Game 5 November 7, 2008: Mavericks at Nuggets

[eathy]

FREE THROW ATTEMPTS:

Dallas - 14-16

Denver - 37-40

Nuggets should've gotten more as well.

[ppp000]

I don;t think he's complaining about the refs, he's complaining about the fact that everyone on the Mavs is a jumpshooter doesn't make an effort to get the FT line.

And this is very disturbing. The FTAs for the Mavs the past few games have been pathetic. Maybe Rick needs to get Avery on their ass, b/c the settling for jumpshots is even worse than before.

Sigh.

[DDansby123]

Fans are so defensive these days. Both teams could've easily had more FTs.

BTW, I don't think Nene touched the ball...I think Bass just fumbled it away off his knee. I could be wrong, though.

[ppp000]

Fans are so defensive these days. Both teams could've easily had more FTs.

BTW, I don't think Nene touched the ball...I think Bass just fumbled it away off his knee. I could be wrong, though.

Bass did fumble it off his knee on the replay. He can not handle the ball at all.

[JES12]

Yeah, Bass fumbled it before Nene swiped it. But Bass should have never had the ball. If he ever dribbled the ball from behind the 3 pt line going in, I can't remember it. That is okay to try early in the game if you want to see what he has, but not down by 1 with a half minute left to go.

Oh. and please don't take this as me complaining about the refs, because I am not, but the refs let a lot of fouls go in the fisrt half. Hack a Dirk (well, everybody on both teams, but Dirk mainly IMO). When that happened, this Mavs team fell back to the jumpshooting because that was the only way they would even be close in this game. But the Mavs (except Green and Dirk once or twice) never took it back when the refs started to call the fouls. It seems like Denver players knew that they could drive it in and endu up on the FT line, but the Mav players never realized it.

[italy_23]

I am in thailand right now; just went through the box score and saw stack going for 1-8 in 14 minutes?!?!
wtf.
seems like the same old story...

[Darren]

Despite the loss, can anyone tell me why Kidd can score more than 20 in the game? It's unbelievable. What changes have Rick made?

[studcrackers]

everyone says kidd cant shoot but u know what, he can stick the open 3 as good as anyone on our team, something ive noticed from last year. he doesnt take many contested shots but he can make u pay if he's wide open like he was alot last night

[DDansby123]

^ 46% on 3s since coming to Dallas for Jason Kidd. For a guy who can't shoot, that's pretty good.

And I know he had two critical turnovers last night and the blown FT, but what I love about Kidd is that he's ALWAYS in the mix at the end of a tight game. He's guarding the opposition's best player, running the point, drawing double-teams, etc. He's not afraid to screw up (which he did last night) or make a great play (e.g., stripping the ball from Carmelo). I like that attitude...wish we had more guys who had it.

A few other team observations...

(1) Diop is worthless and was a waste of our FA money, IMO. He's not the stalwart defensively he was made out to be after the trade last year, and he wasn't great defensively before the deal, either. He contributes to our pick-and-roll problems on that end and contributes next to nothing offensively.

(2) The lack of FTAs should be disturbing, particularly from Dirk and Josh.

(3) The team as a whole is still physically and mentally weak. I hate that.

[JES12]

He scored 22 because everyone left him wide open after ball rotation. Kidd just set up and shot the open 3's.

The Jasons are doing ptretty well the past 2 games, but I can't help but believe that if Green, Howard or Wright was in instead of Stack we would have won that game.

[Darren]

Diop is worthless and was a waste of our FA money, IMO. He's not the stalwart defensively he was made out to be after the trade last year, and he wasn't great defensively before the deal, either. He contributes to our pick-and-roll problems on that end and contributes next to nothing offensively.

Can we conclude that most big among the league would be happy with money than wins?

It seems that they don't care about winning. A fat contract = Eddy Curry, Jerome James, Raef Lafrentz, Theo Ratliff, Kevin Cato, Chris Kaman, Darko Milicic, Erick Damper, and now Desagana Diop.

All of them are pretty effective before big contract. Afterwards, they become unmotivated, awful and disappointing.

[DDansby123]

^ In Diop's case, I think more a lack of quickness and ability than desire (though he did loaf down the floor after K-Mart spiked a shot back in his face...it resulted in a layup on the other end).

But with Diop, he often looks like he's going half-speed, because he's so slow. And I know others have disagreed with me on that, but he's definitely slow. He's slow putting his hand up to challenge a shot on the perimeter (resulting in wide-open looks for wings following a pick-and-roll), slow rotating, and VERY slow off the floor. So when I talk about Diop being slow, that's what I'm seeing night in and night out.

We desperately need an athlete at the C position, with some length and running ability. That would help us defensively and give Jason Kidd another offensive option.

[HMFFL]

Fans are so defensive these days. Both teams could've easily had more FTs.

If we give any team 40 attempts from the line it's most likely going to mean a loss for us. I could understand if we matched what they did to us on the line, but Denver made 23 more, and that's basically giving up a whole quarter to them.

Found a article about it:

Mavs being too charitable in free-throw differential

Opponents have shot 47 more free throws and made 44 more than the Mavs. That’s nearly a nine-point differential per game. In the three losses, Houston, Cleveland and Denver each shot 11 free throws in the first quarter, and in the last three games, two being losses, opponents have outscored the Mavs at the line 76-39.

Link