Miscellaneous Thoughts From Game 3...

[kg_veteran]

Let me start by saying that the house was a rockin' last night at the AAC! The place was really loud, and it's easy to see why the Mavs have such a huge edge at home. I don't see any way that the Kings leave town with a win.

A few highlights of the night:

1. Pre-game cartoon.

Right before player introductions, the Mavs ran a cartoon mocking the Kings where an interviewer was asking questions of each of the Kings.

They asked Vlade what he had been up to lately, and they cut to Motley Crue's "Smokin' In the Boy's Room" with Vlade choking on cigarette smoke.

The "interviewer" asked Webber, "Why did you choose to attend the University of Michigan?" Suddenly they cut to cash falling from the sky and the song, "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays.

The "interviewer" asked Bibby, "Which movie star do people most often say you resemble?" Cut to a fake scene from Austin Powers and Mike Meyers' voice proclaims, "I shall call him, Mini-Me!"

The "interviewer" asked Peja, "Last year, Shaq called your team the 'Queens'. How do you feel about that?" Cut to the Kings' starting lineup wearing Village People outfits and dancing as "YMCA" plays.

The "interviewer" asked Christie, "Some people say that your wife is overly involved in your career. How do you respond?" Cut to a scene with Christie walking down the sidewalk on all fours, guided by a dog collar around his neck and a leash.

All in all, some pretty damn funny stuff.

2. Leading the building in an "Ed-die, Ed-die" chant midway through the third quarter.

After watching Webber get pretty much anything he wanted in the first half except when Eddie was covering him, I knew we were going to need some serious work from Eddie in the third quarter to put the thing away, so I started chanting Eddie's name during every stoppage of play. Nellie stuck him in about halfway through the third, and at that point the people in my section had stopped staring at me and started to sort of chant along with me. After Najera's first steal, I had a good group of people on my side. After the second steal, the chanting spread from my section like a tidal wave throughout the building, as the words "Ed-die, Ed-die" rang out through the arena. The guy next to me turned and said, "They finally heard ya!"

Greatness.

3. Watching Marquis Daniels abuse Mini-Me.

In the third quarter, the Kings were clearly attacking Dirk on the defensive end, but Dallas was attacking Bibby. Every time Marquis caught the ball, it was like watching a cat play with a mouse before killing it.

4. Talking to Cuban after the game.

I caught up with Cuban after the game and confirmed that both Bradley and Fortson will be coming down to watch Game 4 with Doc and me in Waco. Mark agreed that Nellie won't be using them anyway.

Okay, I made that up. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]


Assessments of the players:

Finley - I was mildly upset at some of the jumpers Fin took, but that was only because I saw how successful he was when he made up his mind to go into the paint. Fin was a definite factor on offense because he was much more confident than he had been in Games 1 and 2, but his real impact was on the defensive end. He guarded Peja the majority of the time and completely shut him down. Most of the time Peja couldn't even catch the ball.

Nash - Still waiting for a breakout game from Steve, but I thought he was pretty solid. He contributed a lot of rebounds early on that I saw, and kept the team moving offensively. He got ripped on a few calls early on, but the Mavs didn't really need him to play great, which is awesome.

Nowitzki - Solid game, although someone needs to show him tape of C-Webb so that he knows what the guy's tendencies are. Dirk repeatedly gave up the baseline rather than sending Webber to the middle when Webber faced him up. The result was a lot of easy layups. Offensively, Dirk played well, and you got the sense that if the Mavs had needed more from him he could have easily dropped 35 last night. But they didn't, and more power to them. It was nice to once again see (particularly in the 2nd quarter) that if Adelman put Peja on Dirk, the Mavs immediately sent Dirk down to the block and started punishing Peja. That's what they have to keep doing to force the Kings out of that defensive matchup.

Walker - Walk played a good game. He has the worst touch I've ever seen around the basket, but the guy does play hard. He was good defensively for the most part, although he also should watch the Webber tape with Dirk, because a couple of times he gave up the baseline in face-up situations. His post defense, however, was stand-out, and his rebounding was there as well. I particularly loved the fact that Walker seemed to want to dunk the ball every time he got close to the rim. I'd love to see more of that from him.

Daniels - Great game by the rook. He had too many turnovers, but at least one of those was a bad O-foul call by the ref and on one of them he negated it by stealing it right back from Bibby. He was all over the place defensively, helping out and getting back to his man. He got lost on some screens at times guarding Bibby, but overall his defense was good. And offensively, he was superb. The patience he showed in the post was uncanny, and he really had his way with Bibby. The Kings had no answer for him in the third quarter.

Najera - What can I say about Eddie? He was the biggest difference maker in the game. When he came in, Webber stopped getting layups. In fact, Webber was a non-factor. He really bothers Webber, and he fought through some HORRIBLE calls against him by the refs. (In one instance, he simply held his ground against Webber. I guess that's against the rules.) The Kings weren't even able to get Webber the ball once Najera came in, because Eddie kept stealing it.

Eddie didn't play much (I think only about 9-10 minutes), and he committed three fouls during that stretch, but it was his presence in the third period that put the game away for Dallas. If he doesn't get consistent minutes for the rest of the series, I'll be pissed.

Howard - Josh is another great hustle guy. He's a bit out of control in the open court (he needs to realize he's more of a forward than a guard and shouldn't be ripping and running with the rebound every time) and his jumper is streaky, but the Kings have NO answer for his athleticism defensively and on the glass. He helped Fin bottle up Peja and also was GREAT on help defense. He pounded the glass on both ends. The thing that impressed me most, though, was the hard foul he committed with the game already out of reach. Apparently someone has impressed upon him that there should be no easy layups in the playoffs. We need more guys like that.

Jamison - What an offensive rebounding machine. He didn't convert many of them tonight, but he was all over the O-glass. He got the "junk" baskets he usually gets, but he was also very good defensively. He really didn't get beaten much at all on the perimeter despite guarding smaller players a lot, and he had a handful of steals. I see no reason why this guy shouldn't be good defensively all the time as long as you don't ask him to guard primary scorers too much.

Williams - I really have no use for the guy. He comes in late and allows Vlade to take him to the rim when everyone else was shutting Vlade down. Sit him down and give me some Shawn.

Delk - Tony played hard in his mop-up minutes, and appeared gun-shy offensively (probably a good thing). How far have Bradley and Fortson fallen into the doghouse when this guy gets into the game in front of them?

Nellie - I thought he coached a good game. He seemed to be one step ahead of Adelman in his maneuvers for most of the game. I didn't like the decision to put Nash back in with 3 fouls, and that could have cost us in a closer game, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The thing I liked most about his job last night was that he really played mind games with Adelman in the third quarter. The Kings REALLY don't want to put Bibby on Nash; they want Christie to cover him because he does an infinitely better job. Nellie basically said, "You pick your poison, Rick. If you leave Bibby on the court and covering Daniels, I'm going to pound him into the ground." And he did. I think long-term Nellie was doing that to try and free up Nash a bit more as the series wears on. If the Kings start game-planning around the rook, they're in trouble, but they might after Game 3.


Overall, just a fantastic game to watch and attend, notwithstanding Chris Arnold and "Humble" Billy Hayes.

I have no doubt in my mind now that I have swung the momentum in Dallas' favor that the series will head back to Sacramento on Thursday night tied at 2-2.