Unbelievable response from fans.

[Simon2]

I too am disgusted that the Mavs lost but let's give a little credit to the Lakers. They have 4 Hall of Fame type players on their team. If the Mavs lose to them, its not because of officiating or no pride, the Mavs lost because the Lakers have a better starting five and maybe better players. I think the Mavs can beat the Lakers because the Mavs themselves are loaded but the Lakers have great players as well.

Don't feel to bad, the Lakers in my opinion are even better than last year and the Mavs couldn't beat the Lakers last year.

Also, I think a lot of people forget that Dirk wasn't there. I even read somewhere that Dirk would have been a liability and who not have helped. Geez.

[Usually Lurkin]

you are right.

The lakers are better than the mavs. We should just try for second place. Missing 10 of the first 11 shots is reasonable. No reason to be pissed. Looking like whipped fools for the last 90 or so games against the lakers is fine 'cause they wear yellow and gold and jack nicolson watches their games. And talking and playing like a bunch of prozac dependents on the 12th story ledge is perfectly acceptable behavior for bunch of title contenders.

There is nothing really wrong here.

[LRB]

LOL. Genius UL.

[Simon2]

Originally posted by: Usually Lurkin
you are right.

The lakers are better than the mavs. We should just try for second place. Missing 10 of the first 11 shots is reasonable. No reason to be pissed. Looking like whipped fools for the last 90 or so games against the lakers is fine 'cause they wear yellow and gold and jack nicolson watches their games. And talking and playing like a bunch of prozac dependents on the 12th story ledge is perfectly acceptable behavior for bunch of title contenders.

There is nothing really wrong here.

I am not saying try for second place. That's stupid. You need to see the real picture here. The Mavs are good but position for position, the Lakers are better than the Mavs. I'm just saying that fans shouldn't be so disgusted at the effort or the officiating or the players. Its just reality. The Lakers have better players. I'm not saying the Mavs can't beat the Lakers but its not as if its an automatic win. The Mavs sometimes don't lose becuase its their fault or the refs fault. They lose becuase the other team is better. Just because a team is better doesn't mean they can't be beaten. When the Mavs are hot, they can beat anyone.

[Usually Lurkin]

It's not just about winning or losing. When the mavs play hard and lose, they get their props from everybody.

It's about playing to their potential. It's about them believing they can win or believing they will probably lose. It's about what kind of attitude will help them play up to they potential.

It's about the mavs playing like they don't believe in themselves, and playing like that everytime they play the Lakers. As fans, the Mavs are our idols. What kind of example of challenging adversity is that? Win or lose, it's crap.

[bogey]

I just don't want the Mavs to play like ten year olds girls (sorry to all 10 year old girls).

I'm sick of finesse underdog Nellie ball.

[kg_veteran]

Same here, bogey. I just want the Mavericks to play like they aren't afraid.

[LRB]

I remember the story about Larry Bird when the Celts were playing the Xavier McDonald led Sonics. The Celts were down by 1 I believe and had the last shot. KC Jones the coach called a timeout and began to call a play. Larry Bird told him to forget the play and just to give him the ball. As they came out of the timeout, Larry walks up to Xavier and tells him that the ball is going to go to Bird. That he will take the final shot. And points to a spot on the floor and says that is where he is going to shoot it from. He tells Xavier that he's going to make the shot and there isn't a damn thing that he can do about it.

The Celts inbounded the ball to Bird. Bird moves to the spot and shoots with Xavier and another celtic draped all over him. The shot goes in and the Celts win. That is the kind of attitude from the mavs. We're good, we're damn good, and we're going to do what we're good at and beat you. It's not F#$%ing secret what we're going to do.

I'm sure Bird missed some of those shots in his career, but he wouldn't have made near as many if he was afraid. Fear was not a word that existed in his vocabulary.

That's what I'm talking about. Not of this "I shit my pants just thinking about watching the other teams game film because they are so good" that Nellie pulls. Bird had to fight some damn good teams to claw his celts to the top. The Lakers of Birds era were every bit as dominate of the Lakers of this era. But he never backed down.

I just can't in a million years see Nellie fostering attitudes like that on this team. Hell Nellie probably wouldn't have give Bird the damn ball in that Celts game. You'd have seen Danny Aigne shoot and miss because to Nellie's thinking everyone would be guarding Bird and Ainge would be open and that was the better mismatch. Well Bird did have 2 guys draped on him. And he made the damn shot. That's balls. That's what the Mavs need.

[bogey]

We can only hope that a 100th of Larry Birds mental ability could be manifested in the Mavs.

[LRB]

If Nellie recieved 1/100th of Bird's testicles it'd still be a million times more than what he's got now. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

[MavKikiNYC]

Which fans' responses do you find to be unbelievable, Simon?

The posters here?

The fans at the stadium last night? For booing? (The announcers commented that the Mavericks were getting booed? Were the fans really booing the Mavericks? Or were they booing Kobe? Or the officials? Or all of the above?)

Or for being as quiet as a bunch of wine-cooler swilling Texas Stadium fans?

Or for having all the air sucked out of them by what looked to be a flat, unprepared, no-game-planned, no intensity, no guts (with the exception of Nash) team?

Here's the damnedest part--I was all set to give the Mavs a free pass last night. I had no expectation that they'd win without Dirk. There should've been zero pressure on them. All they have to is show up, play hard, compete hard, show that they're not afraid to play with the Lakers, and at least dangle the notion that if they play against the Lakers in the playoffs, they may have a chance of winning.

