Mavs at Spurs: Game 1 Thoughts

[ddh33]

The Mavs had a great opportunity to steal game one of this series after a long rest and against a supposed weary Spurs team. Unfortunately, the Mavs couldn't get the job done tonight.

The first thing that I want to say is that Dallas had every chance to win this game. When you can't make a single field goal in the last 4 minutes of a game, you probably aren't going to win many games. The good news is that the Spurs couldn't score during that time either. The Mavs defense was not the problem with this game.

The biggest problem in this game was Tim Duncan. Timmy was the best player on the floor today, and he was the single biggest reason why his team won. Sometimes I think people don't give him the credit he deserves. In my mind, he's one of the best players all-time. Having said that, for long portions of the game I wondered which refs Tim had compromising pictures of. Duncan did seem to get the benefit of the doubt on a lot of calls. I'm afraid that's going to be a recurring problem throughout this series. I believe that if the officials are going to let Duncan do more than they will let our centers do, and if they are going to let Bowen mug Dirk every time down court the Mavs are going to have some problems.

The other crippling problem in Game One was the guard play.

Jerry Stackhouse was clearly the Mavs MVP today. Stack took and made big shots all day long. He punished whoever the Spurs put on him, and continually made San Antonio pay for trying to cross-match against Dirk. Again, you have a two-edged sword. On one hand, we can be very happy that Stack was effective and efficient. On the other hand, I have a feeling that the Spurs are going to be fairly content to let Stack beat them as long as Dirk, Terry, or Josh don't. I thought Stack certainly gave the Spurs something to think about though. He simply needed more help.

Jason Terry had a poor offensive game. His defense against Parker was actually very solid. I was somewhat surprised to see that Parker had worked his way to 19 points. Jet worked hard at staying in front of Eva's boyfriend though. It would have been better for the Mavs if Terry had been able to punish Parker more on the other end. Instead, Terry struggled a little bit with the Spurs pressure. He had trouble getting the team into their offensive sets quickly, and he had trouble getting the ball to the right people at the right time.

I don't remember seeing a ton of Marquis Daniels today. The things I remembered weren't very flattering though. Daniels got on my bad side in a hurry while he had the ball in his hands. He missed a couple Mav offensive threats just by either not seeing them in time or by not passing the ball at the right moment. Dirk, especially, would pop open at the elbow, and Daniels wouldn't deliver the ball while Dirk actually had a step on his defender. The play that stands out in my mind is where the exact thing I just described happened, only to have Quis junk the ball across the floor into the third row. I think that was the last time I saw him...

Against a team like the Spurs it's going to be imperative to make the right pass at the right moment. If not, their team defense will rotate and recover and make offensive possessions even more difficult. That seemed to happen over and over today.

Devin Harris was a big positive though. Devin seemed to look healthier and quicker than he had in a long time. Like Stack, the rest did him good. I think Devin showed how important he may be the Mavs ultimate success in this series. He was one of the few players who seemed to be able to get into the lane at will on offense. When he did, Devin was able to create several scoring opportunities for his teammates. He was also able to use his speed to track down some rebounds. In all honesty, I would have liked to have seen more minutes for Devin, but I wonder if the coaches were still trying to limit him just a little bit?

Adrian Griffin's usefulness is severely diminished against the Spurs. The problem is that San Antonio is constantly willing to let Griff beat them on offense, and he doesn't always. But there really isn't anyone that Griff has to lock down on the other end. Because of that, Stack grabbed a lot of Griff's minutes today. I figure that Stack, Daniels, and Devin will continue to steal some of his minutes this series.

Josh Howard in may ways, I believe, is the key to this series for Dallas. As Josh goes, so goes the Mavs. Josh had an excellent first half today. He attacked the rim and made things happen when the team needed a lift. In the second half, Howard kind of disappeared. It was hard to tell exactly why. It seemed to me that the team went long periods without really thinking about getting him the ball. It also seemed like the Spurs were focused on making someone else beat them. Josh did have too many turnovers today, and he needs to limit those against a good defensive team. You've got to give yourself scoring chances against a good team. But I think Josh has got to have more than 10 FGA in a game.

Dirk, I'm sure, will be the prime recipient of most critiques of this game from the mainstream media. I didn't think Dirk played poorly at all, although he certainly wasn't great either. The immediate thing that stands out to me is that Dallas has to get Dirk more and, more importantly, better looks. I don't think Dallas can just allow Bowen to front Dirk constantly, and they can't expect to be able to dump it to him and make him beat Bowen and the inevitable double team that is coming. The spacing was poor today, and Dirk struggled because of it. I think the Mavs need to get to work when it comes to working the officials too. I don't want my team to be as whiny as San Antonio or anything, but there has to be more complaining done about Bowen's elbows in Dirk's back and his two-armed grabbing defense on the perimeter. Dirk was able to do a good job on the boards, but he's going to need to be more of a force on offense, and he's going to need his teammates to be able to do that.

Something tells me that Diop isn't going to want to reflect much on this game. Timmy just abused Gana all night long.

Erick Dampier, on the other hand, doesn't have anything to be ashamed of, in my mind. I thought Damp was a warrior tonight. Damp got himself into early foul trouble. In fact, all of the Mav centers had two fouls before the end of the first quarter. But Damp was able to persevere. His 10 rebounds were a help, and his defense against Duncan in the second half was solid, although the Mavs did make a more conscious effort to double down low, but it was the rest of Dampier's defense that really garnered my admiration. Damp was a beast inside, blocking shot attempt after attempt. He made several big plays down the stretch of the game that gave the Mavs a chance to win this game. I think if the Mavs can get that kind of day from Damp throughout this series, they have to feel pretty good about themselves.


If you're an optimist I think you can easily make yourself feel better by realizing that San Antonio did nothing more than hold serve by winning game one at home. They didn't win the series, and they didn't look invincible at all. Dallas lost a game they probably should have won, despite the fact that the top three players on the team all had relatively sub-par games.

The bad news is that Dallas did squander a nice opportunity to steal a game on the road. Although several of the marquee Mavs didn't play well, the same could be said about several of the Spurs better players.

In the end, I think this whole series is probably going to be a lot like this game. That's sure bad news for any blood pressure problems I might have. As a basketball fan, it should be a very enjoyable series. As a Mavs fan, it just better end the way I want it to...