Mavs search for answer on defense

Post #1 » by **HMFFL** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 2:18 pm

With everyone except Jerry Stackhouse (sore right foot) healthy, it seemed that coach Rick Carlisle might have the luxury of using the same starting lineup for a while.

But when the Dallas Mavericks gave up 64 first-half points to the Nets on Friday, Carlisle didn’t even use the same starters to open the second half.

Devean George, who held Toronto’s Chris Bosh to 12 points in the first game of this road trip, was replaced in the second half by Jason Terry in hopes of adding some offense.

"We were just looking for a spark to start things off [in the second half]," Carlisle said. "He’s been giving us consistent great play. He played great at the start of the second half. But our inability to get anything established defensively was our undoing."

Terry continued his recent excellent play with 23 points. In the last 15 games, Terry has scored 20 or more points 11 times, and he has had 19 in each of the other four games.

But, like Carlisle, Terry was focusing more on the failure of the Mavericks’ defense, which gave up 75 points to Devin Harris and Vince Carter.

"You can’t do that," Terry said. "If we do that against Washington, we’ll have another loss. We don’t want to have another performance like that. But we’ll come back refreshed and know that there’s another challenge ahead," he said.

Board work

The Mavericks are the second-leading rebounding team in the league, but despite being bigger than the Nets, they lost the contest on the boards 48-36.

The Mavericks have outrebounded opponents in 16 of 25 games this season but, oddly, they are only 9-7 when they have more rebounds.

Link

Post #2 » by **DDansby123** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:22 pm

HMFFL wrote:Devean George, who held Toronto’s Chris Bosh to 12 points in the first game of this road trip, was replaced in the second half by Jason Terry in hopes of adding some offense.

This is exactly the type of thing I've been pissed about for years. The Mavs simply don't have enough offense to carry an all-defense player, nor do they have the defense to carry an all-offense player. You're never going to remedy that until you get more two-way players. Maybe that starts in the frontcourt.

JES12 · Post #3 » by **JES12** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:59 pm

Devin Harris and Josh Howard were our only 2-way players. Now, we really don't have any because Howard quit playing defense.

But, yeah, we need more 2-way players.

LuvOnTheRun · Post #4 » by **LuvOnTheRun** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 7:52 pm

JES12 wrote:Devin Harris and Josh Howard were our only 2-way players. Now, we really don't have any because Howard quit playing defense.

But, yeah, we need more 2-way players.

Dear JES12,

please don't be too harsh on howard. He actually played defense quite well this season, but due to his injury he isn't on an elite level of playing D yet.
Diop is an atheltic defensive-minded C with above average man-to-man D. Same could be said about Dampier, except the fact he isn't athletic anymore.
KIdd is still a great defensive guard in the league, though he is on the decline.
The positions PF and SG seem to be the problem. Dirk and Terry are quite well on offense, but ugly on defense. Terry is too short to defend taller guards and Dirk never played defense and won't change his attitude. No steals, no rebounding, no blocked shots, thats Dirk. Even though stats can't tell the whole story, they show a tendency.

Let's trade Dirk and Terry for two 2way players and the mavs will be a powerhorse again!

JES12 · Post #5 » by **JES12** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:37 pm

Dear LuvOnTheRun,

You have not watched basketball since 2006 if you think Howard plays defense. And Dirk's defense is okay when he does not act like a matador. Bass plays good D at the 4. Our D at the 4 is avg to good. It is the swing position where we have players like Green and George who are completely ignorant of one side of the ball coupled with Howard's lack of effort and Kidd's decline. And Terry's D on Harris was not great, but is was better than Kidd's D....that's for damn sure (vise versa on Carter...Kidd was better than Terry could hope for). And you say defense at the 2 guard is the problen right after saying Kidd's defense is good....Kidd guards the 2 guards and even SFs in th 3 PG lineup...so you conflicted your own statement.

Lets trade everyone except Dirk and Terry if we want to win this year. If we trade Dirk & Terry, we need to blow it up and start from scratch.

LuvOnTheRun · Post #6 » by **LuvOnTheRun** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:32 pm

OK you are right, my fault. Kidd can't guard the quicker one's and his size doesn't allow him to shut down the taller and more athletic guards like kobe, carter and so on. And these guys are killing us night in and night out! Howard shoud be able to play defense on them, but he doesn't do. We need a solution, that means we either steal someone like g. wallace or blow up the whole team. If we trade for players who can't make the difference we will still be a mediocre team.

AND Dirk is not "okay" on the defensive end! I watched a couple of games this season and Dirk seemed to be more pathetic devensivly than the season before!

JES12 · Post #7 » by **JES12** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 11:08 pm

When Dirk choses to play defense, he is "okay to good" but there are times this year that he has been a complete matador and it pissed me off. Just a complete lack of effort...in fact it was an effort to get out of the way.

But I am still hoping for a complete steal like Stack & Bass for Wallace or a good trade towards rebuilding.

ASIMO · Post #8 » by **ASIMO** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 11:09 pm

I agree with JES12 about Dirk's defence. It's better than anyone think... when he focuses on his opponent. I guess he has too much responsibility on defence despite he is not a "specialist".

In my opinion Dirk was good for Bosh in Tronto in second half because he had to focus on him and about Yi... I don't want to remember...