First Round, Game 3 April 21, 2011: Mavs at Blazers

[peppersquared]

Portland a TERRIBLE shooting team is 7-14 and 8-14 the past 2 games from 3. That won't continue.


Wes Matthews will turn back into a pumpkin too.


Matrix. Show up any time you want.

[jbsg02]

I'm not blaming the refs for losing the game, thats loser talk like other places on this board, the reason the Mavs lost the game for me is...


1. Rick Carlisle effing.... Well I was gonna use an explicit analogy, but I decided against it. There was absolutely NO REASON for Rick to stick with Peja and JJ that long. NONE. The stretch to start the 4th quarter we played without a center and the lead went from 2 to 8 in about 2 minutes, we never recovered. The other (Please Use More Appropriate Word) move was in the 2nd quarter JET is strutting around flexing, Dirk embarrassing LMA on the block with post moves, its the most SWAG the Mavs have had all year, and RC outta the timeout leaves JJ on Dre Miller, and he just goes to work, it's like my little brother trying to check me growing up, I can do WHATEVER I WANT. Momentum gone, Portland retakes the lead. OUR COACH IS CLUELESS SOMETIMES.

2. Dirk misses 3 FTs, JJ misses 2 in the 4th quarter, we miss 6 in the 4th quarter. can't have it and win a playoff game.

3. Jason Kidd was simply terrible tonight. Just terrible. He turned the ball over, made TERRIBLE decisions, dribbled the ball and run the shot clock down under 12 routinely before even initiating the offense, I don't know what it was with him tonight? The long plane ride? AWFUL. JJ sucked too. Point guard play didn't get it done tonight.

4. I'm not gonna blame the refs, but Tyson Chandler wasn't allowed to play basketball tonight. He simply wasn't, not that he was any good when he was out there. Haywood is playing CIRCLES around him right now, its not even close. All the touch fouls and calls around the rim went to Portland tonight. All of them. It was almost WWF style tonight.


All this and the Mavs were down 3 with a min to go. I'm not scared at all. The Mavs are obviously a better team. The better team will win the series.


Time for Dirk to show up and play well. He's played ok, put up numbers, but hasn't just had a beast game yet. Time for Dirk to show why he's one of the 15 greatest players of All Time on Saturday. Saturday is your day Dirk.


Props to JET, you were a beast tonight.

AMEN Brotha.

[Ice32]

Why Is RC playing Barea so much and not Brewer? Even Marion is playing below average. Peja is good in small doses. Brewer can contribute in this series but needs mins.

[sweet daddy]

Too bad. Was a winnable game. Too many missed free throws, too many turnovers, too many bone-headed fouls by Tyson, too much small ball against Portland's bigger guards.

Cut down the mistakes, play as hard and we can win game 4.

This is not going to be an easy team to win a series against for us. What else is new, I guess. But we should win.

[Brooklyn_34]

Just as I thought.

Portland forced others to put up...

With the exception of Terry, it basically worked. At least his offense made up for the defense.

Chandler did not play a smart game tonight. That hurt Dallas BIG TIME. IMO, he deserved the calls against him.

Barea was not that bad tonight. He forced turnovers and took it to the rim.... he was not too much of a liability tonight, actually. I felt he played too much, but it was not that bad tonight.

Carlisle went to a Kidd, Barea, Terry backcourt in the 4th and I cringed, but it was not bad (tonight anyway).

The problem was no one else really did much.

Brewer needs to get more minutes.

The Portland perimeter cannot be allowed life.
Let the frontcourt beat Dallas-- they were unable to for the last 2 games.

Carlisle must not let Portland force their style of play on Dallas.

For game 4:

1. Start Haywood instead of Chandler. Have Mahini as a standby. This will protect Chandler (hopefully) from foul trouble. Chandler needs at least 30 minutes on the floor.

2. A little less Barea and Terry. I have the feeling that tonight's game was a fluke from Terry. He deserved his minutes tonight, though. Get Brewer some minutes.

3. Dirk, you've been great, but take it to the rack and do it early. I want more aggression, like I saw in game 2. You played well tonight (as usual), but you could have done a little more.

[crucifixx]

I'm not blaming the refs for losing the game, thats loser talk like other places on this board, the reason the Mavs lost the game for me is...


1. Rick Carlisle effing.... Well I was gonna use an explicit analogy, but I decided against it. There was absolutely NO REASON for Rick to stick with Peja and JJ that long. NONE. The stretch to start the 4th quarter we played without a center and the lead went from 2 to 8 in about 2 minutes, we never recovered. The other (Please Use More Appropriate Word) move was in the 2nd quarter JET is strutting around flexing, Dirk embarrassing LMA on the block with post moves, its the most SWAG the Mavs have had all year, and RC outta the timeout leaves JJ on Dre Miller, and he just goes to work, it's like my little brother trying to check me growing up, I can do WHATEVER I WANT. Momentum gone, Portland retakes the lead. OUR COACH IS CLUELESS SOMETIMES.

