Golden State @ Dallas (return of Najera!!) GameDay Thread

[EricaLubarsky]

Originally posted by: Mandyahl
fin's dunk was on sportscenter, and then they did a little bit where they showed a similar dunk against the bucks and his awesome dunk over yao as well. made sportscenter well worth watching tonight. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Darn it! I TiVoed Fastbreak instead. I'll have to Tivo the later showing.

Fastbreak showed it a couple times, and then focused on Howard. Deservedly, I might add.

[MavsFanFinley]

fin's dunk was on sportscenter, and then they did a little bit where they showed a similar dunk against the bucks and his awesome dunk over yao as well. made sportscenter well worth watching tonight.

If you can catch Sportscenter, it's well worth it indeed. They showed the dunk Fin had over Donnell Harvey then the one over Yao. They showed a couple different angles of the one tonight over Foyle too.

The #5 play (in the top 10 plays on Sportscenter), was the Howard dunk off of the Dampier miss. The #4 play was the Richardson 3 to send the game into overtime. And the #1 play was the Fin dunk.

As EL pointed out, NBA fastbreak had it down as the dunk of the night. They showed it like 5 times, a couple different angles and in slow motion as well.

Here's a sweet pic of the dunk:

[MavsFanFinley]

DALLAS (AP) -- More important than staying undefeated, the Dallas Mavericks found out they can win under adverse conditions.

After falling behind by 17 points to winless Golden State in the first half and being forced into overtime by an incredible 3-pointer, the Mavericks led throughout the extra session and won 101-98 Monday night.

``We'll take it. But we know we didn't play a complete game, and it almost cost us,'' Michael Finley said. ``We were playing their record instead of their team.''

Dirk Nowitzki scored 25 points, including the opening basket in overtime that put Dallas ahead to stay. Finley had 17 points, but missed 17 of his 22 shots.

The Mavericks are 4-0 for only the third time, and they still haven't allowed 100 points in a game. But this one was ugly.

``We were certainly tested, but we responded,'' coach Don Nelson said.

Jason Richardson forced overtime with a 3-pointer from the corner despite being double-teamed with 12 seconds left in regulation. He had a chance to force another overtime, but his 3-pointer from the top of the key hit the front rim as time expired.

Golden State gave up a 57-43 halftime lead with a miserable third quarter. The Warriors went 3-of-23 -- with one field goal coming on a goaltending call -- and managed only 10 points.

It was the Warriors' 12th straight loss in Dallas since April 1999, and their 21st in 22 games overall against the Mavericks.

``We got a little tired and as a result Dallas picked up their pressure,'' Warriors first-year coach Mike Montgomery said. ``If we kept the pressure on them, it changes everything, but we couldn't do it.''

Marquis Daniels made two free throws with 49 seconds left in the third to put the Mavs ahead 68-67 -- their first lead since the game's opening minutes.

After a back-and-forth fourth, Nowitzki hit an 18-foot fadeaway jumper on the first possession of overtime, and Jason Terry's basket pushed Dallas ahead 92-88.

Josh Howard had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Dallas. Nowitzki also had 10 rebounds.

Richardson led the Warriors with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Derek Fisher had 23 points -- just six after halftime and none in overtime.

``Coming close is no consolation,'' Richardson said. ``It could be ugly, it could be pretty, we don't care. We're searching for a victory.''

Erick Dampier, traded from Golden State to Dallas during the summer, made a short hook shot with 1:05 left in regulation to put the Mavericks ahead 86-85. Dampier finished with six points and five rebounds in 29 minutes, two days after a 13-point, 18-rebound game against Memphis.

After Finley hit two free throws with 16 seconds, Richardson tied it at 88-all from the left corner -- over Finley and Daniels.

Nowitzki's 20-foot shot hit the rim as time expired.

The Warriors went on a 20-2 run in the first quarter, including three straight baskets from Fisher, the third a 23-foot jumper for Golden State's first lead.

By the time Fisher hit another long jumper to cap the spurt, Golden State led 22-9 and stayed in front until Daniels' free throws to end the third.

Notes

It was the first of four road games in six days for Golden State. Dallas starts the same stretch Tuesday at Orlando. ... A night after a season-high 18 points and nine assists, Warriors G Speedy Claxton sat out with a bruised right thigh. ... Eduardo Najera, the Dallas fan favorite sent to Golden State in the Dampier deal, missed his only shot but had five rebounds in his 10 minutes. ... The Mavs gave away Rolando Blackman bobblehead dolls. When the team's career scoring leader, and now TV broadcaster, came on the court during a timeout in the second quarter, a fan yelled ``Put on a jersey.'' Dallas trailed by 15 at the time.

