| 23 April 2009
The Mavs pushed the lead to 33 in the 3rd quarter, frustrating Greg Popovich so much that he refused to call a time-out before finally conceding to stop the momentum. Pop set Duncan and Parker in the 3rd, basically telling Dallas, "Okay, you kicked us in the crotch and we're just going to take the rest of the game to catch our breath."
On a side note, has there been a Playoff year that you can remember so many blowouts taking place in? We've seen two massacres in this series so far. Denver has stung the Hornets twice. Houston beat down Portland in Game 1, so on and so forth. Where is the effort? This isn't a bunch of Summer League games.
The Mavericks fed off the support of their home crowd and got out early, scoring 27 points in the first quarter. J.J. Barea went off in the first quarter and continued to present trouble for the Spurs' defense. Dirk Nowitzki shot 5/7 in the fiirst half, finished with a team best 20 points and showed us the offensive repertoire we have grown used to.
The Mavericks had 5 blocks by the half and every player showed effort. It frustrated the Spurs, who weren't communicating with each other and looked lost for most of the night. It was almost shocking how little they seemed to care about the game.
The Spurs were colder than Kurt Russell at the end of The Thing, shooting 32.5% from the field, largely due to excellent defense by the Mavericks. Tim Duncan looked a step slow starting out, shooting 2-9 before the half. The team ended up with just 10 assists.
Tony Parker didn't fare much better in the first half, throwing errant passes across court into the hands of Jason Kidd, who made up for his one on one defensive ineptitude with hustle, as he always does.
Brandon Bass also got into the head of Drew Gooden, making sure he never had an easy shot. He also shot well and made the Spurs work on D.
Why the Mavericks Won
Everything that could go right went so for the Mavericks. The bench help of Barea and Bass opened the game up. They're gaining confidence and present match-up issues for the Spurs. The Mavericks played with a sense of urgency, minimized mistakes and played their best level of defense yet in the Playoffs. Erick Dampier didn't put Tony Parker on his butt, but he did bring it on defense. He even had a YouTube caliber dunk in the first half, lighting a fire in the Mavs that the Spurs couldn't extinguish.
Why The Spurs Lost
Tim Duncan had an all around awful night and was never able to find a rhythm. Like Game 1, Parker was confused by J.J. Barea's speed and couldn't get around screens to keep up with him defensively. There was pretty much no effort from the Spurs, who should know better given their championship pedigree. It got so bad that Popovich elected to bring in Jacque Vaughn, who I can't remember getting starting time since he started for the 1959 Minneaplois Lakers. On offense, San Antonio basically stood and stared, refusing to emphasize ball movement. You do that and you're going to lose. At least the Spurs' starters got to rest early, right? Cough.
Heading into Game 4
The Spurs have to figure out a way to stop J.J. Barea. He is driving any time he wants and drawing focus away from Nowitzki, Howard and Terry. Their output in Game 3 was laughable and they will hear about it from Popovich. Now they have to win Game 4. If they don't, this series is over. This Spurs team is not good enough to come back from 3 games down. The Mavericks must fight the urge to get complacent after a great win. They have control of this series and can suck the life out of San Antonio with a similar display. At the Mavs' best, I'm not sure that San Antonio can match them. Right now it looks like their game consists of giving the ball to Tim Duncan or Tony Parker, then praying somebody else scores more than 8 points in the game. Is that the recipe for playoff success? That's a big negative, ghost rider. This series will go to the team that wants it the most. After Game 3, I am not sure the Spurs do.
Prediction:
Dallas Wins a Close One
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
