22) 3-6, 1-3, 7pts, 4rbs, 2as, 2tos, 1blk

Stackhouse (33) 4-14, 1-2, 6-6, 15pts, 1rb, 1as, 2tos

Booth (14) 1-4, 2pts, 3rbs, 1to, 1stl

Henderson (13) 3-4, 1-1, 7pts, 2rbs

Bradley (3) 0-1, 1rb

Dickau (3)

[madape]

Dampier's now down to about 8.2 points and 6.7 boards for the season.

[Redbug]

The Spurs are a very good and smart team....you have to play smart and well to have an opportunity to beat them....

POOR COACHING.....I'm tired of Nelly's $h!+.....the Mavs offense consists of Dirk posting on the left elbow.....an awkward pass to a tightly covered Dirk....the other 4 Mavs all run to the 4 corners and stand and watch....

Somebody please go kidnap Pete Corrill (sp) off the Kings bench and offer him $20M to come and teach the frickin Mavs to move without the ball.....

too bad Seattle is doing so well....we need to package something and get Ray Allen....the Mavs have 4 2G's (Stackhouse, Daniels, Howard, Terry) that can't seem to shoot a lick...and at crunchtime wouldn't know a GOOD SHOT IF IT BIT THEM IN THE ASS....

Booth makes a short shot and the Mavs get within 5???7????....and then stop the Spurs 3 straight trips down the court....and then run back down court and each time they jack up a jumper that doesn't have a prayer and "CLANKS" iron all over the place.....HOW ABOUT DRIVING TO THE FRICKIN' HOLE??????

Where the hell was Bradley?????....He's had some very good games against the Spurs at times....

I'm seeing a disturbing trend here....the Mavs play better defense and hustle for 3 quarters and when the 4th quarter comes they look worn out...afraid to shoot at times or willing to settle for god awful shots at other times...they can't score to save their lives...are too deadlegged to drive to the bucket and fire up a steady stream of brick laying jumpers as the fall further behind and lose.....

[Max Power]

We need an outside shooter to make our offense work - hopefully Fin will be back soon.

[toucandave]

Dampier was just plain ugly out there today. He brought a big bag of nothing. He was without a doubt the most useless player on the court.

[toucandave]

what's wrong with this board???

[FilthyFinMavs]

I can't wait until Fin comes back.

[Turkey]

nOT REALLy a bad game at all. nowitKi shot 0.38888888888888888888888888888889 which is about the team's average. He just had a sore ankle thats all. And damier just wasn't feeling good. If the mavs had finely we would really have done a lot better. We will get them next time.

Compared that to Spurs duncan who shot 0.52941176470588235294117647058824, whilst his team shot .423 from the fg. Its just the bad ankle. Really.

[TVI]

Originally posted by: cheesestar
sick

hard to be a mavs fan this point in time

im beginning to think our start was a fluke

I don't think it was a fluke. The Mavs had an easy schedule to start the season, so it was hard to get a feel for where the team was at. I think they'll need time to really get the new guys in sync.

Unfortunately, I think Stackhouse will prove to be this year's Walker. I've never liked his game. I think he's a cancer. He has good games occasionally , but most of the time, he's just a low percentage shooting guard who thinks he's a superstar. Now that Nash is gone, there must be no doubt. This is Dirk's team, and the Mavs will go as far as he will take them.

[gogojojo73]

Bottom Line
Mavs 8 dimes
Spurs 24 dimes

We can't pass the ball, and when we do it is a weak pass and the defender has time to get in position.

Dampier has trouble catching the ball and getting his shot up.

Dirk's only play seems to be a post up on the elbow.

I feel we have the player in place to go far but can Nellie sort it out.

WE NEED SOMEONE TO RUN THE OFFENSE. If not, It is going to be a long season. No more Daniels at the point.
Harris passes well at times but makes bad decisions, and Terry is a undersized 2 gaurd.

We may want to think about trading for a point guard now so this team can gel.

[Ninkobei]

Agreed, Gogo...but instead of trading maybe we can get a coach down here to teach Harris how to make more passes. I don't like the idea of trading any more this year. We've had too high of a turnover rate, causing our players to not know each other very well. I believe is a big reason why we haven't had many assists, the chemistry just isn't there. There is not much to do other than wait and hope these guys get ina rhythm and learn how each other work.

[MavsFanFinley]

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The return of Dirk Nowitzki didn't help the Dallas Mavericks.

Tim Duncan scored 27 points and the San Antonio Spurs held the Mavericks to 3-for-17 shooting in the fourth quarter for a 94-80 victory Wednesday night.

