Game 1 October 30, 2008: Houston Rockets @ Dallas Mavericks

[jwa1107]

so much for Stack being in the best shape of his life...

[Baller 24]

Lol at the game thread in the Houston forum, I guess when you've never been past the 1st round for that long, and live in such a smelly ugly city, those are the antics you stoop too

yeah it really sucks....you know having championship banners in our building and all.

great game thread though. i am envious.

I can only imagine lol

But on a serious note, maybe the creator of that thread in the Rockets forum can take those championship banners and trade them in for a little bit of class

Sorry for the late reply...lol I am the creator. But its all fun and good stuff, nothing to worry about...I really don't have a problem with the Mavricks as I did before (post-2005...btw one of the greatest playoff series' I've ever seen in the playoffs), but yeah its just all fun and good, sorry if I offended any of you. Its the Jazz that get my feisty these days!

[Darren]

after our "big 3" it gets real ugly really fast, especially if stack gets more minutes.
stack is done; we knew it last year, he showed it again yesterday. enough of them 1-6, 2-7 or 3-13 shooting nights. I appreciate everything stack did, he is a cool guy and all, but he is done. I would like to see green getting his minutes. even if green has a 1-6 night, at least he has some upside.

I am impressed with the new big three - Howard, Dirk, and Kidd. They're highly efficiency for three quarters. Of course, everybody suck at the 4th. Stack and the small ball lineup lead to 'iso' and poor execution in the 4th quarter - the 'letdown' syndrome is still there in the post Avery era. Rick is not that advanced to Avery. There's a few problems with the lineup at 4th:
~ Rest Dirk at the wrong time. Dirk's on fire become he gets benched. He doesn't get any good hand while he's inserted late in the game.
~ Damp's fairly effective. We need a beef down low. But he doesn't get to court again for who? Brandon Bass. If we're not going to stop anybody, we get killed quickly. Our bet is to force some turnovers and run the fast break. But we don't have the athleticism and size to get the job done. I'd rather have Gerald Green or Desagana Diop in those situation.
~ Jason Terry's not the different makers. He's not aggressive enough to take the ball more his man. The perimeter defense is non-existence. Some time we allow a few wide open threes. That kills all the morale and competitiveness. He should not count on Jet while he's not on fire.

We're consistently killed by Artest in the low post. With Devean George, Artest's efficiency would be limited last night. He plays the best defense among the group (Wright, Stack, Green, Williams) with reasonable percentage to hit open jumpers. But he's a bit out of shape this preseason. We need him to get back to shape quickly. Or we would suffer a lot.

[ppp000]

This team just has no low post scoring. None. Transition baskets are an OK source for the first 3 quarters but the defense inevitably tightens in the 4th and that's the time to take the basket down low. Unfortunately for the Mavs that means nothing.

It's almost ridiculous the amount of money spent on two centers who lets the opposing team completely back off of them bc they know they won't even attempt a wide open shot. So it's like 4 on 5. Then to add, the weak SG position, 3 on 5 against good teams.

So YES we can all complain that Dirk Josh Terry take it to the basket but it's harder when the defense swarms you b/c they have no respect for the rest of the players and when Dirk/Terry are primarily and will always be jumpshooters whereas Josh never seems to be a factor in the 4th quarter. So like last season it will be Dirk 1 on 5. Sometimes he will be able to get to the FT line, other times he will have to settle for his fadeaways.

Also, I thought Kidd did a good job defensively. He ran the offense very well. He needs to look to score more though, drive to the basket more. I don't care that he's not a "scorer," he's the smartest player on our team and needs to find a way to help on the offense besides pretty passes.

Speaking of Kidd, backup PG is still a problem. Asking Terry to run the point and be the main scoring option of the 2nd unit= bad.

[DDansby123]

^ Dirk's not a post player, Kidd's not a scorer, Josh isn't a finisher, Damp and Diop don't score, JET's not a slasher, and on and on....

I agree with what you're saying, but this team isn't going to change, because the players can't change who they are. The front office has hamstrung itself, so we're now forced to hope Carlisle can work some magic and get this team to play over its head for a season. And it's not the Kidd trade, Josh's meltdown in the postseason, Dirk's "soft" reputation, or any other single thing that put us in this situation. Instead, it was a series of poor moves by the Mavs management...Cuban thinking if he threw enough money at the problem, it'd be fixed.

On the bright side, I think the team will be better than last year, just because of the Carlisle switch and Kidd's increased experience with his teammates (and vice versa). Still, it'll be a long season.