WARRIORS 97 @ MAVS 85
Dear sweet and beautiful baby Jesus,
Please don't do this to me. Not like this.
Much Dude love, Amen.
3 CHEERS:
1. Baron Davis - It's not like he's a marginal player that just had a "Hand of God" night, but nearly posting a triple double by scoring 33 points (19 in the 3rd), grabbing 14 rebounds, tossing 8 assists, stealing 3 balls, and blocking 1 shot is amazing for him. I hate him now. He has an awful beard that makes him look like he should be shooting balls made of coagulated whale blubber into a basket with literal, actual fish netting while drifting the high seas aboard the S.S. Grizzly Bear. Then he can don a bright yellow rain slicker and do commercials for his hearty fish sticks made with real Alaskan Cod, now in your grocer's freezer.
2. Don Nelson - I don't want to hate the man. He restored my team. I named my dog after him. But he's the enemy now, and yet I still respect what he can do. Short of taking my frustration out on my dog, Nelson, last night, I was impressed that some of his old gimmicks still work. I'm setting the over/under at Game 3 for Nellie to get all harrumphed by the refs and get himself tossed to fire up his team. It worked wonders when he was here. But as brilliant as he played his strategy last night, and as stupidly as we fell for it, I want to set one thing straight. Nellie doesn't know this team inside and out like everyone seems to believe. He's just a guy that used to coach here. Sure there's a history, but when you really break it down, he might as well be coaching against the Phoenix Suns, and he knows how to guard Nash really well. Nellie wasn't around this team much last year. He was more of a long distance consultant that would show up every now and again. Dirk's the only guy that he's truly familiar with, because even in Nellie's last year here, he wasn't very involved with the team before quiting prior to the end of the season. All he did was show up at tip off and tell guys what plays to run. Avery ran all the practices, Del Harris did all the film work, and Avery even coached a few of the games when Nellie just wanted to cash a check. Sure Avery was his protege, but if you haven't noticed, Avery's system mimics Greg Popovich of San Antonio more than it does Nelson. I'll buy that he knows Dirk inside and out, and maybe he has a pretty good read on Howard, but he doesn't know JET, G2000, Harris, Stack, Diop, or Damp anymore than any other coach in this league. Nellie out-coached us last night, but let's not get too involved in this "Nellie knows the Mavs like the back of his hand" business. The last time Nellie seriously coached this team was 3 years ago, before Nash left. Either way, good job to Nellie, and thanks for making me hate my dog.
3. Devin Harris/Josh Howard - Howard and Little D were the only ones doing anything in this game for the Mavs. Howard had 21 points, 13 boards, 2 assists, 3 steals and a block. He also had the dunk of the night when he threw down a baseline jam towards the end of the second quarter. Harris was the only Mav who got it: drive the f**king lane! He had 19 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. We will need both of them to play big in this series to offset Golden State's big guards and fast paced style of play.
3 JEERS:
1. Dirk Nowitzki - Since I am a dad now, I will give you a typical parental response: I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. What do you know? I send out an email to all my constituents noting that you broke historical NBA ground this year, and you come out playing like you still had dirt from that historical ground caked to your shooting hand. You played sloppier than my 2-year-old daughter trying to eat spaghetti-o's with a fork. 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks is great, but 14 points on 4 of 16 shooting? Don't do this to me. I spend my days defending you against your naysayers, and this is what you do to reward me? Make me look foolish? You are the best player on the court. Put these guys in the dirt. Every time you turn your back to the basket, they swarm 1 or 2 extra guys at you. Here's a thought: don't turn your back to the basket. Find the open shot, find the open man, or drive to the rim. They will most definitely foul you. You are one of the best free throw shooters in the league. Watching you in this game made me feel as sick as the time that I thought it would be a great idea to order the shellfish special after 3 pints of Guinness. More Dad talk: You're better than this, and you know it.
2. Avery Johnson - I don't doubt you. I've never criticized you ever. I trust you. Anything from your defensive philosophy to your personnel decisions to your choice of suits and ties (Avery's a sharp dresser), I've never questioned you before. Until now. What was with that starting lineup? Charles Barkley said it best at halftime. You're the best team in the league. You won 67 games by playing your style. Why would you alter that for an opponent that had to go 9-1 in their last 10 games just to make it into the playoffs for the first time in 13 years? Perhaps Damp's shoulder isn't as healthy as we would hope, I get that. But going small to match the Warriors was the dumbest thing you could have done. All you did was give them hope. It was a gamble that didn't pay off. I'm sure that if we had gone small and beat them, then they would have thrown up their hands and bowed to our supremacy, but we didn't win 67 games by not starting a true center and they didn't lose 41 games by going big. Stick with what you know. It got the whole team out of their rhythm that they have been acclimating to all season long. Because of this lineup change, you could argue that we lost before the game even started. I'm sorry to doubt you, but you gave me no choice.