The loss was the third straight for Dallas, which has been plagued by late-game scoring droughts. On Wednesday, the Mavs managed only 13 points in the final period.

Nowitzki, listed as doubtful after spraining his left ankle Sunday in Denver, scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 35 minutes. He went 3-for-9 in the second half and contributed only two free throws in the fourth.

``We scored 80 points and that's not enough to win against this team,'' said Nowitzki, who sat out Monday's loss at Minnesota. ``They played really good defense. Every shot seemed to be contested and we didn't really have a lot of ball movement.''

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Nowitzki's presence made no difference in his team's game plan.

``It doesn't change who we are or how we play,'' he said. ``We'd rather the other team's players play because it shows us where we are.''

The Spurs, coming off two close losses on the road, won their 18th straight regular-season home game.

San Antonio, leading 74-67 after three quarters, went on a 14-4 run to open the final period. Rookie point guard Beno Udrih started the burst with a 3-pointer, and Duncan added two bank shots.

Dallas made just one field goal in the final seven minutes of the game.

``We are a defensive team,'' said Duncan. ``We had gotten away from that the past two games. That's not how we're going to win games.''

The Mavericks, averaging 100.6 points coming into San Antonio, has failed to score more than 82 points in its three straight losses. Dallas also hasn't surpassed 40 percent shooting in any of the losses -- on Wednesday, the Mavs shot 39 percent.

The Mavericks also had a season-low eight assists, 16 fewer than the Spurs recorded and one less than Tony Parker alone.

``Right now we're out of sync -- we had a hard time getting to our spots tonight,'' said Jerry Stackhouse, who scored 15 points. ``It was good to see Dirk back on the floor. That's a positive we can take out of this one.''

Parker scored 15 points while matching his season high in assists. Brent Barry added 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting. Duncan also had 13 rebounds.

Devin Harris added 12 points for Dallas.

Nowitzki made his first shot, a 3-pointer from the right wing, to give Dallas a 5-2 lead in the opening minutes. He missed his next three attempts, but still scored nine of the Mavericks' first 13 points.

The score stayed close for most of the first half, but the Spurs opened a 47-40 lead late in the second when Bruce Bowen and Barry hit corner jumpers. Dallas came back with two free throws by Stackhouse and a running bank shot by Jason Terry to cut the difference to 49-45 at the half.

Notes

San Antonio is 5-0 at home this season. ... The Mavericks are lagging in assists post-Steve Nash. They are averaging only 18 per game, and Terry leads the team with an average of 3.3. He had two assists Wednesday ... The Mavericks and Spurs play again next Tuesday in Dallas.

[FilthyFinMavs]

I'm starting to be on board with starting Terry. This whole starting Harris over Terry is just a gimmick it seems. As a matter of fact I think I think the Mavs would benefit from having Harris be the spark off the bench. As of right now, Harris just isn't a distributer for this team. He's more on the shoot first side at this point of his career and I think that fits what should be coming off the bench. Terry is the better player and he should be starting. We talk about having a spark coming off the bench but hell what about a spark in the starting lineup?

[Dirkenstien]

Took me a while to finlly get here and post about the game but here were my thoughts:

1) Dirk really showed some guts going out there to lead the team with a hurt ankle. The guy is showing that he can be a heck of a leader.

2) Devin Harris continues to amaze me with his blazing speed but I woud like to see him utilize that speed to open up more shots for
Dirk. I think its just a matter of him getting acclimated to the game before he lights up and starts to feed the ball to the big German better.

3) Dampier was a very big dissapointment tonight. If he feels he is the best center in the West now that Shaq is gone as he said in the pregame show, he is going to have to muster up more than 1 point and 4 boards in a game. If you're shooting 0-4 from the field and 1-6 from the line, something is really wrong.

4) Nellie truly aggrivates me. After the frustrating loss we had last night you would expect a coach to portray the desire and the will to get to the root of the problem and improve his team. So what is the first thing Nellie does? Goes straight to his beer. Heck, he can't even wait until after his postgame interview to start drinking. Very sad indeed. I am counting the days until Avery takes over.

[EricaLubarsky]

there are some ridiculous knee-jerks coming from this game. Seriously. We got outplayed from every position on the floor and in every quarter. That is all. This is how we are suppose to look with so many new players.

I am starting to see a new pattern emerging of ball movement where players either pass to Dirk or drive, and it's Nellie's job to balance the offense in a way that gets Dirk the ball while keeping the offense moving around him. That's his job.

