Injuries force Mavs' Nelson to mix and match

[vinnieponte]

OMG DID NELLIE JUST SAY HE WILL BE USING DIRK AS OUR CENTER, WE NEED DIRK TO SHOOT, NOT BLOCK THE POST!!!!!!!

To deal with injuries, Mavs coach may have something up his sleeve


11:50 PM CST on Thursday, November 18, 2004


By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News



Don Nelson was not quite ready to reveal his mad scientist experiments.

After a long, closed practice Thursday, the Mavericks coach emerged, saying the team had a lot of work to do because of injuries to Michael Finley (ankle), Jason Terry (ankle) and Erick Dampier (hip). So, coach, how did you decide to deal with it?

"I'd rather not talk about that, if you don't mind," Nelson said coyly. "You might as well keep a secret as long as you can."

With the New York Knicks coming to American Airlines Center tonight for a 7:30 p.m. game, Nelson will have to unveil his plan quickly. While Jerry Stackhouse has done a nice job replacing Finley, and Devin Harris solves a big part of the problem at point guard in light of Terry's injury, the longest practice time Thursday could have been spent trying to adjust to the absence of Dampier.

"We'll not be as good without him," Nelson said.

The obvious plan for the Mavericks will be to use a combination of Alan Henderson, Shawn Bradley and Calvin Booth to fill in for Dampier. But Nelson has never been obvious. While Bradley could see his minutes expand the way they did when Dampier was injured against Phoenix (Bradley played 21 minutes, up from the eight he was averaging), he also realizes Nelson could go with a "small-ball" lineup that features Dirk Nowitzki at center.

"Nellie has a lot of tools," Bradley said. "I wouldn't be surprised at all to see [small ball]."

Bradley said he is a different animal than Dampier.

"Erick has really come in and given a low-post presence," Bradley said. "Guys are looking for him, and he's allowing the guards to have some open shots. He's taken that role, and he's really excited about it.

"My role is to go and clog up the middle," Bradley added. "I know what I'm supposed to do, whether it's for three minutes or 20 minutes. We'll play zone pretty much when I'm in there, and I understand that."

That is, unless Nelson has some secrets for the Knicks.