3. The Mavericks Basket and Bench - The basket was locked down like Alcatraz after bed check. Despite grabbing 19 offensive rebounds, we still missed 55 of our 85 shots and 6 of our 25 free throws. Layups weren't falling. Jumpers weren't falling. Even our leading scorer, Howard with 21 points, missed 13 of his 21 shots. It was a game for the Masons the way we kept throwing bricks. What made it worse was that our stellar bench totaled 4 points, all by Diop. Stack missed all 6 of his shots. Buckner and Damp were so scared that they would miss that they didn't even attempt one. Those four guys combined for 4 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 6 turnovers. The Warriors, who aren't deep, combined for 14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and 1 turnover. I bet Stack and the bench will pick it up in the next game. As far as the basket, I will only reference one of the many great lines from The Three Amigos: You cannot force open the petals of a flower. When the flower is ready, it will open itself up to you. So when do you think Carmen will open up her flower to you? Tonight. Or I will kill her!
RANDOM CRAP!
- Since the game was on TNT, they kept plugging a new show on TBS called Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Ummm, no thank you. Don't you wish you could just tell them immediately that you aren't going to watch it, and then they could stop trying to get you to?
- I've documented how much I hate floppers or guys that try to draw charges as their primary defensive tactic. I understand it's within the rules and well celebrated as a great strategy, but I think it's cheap. It's with great pain that I admit that Devin Harris is a flopper. He's damn good at it, but that's what he is. Clearly, this puts me in a very awkward position.
- Speaking of drawing charges, Diop was clearly out of the restricted area, he was set, and he wasn't just doing it as a defensive cop-out like Bruce Bowen. He was waiting to contest the shot. The Warriors player plowed into him and they called the foul on Diop. Total horse manure. This is another thing that's wrong with the charge/blocking foul. It's too inconsistent and there is far too much gray area for the refs to prevent themselves from inserting human emotion into the call.
- I'm not going to blame the refs in this game because the Mavs played awful, but it was a little disheartening to watch the Warriors slapping and clawing at Dirk with very few fouls called. If this league is based on "star calls" (see: Dwayne Wade) there's not a bigger star on the floor in this series than Dirk. I agree that there shouldn't be "star calls" but if you are going to adopt a policy, practice it and stay consistent. Don't just decide which stars get the calls and which stars don't.
- At halftime, the score was tied 38-38. I wrote down that it was in the Mavs favor to have the score be so low. Boy, do I feel like a dumbass.
- A little venom towards the Warriors: Stephen Jackson is a thug player that got traded from Indiana this year because of numerous listings in the Indiana police blotter, including firing a gun outside a strip club after getting run over by a car. He was also involved in that infamous fan brawl between Indiana and Detroit a few years back. Also, I understand that Matt Barnes made good on a bet with his teammates by shaving that silly looking mohawk into his head, but seriously. Any bets that involve hair should include getting rid of all of it or none of it, not half of it. He also has more ink on his skin than those Hawaiian flame twirlers. Not that I'm against tattoos. If it weren't for my wife, I would have more. Still, you have to make smart decisions about that sort of thing, and I think he just got one to get one. I mean he got 20 to get 20.
- My buddy, Ricky, made a good point this morning. Jason Richardson of the Warriors body slammed Devin Harris towards the end of the game without picking up a whistle. It was similar to the take down that Stack had against Shaq in last year's Finals. Lesson: 6'6" guard takes down 7'2" fat man - flagrant foul and one game suspension. 6'8" guard takes down 6'3" guard - game on. After the call, I was so pissed off that I threw a pillow and kicked the couch. Not very aggressive, I know, but I didn't want to wake my daughter while displaying my displeasure. It did wake my wife, however, who could be jolted from her slumber by a fart two houses down. So to add insult to injury, after watching the Mavs blow this game and the refs not punish a Warrior for using a sumo move on our point guard, my wife came out and scolded me for being too loud. It's just not my night.
No reason to panic. All season long, the Mavs have said that they need to keep their eyes on the prize and just play Maverick basketball and they'll be okay. Let's hope that Wednesday night they heed their own advice. And if sweet and beautiful baby Jesus wants to help out, that's cool, too. Go Mavs!
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