Also, I don't know if anything can be drawn from Harris starting, but I like Terry a lot more on the court. And what's with running Harris in the fourth quarter as a shooting guard? It makes no sense to not play Daniels as a point guard because you don't trust Harris' decision making. That's the third time I've seen that.

We are in an offensive funk since Dirk went down that continued this last game when Dirk came back suprisingly. 81.3ppg the last three (all losses), 108.7ppg in the three games before Dirk went down.

[EricaLubarsky]

Centers were a non-factor in this game. Let's face it. And Dampier was both positively and negatively a factor in that.

In all the confusion of last game, I really can't blame him. OTher than missing FTs and having course hands for layups, he did what he needed to. The Spurs just pulled him out of the paint, knowing full well that if they played two guys in midrange that Dirk and Damp would have to come out, and Dirk would be slow reacting.

That attitude that Madape has is absolutely infuriating. Say something when Damp is playing well. Say something at the end of the season. Just don't cross your fingers that Damp will fail, dissapear when he does his job and swoop down to say "I told you so" when he (and the rest of the team) has a poor game.

[Ninkobei]

From what I've noticed watching the few games I have, Damp seems to be holding back, or not giving it his full effort. If he's waiting for something I'm not sure what it is. Maybe the playoffs? Or it could just be that he doesn't quite understand his role on this team yet. These guys got to get to know each other. Last game I saw Harris take away a defensive board from Dirk. He just jumped in front of him and snagged it. Everyone on the team needs to know exactly what the person next to them is thinking at any moment. The only way this team will win a championship is when this happens. (granted, we were close last year, but not playing a big man killed us. Walker didn't help much either...)

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Originally posted by: FilthyFinMavs
I'm starting to be on board with starting Terry. This whole starting Harris over Terry is just a gimmick it seems. As a matter of fact I think I think the Mavs would benefit from having Harris be the spark off the bench. As of right now, Harris just isn't a distributer for this team. He's more on the shoot first side at this point of his career and I think that fits what should be coming off the bench. Terry is the better player and he should be starting. We talk about having a spark coming off the bench but hell what about a spark in the starting lineup?

Terry apparently isn't fully healthy, which can be attributed to his bad play. But come on. Terry hasn't done anything yet to warrant him starting. A good game of 13/11 assists was nice but even when he was healthy, was he really anything super? I know I'm biased, but Harris bets better game by game.

[EricaLubarsky]

13/11 is better than Harris has ever done.

[dude1394]

Team has directly responded in porportion to how poorly stackhouse and dampier are playing. If they continue to play this bad, we won't be nearly where we want to be.

[bloodyhell]

>We can't pass the ball, and when we do it is a weak pass and the defender has time to get in position.

Great point and we're not moving off the ball either.

>Dirk's only play seems to be a post up on the elbow.

Which is attributed in your first point. i.e. Can't pass the ball, move the ball and move off the ball part and get other options.
Which essentially leaves dirk very little options. As I have said all season, We will need to get the ball to dirk in better spots and get him easier shots. Because when we do not do this, dirk is forced to either pass the ball to someone(and then it is usually bricked) or settle for tougher shots which will hurt him unless he is always hot.

>WE NEED SOMEONE TO RUN THE OFFENSE. If not, It is going to be a long season. No more Daniels at the point.
Harris passes well at times but makes bad decisions, and Terry is a undersized 2 gaurd.

As i've said all year and no one has listened. We need a decent guard who can create, shoot accuratly and get our team going again with great movement.

>We may want to think about trading for a point guard now so this team can gel.

i'd love to have jason kidd.

[TVI]

Originally posted by: dude1394
Team has directly responded in porportion to how poorly stackhouse and dampier are playing. If they continue to play this bad, we won't be nearly where we want to be.

The Mavs shouldn't be dependant on Stack for anything. That guy's the walking definition of inconsistant.

Dampier was an important pickup, and has provided a decent inside presense, but Dirk is the superstar. If he's playing well, the Mavs ought to have a chance to win any game. Sure, you can't win with one player, but the Mavs won't go anywhere if their success is correlated with Stackhouse's play.

Terry should start. He's more experienced, and a better all-around talent. Harris is a rookie, and there's no reason to expect greatness from him this early.

I think if you look at the lack of assists (from the team standpoint), it's obvious the the loss of Nash is still stinging. The Mavs are loaded with talent, and will continue to win the easy games, but only time will tell if they can really come together as a team, and compete for the big prize. I don't think they're far off, but sometimes I wonder if Nellie's the right coach to put it all together...

[dude1394]

I think I will stand on my statement. If our "6th" man and our center is putting up numbers this year like they have the last 3, it's going to be quite a struggle even with Herr Superstar.