Nellie, hereinafter referred to as Coach Capon, doesn't have to come up with a brilliant, gimmick-filled game plan. Why show his hand? Just play them straight, and tell the guys to play hard, give it their best shot and see if they can knock the Lakers off here even though they're undermanned. But get the new players-Walker, Jamison, Fortson, Best, Howard, etc.--in the mindset to compete. Compete. Compete! COMPETE!

Instead....

Coach Capon comes out with a "Kick-us-we're-your-bitches" lineup. They automatically fall into the pattern of whining about calls, then regress to their pacifier, the jump shot.

Then Coach Capon quits and walks out on the team, sending the message, which we all know will stick in their minds, that the Lakers are so talented, so tough, and so good that can't stand to watch them be made to look like a bunch of scared sissy children.

I don't think fans here are upset that they lost. They are upset that once again, Coach Capon can't prepare his squad to compete against admittedly superior talent. And THAT, my friends, is SUPPOSED to be his specialty--Underdog Ball.

If he can no longer get an outmanned squad to compete and at least give the other team a good game, then what is his coaching value to the club anyway?

Instead, once again, the Mavericks appear to have an entire team, 1 through 12, and coaches included, who appear to be awed, intimidated, balls-out scared, and flat-out clueless about how to compete against the Lakers. This has to do both with decisions made in last night's game, and decisions made during the off-season about which players to pursue, which players to acquire, and which players to retain.

The "braintrust" went after Mourning instead of Malone, allowing the latter to go to a conference rival. Clearly a failure, even if it was a disaster averted.

They failed to even make a play for Mutombo, who, in case you're not following, has been turning in some very impressive, even dominant, rebounding and defensive performances for the NYKs of late. Still a bit early, and he could still do a major fade, but he clearly had something left in the tank.

They yawned at Raja Bell, and let him go to a division rival, where he has quickly become a favorite of all-time tough-guy Jerry Sloan.

And last night, when Malone clocked Nash, neither Fortson, nor Walker, nor Jamison, nor nobody so much as raised a whimper in protest. Their collective response was basically, "Hey, don't tell me we're out of Vaseline."

The whole team was a disappointment last night, on a night when there were no expectations. How low can you go?

[bogey]

great post kiki.

[LRB]

Great post Kiki except from making me look op the meaning of "Capon". Remember a lot of the posters here are very lazy. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

I couple of comments:

Here's the damnedest part--I was all set to give the Mavs a free pass last night. I had no expectation that they'd win without Dirk. There should've been zero pressure on them. All they have to is show up, play hard, compete hard, show that they're not afraid to play with the Lakers, and at least dangle the notion that if they play against the Lakers in the playoffs, they may have a chance of winning.

My exact feelings. I just wanted to see our guys stand up to the Fakers and play hard.

The "braintrust" went after Mourning instead of Malone, allowing the latter to go to a conference rival. Clearly a failure, even if it was a disaster averted.

The disaster here was only partially averted. The real disaster is us not having malone and the Lakers having him. If we'd had gotten mourning, the only thing we'd be out is our MLE and a few bucks from Cubes pocket. Not good, but nothing compared to losing out on Malone and letting the Fakers get him. Maybe the Fakers would have gotten him anyways, but at least the balless wonder could have made a play for him. I got to believe that Nellie was behind this. If Karl Malone had seen his coach acting as chicken shit as Nellie, then it would have been Nellie recieving the elbow and not Nash.

[Chiwas]

Sorry for saying this, but, I told you. Three years were too many. When Capone didn't have a future assured, worked as hard as the janitor -still with his weaknesses but at least with a hurry-worry for winning. Once Mark gave him 3 more years on paradise, everything is fine, we make the playoffs, beat the first rounder and play golf in Hawaii. Why to bother the organization with waste of guts? In any way, we still sell enough jerseys and pretzels to keep Mark happy.

[Mavs_fun_fan]

MavKikiNYC good post.

Until last night I have never felt Don Nelson was a major reason in the Mavs meltdowns against the Lakers. But, the lack of any sound game strategy and the confusing player/matchup smoke and mirror hocus pocus has resulted in a complete loss of confidence by the Mavs players and no faith their game strategy will give them a chance to succeed. It is the coaches responsibility to prepare his players including 1. making sure his players understand their role and responsibilities and what goals they need to acheive within their role. 2. Making sure the players abilities and the jobs they are asked to fill are compatible, allowing the players to play to their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. 3. Planning a game strategy which is executable and the players have confidence in, the timid, hesitant play the Mavs showed last night is a directly tied to a lack of belief in the overall team strategy.


I am convinced Nellie's preparation is responsible for the lack of confidence and conviction the gameplan they had would allow them to be successful. No other explaination fits and players who believe in the system don't appear as if it was their first time on the court. Until these players understand who will play and why and feel their skills are being used for the best interest of the team this team will never gel. And if that happens you can expect locker room problems.

[uberfan]

Originally posted by: Usually Lurkin
you are right.

The lakers are better than the mavs. We should just try for second place. Missing 10 of the first 11 shots is reasonable. No reason to be pissed. Looking like whipped fools for the last 90 or so games against the lakers is fine 'cause they wear yellow and gold and jack nicolson watches their games. And talking and playing like a bunch of prozac dependents on the 12th story ledge is perfectly acceptable behavior for bunch of title contenders.

There is nothing really wrong here.

UL. Thanks for putting it in perspective. I lost my head for awhile and overreacted. But I am doing better now that I see things calmly and relationally as you have it presented here. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]