[MavsFanFinley]

Mavericks Head Coach Don Nelson

Well we were certainly tested tonight but we responded. It wasn’t our best game but we responded from a deficit in the first half and picked it up, relied on our defense when our offense wasn’t clicking and game them a 10-point third quarter.

I had a little talk with the lads at halftime about the defensive intensity and we moved it up and had our best quarter in the third quarter. Here is a team who hadn’t made shots in this season yet and I was very worried they were going to have a good night.

All teams have good nights and they certainly responded with shooting the ball extremely well and making every shot that they seemed to need. I was a little disappointed with our defense on three-point play where they got the corner shot. That should not have happened. We’ve been working on a lot of things, but we haven’t worked on last-second defensive schemes and dodged a bullet really by winning our game. They put it into overtime and they never should have done that as far as I was concerned. That is another thing that we’ll check off the list and we’ll start working on those things.

There is so much to work on because my team wasn’t together during the preseason. We responded well and we battled. I don’t know where this team would be without Alan Henderson who again played a great game and did so many things when we needed him. It was Josh Howard’s best game of the year as far I was concerned. Everybody else battled and fought and we finally started rebounding the ball. Finley certainly need to be a dominant rebounder and he was. Josh Howard and everyone else battled a lot harder on the boards in the second half.

You never know when someone’s going to come in and get hot. I’m not making any excuses. We got the win and it was a tough game for us. We relied on our defense to win this one. There are going to be games that are close. The better defensive team you are the closer games you seem to have and you have to battle them out because of course that is how playoff basketball is played as well.

Is this the kind of game where you learn more about your team coming back from down?

Well I was dodging bullets tonight. I’m not sure, I was just coaching this game to win this game. I was trying to get some rhythm when Mike had been so hot for us then he goes cold and can’t get anything to go down. We just needed some help from somebody and Josh Howard was the guy who stepped up and was just sensational. He had the big tip-ins and guarded that tough guard all night and I thought he had a great game.

You mentioned the three-point play but you had two guys close together:

That catch should not have happened. You don’t want to give a corner catch and we had gone over that in the huddle, but evidently whoever was the inbounder was supposed to take that away and he didn’t do his job and they had a corner catch. After that you aren’t supposed to double-team when they need a three-point shot unless there is a guy standing under the basket. You don’t need to guard that guy, but you need to guard the three-point. I was disappointed we didn't play better. But we did dodge a bullet and we will do better the next time. We have a chance to review those situations a little bit more.

In camp stressing defense and half-court defense. Is this the sort of thing that helps a team?

I think so and then if you get a win without learning a lesson with a loss and you can some lessons and still win, and that is what I was hoping for and I got my wish tonight. There are a lot of lessons to learn as we go through the season and it is better to learn them with a win.

Erick Dampier not taking shots:

I like his jumpshot, but he is reluctant to take it and we encourage him to take it but you can’t demand that a guy take it if he isn’t comfortable. He’s got to play his own game when it comes to those type of things, but I prefer that he just back up and shoot the jumpshot. He’s got a pretty good one but he seems to be more content to put it on the floor and try to get something. He made a big basket for us but I didn’t think he was sharp at all.

Think he was pressing it a little bit? (playing his old team)

It could’ve been but you just don’t know sometimes. I looked at Nash when he would go to Canada (Toronto) or even Vancouver when they had a team and he very seldom played well there. I don’t know why, but he never really had much of a game there and you don’t know what goes through players’ minds sometimes.

Mavericks Center Erick Dampier

I’m normally accustomed to shooting so I just take them in the rhythm of the game. I hit a couple last game, but didn’t really feel comfortable tonight and couldn’t get it going in the first half. I tried to find other ways to help the team win tonight.

How tough was it to go up against Adonal Foyle tonight:

It wasn’t tough at all. I was just going out there to play. I approach this like any other game. Our intention was to win this game so that’s what we did and now we just need to put this game behind us and get ready for tomorrow night.

How frustrating was the rebound situation in the first half:
It’s very hard to get rebounds when they are going in the basket and a lot of the rebounds were long so there guards were able to get the rebounds around the free-throw line. We’re a better rebounding team then we showed tonight. We just got to come out and be ready. If we would have blocked those guys out, we could have got those rebounds that would have led to easy baskets for us.

