1 - 2 punch

[TheKid]

Good article. I guess someone else sees the same thing I see, that this team thrives off of both of these players.


Dirk And Fin Can't Put Together Combo

By Mike Fisher – DallasBasketball.com

The key to a great 1-2 punch is that the opponent must be ready for either fist to hit him equally hard.
In the now-finished series with San Antonio, the problem with the Mavs’ 1-2 punch is that the fists were effective only in alternating bouts.
“It’s a team game,’’ said Dirk, deflecting accolades after Monday’s 105-87 loss in San Antonio in which he contributed a career-best 42 points, with 18 rebounds and six steals.
Nowitzki’s summary is simple, but so true. It’s a team game, but Dallas’ most effective 1-2 punch, leading scorers Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, never in the losses in Games 1, 2, 3 and 5 hit at the same time.
Check out the numbers of each star in each of those games:
Game 1
Fin 7-18, 17 pts
Dirk 3-13, 9 pts 7 reb
Game 2
Fin 8-24, 24 pts 7 asst
Dirk 4-13, 19 pts 6 reb
Game 3
Fin 5-21, 10 pts, 6 reb
Dirk 5-15, 15 pts, 3 reb
Game 4
Fin 9-23, 25 pts, 10 asst
Dirk 11-18, 30 pts, 9 reb
Game 5
Fin 1-17, 2 pts, 2 reb, 4, asst
Dirk 14-24, 42 pts, 16 reb, 6 stl
In the Game 1 loss, Finley’s 17 points might have been acceptable had Dirk scored 10 more than his nine. In the Game 2 loss, Finley’s 24 might have been enough had Dirk not made fewer than a third of his shots. In the Game 3 loss, Dirk’s 15 points wouldn’t have been so stunningly subpar had Fin not scored just 10. In Game 4, Dallas wins because the 1-2 punch has punch.
And in Game 5? Dirk has the best game of his life – on the exact same day Fin has the worst game of his.

[Fidel]

I don´t see it.
In games 1-3 they were equally bad (maybe not in game 1).
In game 4 they were both good (with the slight edge to Dirk).
I think it´s only true for game 5, but it´s pretty obvious there.

[TheKid]

I would say equally bad in games 1 and 3, but not two. I don't think atleast.

[Fidel]

They both shot 30% in game 2. Fin just took more shots.

[TheKid]

Scored 24 points had 7 assists and a couple of steals. That game he had a bad shooting night but he played well.

[reeds]

He is NO SUPERSTAR!!! SUPERSTARS dont lay eggs in elimination games!!!! FINLEY is over-rated, soon to be over-paid.

[Fidel]

Welcome on board reeds,
but be carefull with whom you argue The Kid <u>never</u> gives up [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
And while I´d say I´m pro Dirk you´re just way to drastic here. Finley is a real fine player who definitely deserves his paycheck for everything that he has done for the Mavs.

[Murphy3]

nah, finley isn't overrated by most people.
but a few people on this board get him mixed up with michael jordan every once in awhile

[TheKid]

Reeds you must be smoking over there. Welcome to the board by the way, I'll wait to see more of your posts before I decide to comment back.

[Murphy3]

alot of people are smoking something
finley's a very good/great player, dirk has a chance to be even better. but it's not that big of a deal right now.
we should focus on disliking juwan.

[scooterj5]

Hey reeds what about all the other elimination games for Finley??`

[reeds]

Someone confuses him with Jordan sometimes? OH MY GOD. The ONLY thing he has in common with Jordan is his first name. OK- I will cut him some slack- he is good, very good, but PLEASE dont use his name in the same breath or sentence with JORDAN. That my friends is a joke. Jordan on his death bed can put up 30 on you. Finley, well, you read the stats in game 5...

[TheKid]

Reeds, I think you're opening up a bag.. You shouldn't go there.

[Fidel]

Yep, it´s a very scary place...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Bookit]

I am amazed how quickly everybody forgets how good Finley really is. Think back of the 4-1 road trip. In the game against Utah he carried the team until late in the 4th. Portland? He was unstoppable, hitting shots from all over the place. LA? Great again but we couldn't stop Shaq. Sacramento game? Yes, he got pulled for a spell because he wasn't playing tight to Peja Stojakovich. But he did come back in the game and dominated once again. Houston? He calmly hit a jumper to put the game out of reach after Houston made a late push. In those four games he showed that he is a huge factor on this team. I just think he played too many minutes without rest in the first series against Utah. The one game he had more than 1 day rest against SA was game 4. Next year he will come back stronger than ever. There in no way we should trade him. How quickly we forget.

[TheKid]

I don't think people forgot Bookit, I think what's happening here is people are favoring towards their favorite players, which is OK, as long as no one's disrespecting Finley, I have no problem with it.

