RealGM

Russell Westbrook / Thabo Sefolosha / Kevin Durant / Jeff Green / Nenad Krstic

VS




Jason Kidd / DeShawn Stevenson / Caron Butler / Dirk Nowitzki / Tyson Chandler

Matchup

The Dallas Mavericks would definitely win multiple championships if they could turn the clock back five years on their roster.

Dallas is a good defensive team with two good defenders at the SF position that tend to give Kevin Durant problems (Shawn Marion and Caron Butler). Rick Carlisle's team has done a fantastic job on KD the past couple years, trapping him off the high screens and forcing him to handle the ball in traffic. Marion is excellent at fighting through screens and using his length to bother KD. Butler is less good at that (he's less good overall this year), but Tough Juice is still a strong dude who will put a body on KD and make him work.

Dallas' offense has fallen off, and they have seemingly made the transition to old and plodding. They are 28th in the league in pace this season, but they'll still run when it's opportunistic (they are tied with us in fast break points per game).

Other than KD vs. Marion / Butler, the other matchup to watch is of course Dirk vs. Jeff Green. Green played surprisingly good defense on Dirk in our win in Dallas last season down the stretch. Even though Dirk can shoot over Green's baby arms whenever he wants, Green kept a body on him and forced him away from his spots.

My key to this game is bench play. Even without should-be Thunder Roddy Buckets, the Mavs are deep. Jason Terry is playing great, Brendan Haywood's still big, and Marion's always a pain. Mysteriously, J.J. Barea is still playing big minutes despite continuing to suck. Other than that, we're going to have to have our bench show up for this to be a victory.

Also: less isolations and more ball movement. Dallas is a smart defensive team like the Spurs.

Some Numbers

Excluding the playoffs, the Thunder have given up 50% eFG% or higher to opponents all the way back through March of last season. That's 38 regular season games. At what point does the good defense from the start of last year become the aberration?

A Question

How many times will Russell Westbrook try to post up JJ Barea?

Sorry to say this, but I see a loss here.
Hopefully it will be a close game and the Thunder play good ball, but the Mavs are the better team at this point, much better defense and better team play.
Im sure they will be hot for this game, wanting to beat us really bad, especially as we are in the same division.

Then, if we win, I'll be the happiest fool

I hope we come into this game with more focus than the Wolves game.

Should be a pretty easy win for OKC. Dallas just played last night, and Dirk had to play 40 minutes and score 42 of his teams 88 points to beat the Pistons at home. Our offense is terrible. It's Dirk, a streaky Terry, and that's IT. Butler has been D-League caliber, and RC insists on playing JJB heavy minutes despite being 3 for his last 31...and the whole 5 foot 5 no defense thing.

Oh, and Green never guards Dirk well. He put up 30/10/3 on OKC last year on 52/20/97 shooting. Dirk only had one sub-par shooting game of the 4, in which he simply missed shots he normally makes...and still had 24/9/6 that game.

Like I said, OKC should win fairly easily. We have no one to guard Westbrook (maybe Stevenson, but RC won't give him enough minutes) and no offense sans Dirk and maybe Jet if his jumper is on. If Brooks is smart, he'll double Dirk a lot. More times than not, Mavs won't make them pay for it.

The Mavs were getting beat in transition last night. If the Thunder speeds it up and plays solid defense on Dirk they can win this. The Mavs are coming off a tough game against the Pistons where Dirk, Kidd, Terry and Butler seen a lot of minutes.

Nom De Guerre wrote:Oh, and Green never guards Dirk well. He put up 30/10/3 on OKC last year on 52/20/97 shooting. Dirk only had one sub-par shooting game of the 4, in which he simply missed shots he normally makes...and still had 24/9/6 that game.

Yea, Jeff Green gets destroyed by DIRK every time.

Lets go Thunder!

ahonui06 wrote:

Nom De Guerre wrote:Oh, and Green never guards Dirk well. He put up 30/10/3 on OKC last year on 52/20/97 shooting. Dirk only had one sub-par shooting game of the 4, in which he simply missed shots he normally makes...and still had 24/9/6 that game.

Yea, Jeff Green gets destroyed by DIRK every time.

Why do you capitalize his whole name?

Anyways, not really sure what to expect tonight but hoping for some defensive effort. This is however one of those games where I don't have a worry about Brooks being out coached.

How was that a travel on DIRK?

Thabo developing a shot is a big plus.

Our defense is so bad.

Thunder will make a comeback here thanks to RC's hard-on for the terrible 2-3 zone.

EDIT: Told you so.

The offense looks great, Russ has been terrific.

Tyson Chandler looks really good. Wish we had him.

Thunder will make a huge push with DIRK on the bench.

It's been 3+ years, how come the Thunder do not realize KD should not be doing those end of quarter isolations?!

What is RC thinking with a lineup of Barea, Terry, Cardinal, DIRK, & Haywood?

ahonui06 wrote:What is RC thinking with a lineup of Barea, Terry, Cardinal, DIRK, & Haywood?

You on the wrong board?

slick_watts wrote:

ahonui06 wrote:What is RC thinking with a lineup of Barea, Terry, Cardinal, DIRK, & Haywood?

You on the wrong board?

Nope. Mavs board isn't that active.

Defense has gotten a little better. JJ Barea had a couple goofy shots that we didn't contest well, but we had a nice contest on Butler he just made it, and Haywood sending Haywood to the line's not always a bad proposition.

Chandler seemed to power the Mavs while he was in, will be interesting to see how the game goes when he comes back.

Nice productivity from the bench.

slick_watts wrote:Defense has gotten a little better. JJ Barea had a couple goofy shots that we didn't contest well, but we had a nice contest on Butler he just made it, and Haywood sending Haywood to the line's not always a bad proposition.

Chandler seemed to power the Mavs while he was in, will be interesting to see how the game goes when he comes back.

Nice productivity from the bench.

our focus has been excellent tonight. The defensive effort might not be playoff style but its good for a regular season game.