Lunar Adventures: exploring a little bit of everything

Blog post [Displaying post and comments]

Friends of LunarAdventures:

Mavericks provide kick in the crotch to Maverick fans

Rick Carlisle has his work cut out for him: he has to figure out a way for the Mavericks to learn to guard the pick and roll and slow down Tony Parker.

The Mavericks got off to a slow start in game 2, much like game 1… but this time, no one was able to slow up Parker or cool down the Spurs shooting.

The Mavericks couldn’t figure out how to guard Parker, who worked off the pick and roll all night and was slashing, driving, and shooting at will.  He finished with 38 points — 10 more than Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki combined.  And when the Mavericks did collapse on him, he found the open shooter. The Mavs were consistently slow to rotate to Finley, Bonner, and Bowen.

It was the worst of both worlds: the Mavs would either step up and help on Parker too late, or they would be late to rotate to the open shooters.  The result?  The Spurs shot 53% for the night — and that includes a brief cold streak that allowed the Mavericks to crawl back into the game before slamming the door with an 11-0 run.

Defensively, the Spurs went back to their old their game of getting physical and pushing Dirk outside of his comfort zone.  The Spurs fronted him and brought help from over the top to keep the lob pass out.  It worked well — Dirk was clearly frustrated.

Also of disturbing note was the Spurs consistently outhustling the Mavs.  The Spurs seemed to get to every loose ball, and outrebounded the Mavs 44-28.  -16 on the boards isn’t going to get it done against anyone, especially a Spurs team that couldn’t miss in the first half.

JJ Barea also returned to earth, scoring only 5 points in 23 minutes — and he didn’t bother Parker one bit.  But then again, neither did Jason Kidd, Antoine Wright, or Jason Terry, who all took turns getting abused.

The Mavs luckily have two days off before their next game.  San Antonio made their adjustments and bounced back; the Mavs need to match.  All the optimism that filled the air after game 1 has been sapped.

It’s one thing to lose; it’s another to be blown out in every single facet of the game.

Mon April 20th, 2009 11:20 pm

Filed under Web

Leave a comment