[Big Boy Laroux]

Absolutely no way would i trade finley.

this year fin played all kinds of minutes again, and it took it's toll. remember, just getting to the playoffs would be awesome for us this past year. Nellie was playing fin all those minutes with that in mind.

with a healthy buckner and maybe better play out of backup PG (so we can run nash and eisley at the same time), we can give fin more rest, so his body won't be as tired come playoff time.

most of our players were tired, and it showed. especially fin, because he yet again led the league in MPG.

[TheKid]

I agree with you Big Boy, that was very obvious. I wonder what does Nelson plan on doing about giving Fin more rest next year?

[erub]

get a backup point is what Nelson plans on doing with Finley

[LonestarROB]

Erick Strickland. Theres your backup for Fin. Cuban, GO BRING THIS GUY BACK!!

[TheKid]

Works for me.

[MFFL]

But Finley WANTS to be the iron man. He likes that reputation. He wants to be on the floor all the time. He won't skip a game to get some rest. And that's one of the things I admire the most about him. So I guess Finley will log significant minutes as long as he's able.

[TheKid]

Well now that we see what happens when he logs all those minutes throughout an entire season and we go deep into the playoffs, he gets fatigued. I'm sure whether he wants to or not, Nelson is NOT going to let him average 41 minutes a game. I'd be willing he'll play less than 40 minutes a game next year.

[MFFL]

But if Finley signs a one-year deal (see other thread for details), Nellie might be forced to allow Finley to play like he wants. And Fin is IRON MAN. (I wonder if he ever sings that song to himself &quot;I am iron man&quot;?)

[LonestarROB]

I agree with you Kid but Nelson said he'd lower Fin's minutes THIS year too.

[djb]

Fin can easily play his 40+ mins/game during the regular season, but come playoff time, I think it's clear the starters need to be relieved every now and then. That's when having a deep bench really comes in handy.

[TheKid]

I'm just saying after a full year of wear and tear on your body, it obviously caught up to Fin. Look at Fisher for the Lakers, he only played about 20 regular season games, and he's fresh as anyone right now in the playoffs. I just think especially towards the end of the season he, Dirk and ESPECIALLY Nash should be getting no more than 35 a game.

[MavsFanFinley]

Nelson is going to have to find someone that can give Finley rest in the regular season, especially towards the end before the playoffs. I don't care how much Fin wants to play 45+ minutes towards the end, you saw what happened in the playoffs--no gas in the 2nd round. Nelson also screwed up in playing Finley (along with Dirk and Nash) all that time against Utah in the first round. Cuban/Nelson will make sure that doesn't happen again--nobody to bring off the bench to give the starters more rest.

I may be wrong but I always thought of an 'iron man' as being someone who didn't miss a game with a flimsy injury or sickness, not how many minutes they logged. Im not sure how many minutes would be sufficient to go along with an 'iron man' status but Im not including a player who averages only 15 minutes a game.

How come Nelson is so against bringing back Strickland?

[MFFL]

That's the traditional definition of an iron man. But Finley's definition obviously includes playing the most minutes as well.

Nellie seems to be against Strick coming back because his role has been taken by Buckner. I guess he doesn't want two hard-nosed defensive guys with the ability to rebound well. Why I don't know, I guess he thinks he can do better this off-season.

[MavsFanFinley]

I think if Finley were to average 35-40 minutes a game next season he would still be considered an iron man so long as he doesn't miss any games.

I mean how many guards do we need? You have Buckner backing Finley. So that would leave a pg for Nash. I like the idea of Hardaway, although that doesn't seem to be popular with some here. I know Kahlid El-Amin has been mentioned as a possible. We just don't have that much to trade for and pg's, I think, will be limited for us to trade for. Unless we're talking about someone we would groom--so to speak. I know Mitch Richmond has been mentioned as well to back Finley and that sounds good too.

[TheKid]

Buck could back up Fin and I think we should bring in Tim Hardaway as a back up for Nash. We'd get him cheap, Miami SURE as hell is not going to resign him, and I think where he's at in his career is a backup because of all the injuries he's suffered.

[The Crippler]

nellie doesn't want strick back, because he is really not that good of a player...

I wish all of y'all could realize that. The nba does.

[scooterj5]

He's defence and energy is what we could use , we already have enough shooters.

[MavsFanFinley]

I think Dallas is going to look at pg's that can run the team like Nash, so we don't fall apart like we do when Eisley comes in. I felt, at times, that Eisley looked for his shot too much instead of getting Dirk or Fin the ball first. A guy like Hardaway, who knows what Nelson wants, would fit that bill imo.

[MFFL]

Real GM thinks that Pack might be available for 2 mill or so. Is he worth splitting our exception? Is he even worth the NBA veteran min?

[djb]

A healthy Pack is EXACTLY what this team needs!

[scooterj5]

Healthy pack is an oxymoron unfortunately

[Murphy3]

what did i hear about finley possibly wanting a one year deal?

[MFFL]

LOL scooter. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]