How was the overall effort of the defense tonight:

It wasn’t our best outing. We’ve played a lot better. Defense has to be our main focus. We just have to come out and be aggressive every night.

[EricaLubarsky]

Erick Dampier not taking shots: I like his jumpshot,

Exactly what I didnt want to hear. Is Nelson That predictable?

[grndmstr_c]

Originally posted by: EricaLubarsky

Exactly what I didnt want to hear. Is Nelson That predictable?

FWIW, by my count from the play-by-play's Damp's hit 4 of his 7 jumpers so far this year. I haven't seen enough of it or how it fits into the offense yet to pass much judgement, but Nellie's statement doesn't seem too much of a reach at this point.

[tall_elf]

"Finley had 17 points, but missed 17 of his 22 shots"

Ugh, finley just plain sucked!
He's taking shots that were supposed to be dirks. I don't want to see that happen again fin.

[Drbio]

Originally posted by: tall_elf
"Finley had 17 points, but missed 17 of his 22 shots"

Ugh, finley just plain sucked!
He's taking shots that were supposed to be dirks. I don't want to see that happen again fin.

Methinks thou dost protest too much. And methinks thou didn't watch the damn game. Finley hardly sucked.

What a sad seminal post.

[endtroducing]

Alan Henderson is the man. that's all I've got.

[Dirkenstien]

Great dunk by Fin


Good to see us get a win...4 and 0 baby...about to make it 5

[FilthyFinMavs]

Originally posted by: EricaLubarsky

Darn it! I TiVoed Fastbreak instead. I'll have to Tivo the later showing.

Fastbreak showed it a couple times, and then focused on Howard. Deservedly, I might add.

Me and you did the same thing. I'm excited because I finally catch a Fin dunk on Fastbreak and I come here and find out they sportscenter showed the dunk on Yao which i've been looking for since last year.

[chumdawg]

Originally posted by: EricaLubarsky

Exactly what I didnt want to hear. Is Nelson That predictable?

I think "like" is relative in this instance. Have you seen his post moves?

[kingrex]

3 Things the Mavs did right in this game:

1) Dirk & roll. Using Dirk as the primary pickman in the fourth quarter was perfect. No defender would ever leave Dirk open and if they did Dirk would make them pay. Moreover, I'd like to see Dirk involved in all the offensive sets at the end of games. Even if he doesn't take the shot, at least make him an option in the set. It's nice to see that players other than Nash can run the 2-man game with Dirk effectively.

2) Down to Dirk. As stated by others on this thread, it is good to see Dirk finally take the last shot. Yes, he missed the shot, but more often than not Dirk is the best offensive option on the court.

3) The Alan Henderson Project. I realize that in other threads, I have denegrated the decision not to go to the other center options. However, for this game, going to Alan Henderson at the 5 was not a bad idea. He was active and pesky on the boards and on defense. I felt that staying with him for long stretches was a huge factor in Dallas' comeback in the second half.

Honorable mention to another stauch second half defense that dropped Golden State's field goal percentage below 41.

[kingrex]

3 Things the Mavs did wrong in this game:

1) Passing on the pass. Except for a rare exception, there was really none of the crisp passing that we have seen from these Mavs in the first 3 games. Most of the plays were done off-the-dribble which belies the team oriented offense this team had begun to exhibit in it's previous games. Please view the game against Sacramento and retain the good passing habits you demonstrated in that game.

2) Just one more try. Offensive rebounds were killing the mavs. Ansu Sesay and Richardson with 14 offensive boards between them. Enough said.

3) Ever heard of an off night? Sometimes you just have to accept that you don't have it tonight. Please repeat that to yourself Finley. It's okay, there are other players on the team who can shoot too. Finley led the team with Field Goals attempted (22) and three points attempted (6). His field goal percentage was 22% and 3pt % was 16%. He had an off night, that's okay, but did he have to keep shooting it. At some point don't you realize this and try to find other ways to contribute. In his defense, he did get to the foul line when it counted and more importantly hit 100% of his free throws when he did. Moreover, he added 7 rebounds and 2 steals to the stat sheet (not to mention a monstrous dunk on Foyle), however, since he was off tonight, why not give more of those 22 shots to Dirk?

Despite the early setback, this team re-confirmed what they found out against Memphis, and that is their ability to comeback from adversity Hopefully, they won't have to prove that in too many more games this year.