2. Dirk misses 3 FTs, JJ misses 2 in the 4th quarter, we miss 6 in the 4th quarter. can't have it and win a playoff game.

3. Jason Kidd was simply terrible tonight. Just terrible. He turned the ball over, made TERRIBLE decisions, dribbled the ball and run the shot clock down under 12 routinely before even initiating the offense, I don't know what it was with him tonight? The long plane ride? AWFUL. JJ sucked too. Point guard play didn't get it done tonight.

4. I'm not gonna blame the refs, but Tyson Chandler wasn't allowed to play basketball tonight. He simply wasn't, not that he was any good when he was out there. Haywood is playing CIRCLES around him right now, its not even close. All the touch fouls and calls around the rim went to Portland tonight. All of them. It was almost WWF style tonight.


All this and the Mavs were down 3 with a min to go. I'm not scared at all. The Mavs are obviously a better team. The better team will win the series.


Time for Dirk to show up and play well. He's played ok, put up numbers, but hasn't just had a beast game yet. Time for Dirk to show why he's one of the 15 greatest players of All Time on Saturday. Saturday is your day Dirk.


Props to JET, you were a beast tonight.

CAN I GET A HELL YEA

[ahonui06]

Some people on this board really take DIRK for granted. He's averaging 28.7 and 8.7 for the series. He didn't shoot well in Games 1 and 2, but he was clutch in the 4th quarter of those games. Even in Game 3 he had 9 in the fourth and that's with RC running the damn offense through Barea (Lord knows why he is in).

The Mavs were in this game. They just need to have Marion in the game and not a damn 3 guard midget lineup. Portland will exploit the mismatches. No idea why RC went small when he won the first 2 games going big.

And please run the offense through DIRK. Kidd should bring down the ball and pass the ball to DIRK in the post. It's that simple.

[dirkules_41]

It's all my fault (or the late tip-offs fault - 04.30 CET)... fell asleep right before the tipoff. We're 2-0 with me watching and 0-1 with me sleeping so I'll take the blame for this loss

Anyway no we have to steal the next one and seal the deal at home.

[ASIMO]

i think as long as Mavs let Barea plays as PG, they never win the title. This is not Barea bashing. About Team Mentality.

ex) BOS chose West over Nate as backup PG easily even in the middle of the season because Nate himself played well but killing other players on the both ends. They weights on team performace. I believe BOS will choose easily JET over Barea to win the title, using Brewer/DS against Mathews/Roy. We could see very different basketball.

Mavs weights on individual playstyle for their ideal basketball over the win. They are not hungry for the win. They are just entertaining their game like TV game. Team stats doesnt matter for them. But Reality is sometimes good HC arranges their basketball style for the good team performance over the good individual stats. For example Higher Assist numbers are meaningless with lower team FG%. But Mavs dont care. Only Bareas PPG/AST for Fantasy NBA.

DAL is losing this series because they "can" use Barea without any hesitation.
BOS choose West. This is the difference between a championship caliver and a 1-2nd rouder.

If RC were the HC in POR, he gives Milles tons of PT and Mavs are winning this series.

[Brooklyn_34]

Asimo,

Good points.

I like Barea, but as I said many times before, he would barely leave the bench on any of the other 57+ win teams. Terry would barely see 10 minutes-- although Barea is exceeding expectations. At least he takes the ball to the hole and forces turnovers.

However, last night, Carlisle really had no choice.

People keep on taking about how 'deep' Dallas is, but I cannot help but disagree.

Jason (and I respect him) played badly in the first half yesterday.

Chandler played like crap. Marion was not really there. Stevenson got 5 mins???/

That was the Dallas team that I feared I would see.

Dirk, as usual, got his, but almost no one else came to play (just like old times).

This time, Carlisle had no choice. Barea played well within his role yesterday. At least he broke the defense. Remember, Dallas came back into the game with Barea in the lineup.

Their use of Barea (and Terry--especially) has hurt them. But when you look at it, that's also because of lack of depth. Options really are not there for Carlisle. He does have trouble with lineups at times, though, which DOES hurt the team, but the main issue is lack of resources.

I am still picking Dallas to win the series, but Dirk has to straight up be a MONSTER.

Another poster made an astute observation: I almost hope Dirk misses his first 5 or 6 shots to start game 4. That will make him force the action more. He started out shooting well... that probably accounted for his lack of free throw attempts.

[Brooklyn_34]

Carlisle needs a defensive lineup. He has to get better with lineups. Sometimes he does not shuffle lineups which utilize his teams' strengths.

Activate Brewer-- I am sure he wants to prove himself. You cannot have Portland's perimeter performing well. Who is this Matthews guy?? Why did he go off?

Here is a lineup for Dallas/ to start:

Haywood, Marion, Dirk, Kidd, Stevenson

Activate Brewer to sub for Stevenson and/or Kidd.

Chandler needs to put up or shut up. He has not been playing that well in this series. He looked really foolish yesterday. Let him come off the bench. Haywood has actually played well (aside from his free throws). Reward him.

