Tueday Practice Report

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Tuesday Report From Practice
Notes And Quotes From Mavs Film Room

By Mike Fisher – DallasBasketball.com
Siskel is still dead. Ebert is still fat. And giving the “thumbs down’’ sign for a bad movie review is still in vogue, at least after the Mavericks emerged from the film room Tuesday and onto the Baylor practice court.
“We watched a little film,’’ Dirk Nowitzki said at practice. “Our defense wasn’t there.’’
“Looking at film, there are a lot of things we need to work on,’’ said Michael Finley, including “higher intensity.’’
“We just got out of film session,’’ added coach Don Nelson, saying Dallas missed “the kind of shots we can’t miss.’’
And there you have it. In the 100-86 Game 2 loss at San Antonio, the Mavs lacked “defense,’’ “intensity’’ and “shooting.’’
But heck, everything else seems to be fine!
Actually, Nelson and his troops were surprisingly upbeat given the fact their coach has pulled the “must-win’’ arrow out of his quiver. The film study was apparently more extensive than usual, and preceeded a physical-yet-playful workout at Baylor. A goofy game of one-on-one featuring the 6-1 old-timer Vernon Maxwell and the 7-1 rookie Wang Zhizhi was a comedy highlight.
MISCELLANY Nelson said the Mavs felt like their use of Michael Finley as a point guard was successful in Game 2, so expect to see more of the offense running through the 6-7 Finley on Wednesday. “He needs more opportunities,’’ Nelson said. “He can rise above the double-teams. That was one of the good positives that we liked in the (Monday) game.’’ … Interestingly, when Gregg Popovich was ejected, the guy who took over the Spurs huddle in the second half wasn’t an assistant coach – it was squeaky voiced veteran reserve point guard Avery Johnson. … Michael finley is getting much, much better at this interview thing. His review of Game 2: “We were walking in mud.’’ Fin seems to be auditioning for Matt Pinto’s job, eh? … Bad news made worse: Dirk Nowitzki’s scraggly teenage-looking goatee isn’t an attempt at a goatee at all; it’s actually an attempt at a real live beard. Maybe Dirk has been too loose with his time when the influencial Bill Walton – the last NBA player we can think of with a full red-blonde beard – rolls into town.
QUOTEBOARD
DON NELSON: GENERAL COMMENTS – “There is no easy solution to this. They are playing terrific basketball at both ends of the floor. We have to rely on our home court and out home fans to help us out of this thing. … We have to play with more passion and more energy, We have to rely on the fans in that context. This is a young team, and when things happen on the road, it affects them. … This is the best team in basketball during the regular season, with home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. They’re tough for anybody. Surely they’re tough for us. They have a talent advantage and experience, and at every position they are strong and deep and they know who they are. And they’ve got a title. … If they play to their potential, we’ll have to play the perfect game. But they’re human, too. … Had we not gone on, Utah would be in the same (0-2) situation. … We still think we can get back into this series – but we’re not the best team. They only lost eight home games all year there. So we got burned. But now we need to get home and get some home cookin.’ … We were mentally drained in the first game. But we were fine in the second game. We’re resilient. We’ll bounce back. … We were very even with Utah. This is a different team. It’s so important that we win our next game. We must win that game.
ON DIRK SHOOTING – “The lack of making shots made us tentative. Only the younger players did that. It bothered Dirk. He passed up two wide-open shots. He needs the mentality of a shooter, but he’s young, he doesn’t have it yet. He needs to know that if he misses five straight, he’s still got to shoot the next one.’’
ON HOWARD SHOOTING – “His game is posting up. But here, he’s posting up against a guy who’s 7-feet or a guy who’s 7-1. It’s hard for him. We just got out of film session, and he had a couple of shots that he usually makes 9-of-10 times. He missed them both. And they are the kind of shots we can’t miss.’’
MICHAEL FINLEY: GENERAL COMMENTS – “Looking at film, there are a lot of things we need to work on. Better defense. Higher intensity. We’re not going to back down. We will still play hard. But we were walking in mud, so to speak. Do that, and the Spurs will make you pay. … As weird as it may sound, when our shots don’t go down, it takes something out of us. We just didn’t make the shots we usually made all season. The coaches tell us, ‘Keep shooting the ball, and those shots will fall. … We can’t just think we’ll get things going because we’re at home. But it is easier to get jacked up for the game, with our crowd jacked up. … It’s in the back of our minds. But this is a different situation. We can’t think that because we were able to come back from 0-2, that it’s (automatically) going to happen again. … We’re not intimidated, not scared of anybody. Their two big guys. … just compliment each other.
ON MUST-WIN THEORY -- “I don’t want to put that pressure on this team. Maybe it is meant to be that. … we win all our home games, and they win all their home games – except the last one.’’
ON INTENSITY – “After watching a lot of film, we lacked intensity. Against a team like the Spurs, you’ve got to have intensity for 48 minutes.’’
DIRK NOWITZKI: ON SHOOTING – “Shooting is a big part of our game. But if it’s not working, we’ve got to take it to the basket, get easy layups on fast breaks. That’s what we’re trying to do. … If we’re not shooting well, we’ve got to find other ways to win the ballgame, and we’re not doing that. … If they (Spurs) have a streak when they’re not shooting well, they just get the ball to Duncan.’’ ON NELLIE SAYING DIRK PASSED ON SHOTS – “I don’t really know what shots he’s talking about. I think I’m taking my shots. But I don’t want to force anything’’ ON COMING BACK -- -- “You can’t be down 0-3. It’s pretty impossible (to come back). … I don’t expect anything. Just keep working, today and tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll stay aggressive and get the results like in the Utah games.’’

[LonestarROB]

NICE. Thanks Fish [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] .