Portland needs to be held below 90.

This lineup will not be high scoring, but it will be good defensively and keep the game close. The reason for this lineup is also subtle: This will FORCE DIRK TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE OFFENSIVELY.

[CDansby]

Some people on this board really take DIRK for granted.

No they don't.

[ASIMO]

@Brooklyn_34

Understand. But Barea is the worst performer on offence in this team (26FG%), taking 12FGA/36min. He is terrible. And as you see, JJB vs Miller was a Joke on Defence. Unfortunately he is useless in PO than any other players. And that 4thQ, Carlisle had a choice. Kidd-JET-Marion-Dirk-Chandler(Haywood) which played so well in the 4Q in the game 1.

Bareas Problem is he must play 1) as the 2nd option 2) with JET or Kidd 3) with Dirk.
He still has many problems as the bacckup (+ Mr. Minus.). He should be the 3rd PG in Dallas.

And I dont think JET is a problem in Dallas. The problem is how to use him. Carlisle made JET more shoot as the 2nd option and guard at SG along with JJ. It was a big misstake.

Mavs should use normal SG(Brewer-DS-Roddy) in 2nd unit and make JET play as backup PG. Thats reasonable as BOS chose West over Nate. To weight on team production and defence.

[Brooklyn_34]

@ASIMO....

I agree, mostly.

I disagree on Terry. If I were GM, I would try to get him off the team ASAP.

Game 3 was an exception, but he absolutely hurts the team... To tell you the truth, I think Barea has actually been more effective than Terry lately.

Yes, he (like Terry) is a liability, but Barea can force turnovers, draw fouls and get to the rack. He tries to play defense and brings energy. I personally think Barea is better on defense than Terry.

IMO BOTH of the them probably should be benchwarmers, but to be honest, I would take Barea over Terry (at this point).

And yes, Carlisle needs to rotate better.

[ASIMO]

@Brooklyn_34

You already wrote you like Barea. So I understand your point.
But what you wrote is exactly my point.

team result > individual playstyle

Some one like to see him forcing TO, protect the ball and attack the board.
Some one dislike to see no steal, too small defender and only "he" is attacking the board.

But I weight on team performance, then find what is the problem or strong point.

Mavs with JJ... On the team stats the problem is on team offence, interestingly. Team offence is really worse even than team defence. Especially JJ&Roddy(Dojo) is incrediblly misserable.

Mavs with JET... Perfect result on both ends on the team stats... only while JET guards at PG. And JET&Roddy is better even than Roddy&Kidd on team stats. Why not they just keep it?

"Barea must play as 2nd option, with another PG, with Dirk...." I quoted them from the team stats. Not on my impression. We should discuss on team stats. Not indivudual stats because here is tons of preferences by many fans, but we all hope Mavs win. And Team result is only one. Mavs with JET is pretty good but Mavs with Barea is really poor especially on team offence and he cant play w/o WJason. I think these are what we need to know and find the solutions.

[Brooklyn_34]

@ASIMO

I hear you.

Dallas needs better guards, plain and simple. That has been their real issue for years.

They need defensive minded, athletic guards.

It pains me when we talk about Barea vs Terry, two guys who BOTH should be benchwarmers IMO.

But that is the state the Mavericks are in, unfortunately.

I wonder what the Mavs record is when they BOTH do not play OR when they BOTH get under 15 minutes in the game.

[ASIMO]

@Brooklyn_34
there is only one game Barea and JET played less 15min in 3seasons.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore;_y ... 2010031006

However I think it might be able to help to solve that question.
I made it at 7th March. But youll find who is giving positive number. 3PG lineup is not included.

[PG]JET [SG]Kidd [PF] Dirk...113.9 / 94.9 (w/o Dirk 97.9 / 99.7)

[PG]JJB [SG]Kidd [PF] Dirk... 101.3 / 102.3 (w/o Dirk 87.4 / 93.8)
[PG]JJB [SG] JET [PF] Dirk... 103.0 / 90.0 (w/o Dirk 86.5 / 100.2)
[PG]JJB [SG] Stevenson [PF] Dirk... 76.8 / 102.4 (w/o Dirk 80.0 / 105.6)

[PG]Roddy [SG]Kidd [PF] Dirk...102.9 / 108.6 (w/o Dirk 72 / 132 )

[PG]Kidd [SG]Stevenson [PF] Dirk... 100.9 / 93.5 (w/o Dirk 91.4 / 99.0)

[PG]Roddy [SG]JET [PF] Dirk... 104.0 / 80.0 *...only 6min but I remember JET+Roddy was 102/100, JJB+Roddy was 102/109 in 2009-2010 season.

[Brooklyn_34]

Could it be that 7 ft German guy?

I forgot his name...

[ASIMO]

Could it be that 7 ft German guy?

I forgot his name...

Dirk is incrediblly productive. Thats why I like him. Mavs win because of him.
He is not a good 1on 1 defender but good team defender. Thats more important for me.
W Jason is also productive and last season Marion too.