See the additional editorial notes at the end for more details about late postings and how they are not going to be a problem any longer.
FROM MAY 6, 2009, THE DAY AFTER GAME TWO OF THE EARLY MAY 2009 WEST SEMIFINAL SERIES BETWEEN THE DALLAS MAVERICKS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS
[Game Two was won by the Nuggets 117-105; the Nuggets took a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series with this win.]
Posted by Usually Lurkin
THey'd already shown that they could blow open a game by taking advantage of a few possessions of sloppy ball.
I've lost count of how many games the Nuggets have won this way. Sloppy or even just casual = automatic free points for them.
To defeat the Nuggets, you have to have the same kind of intensity on offense that is usually reserved for playoff defending. No casual and no sloppy. In other words, the first priority is to contain the Nuggets' defense, strange as that may sound.
FROM MAY 6, 2009, THE DAY AFTER GAME TWO OF THE EARLY MAY 2009 WEST SEMIFINAL SERIES BETWEEN THE DALLAS MAVERICKS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS
[Game Two was won by the Nuggets 117-105; the Nuggets took a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series with this win.]
Posted by rakesh.s
Billups > Kidd
Anthony > Howard
JR Smith > Terry
Nene (in this series) ~ Dirk
Andersen >>>>>>>> Dampier and Hollins combined, and Andersen comes off the BENCH.
Kidd > Billups (but some of Kidd's passes have been horrible in this series)
Anthony > Howard but Howard is good and the Mavs can not possibly win this series without him.
Terry > JR Smith, almost >>
Dirk > Nene; but don't ever be without even for a minute a quality defensive big guarding him.
Dirk >> Kenyon Martin normally and >>+ in this game. This alone tells you the Mavs are guaranteed one win in Dallas and can easily get both of the next two games.
Nene > Dampier
Andersen seems to be from another planet, so why bother comparing him to Earthlings? Why was Andersen not being paid by another team at the time the Nuggets with no money came looking for roster fillers? Why did no one know how good Andersen could be? Why? How could so many GMs have left Andersen unemployed as of the summer of 2008, allowing the Nuggets to get him for next to nothing.
FROM MAY 6, 2009, THE DAY AFTER GAME TWO OF THE EARLY MAY 2009 WEST SEMIFINAL SERIES BETWEEN THE DALLAS MAVERICKS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS
[Game Two was won by the Nuggets 117-105; the Nuggets took a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series with this win.]
Posted by ray_sir_6
...and what's with the "Everyone go for a 3!" mentality that the Mavs get when they get behind? Or when another team makes a big 3? When you get behind, you drive, and drive and drive. Eventually you'll get a three, but you need POINTS, and the long ball (hailmary 3s) aren't the fastest way to get them. That pissed me off all season, and now in the playoffs. Drive, get fouls, get into the penalty, get the points. It hardly ever works just tossing the 3s up.
Exactly. In football you have to gamble on offense when you are way behind but in basketball you drive more and grind your way back in the game. Because paradoxically, the more you think you need threes, the fewer of them you will actually be able to make. Only when the margin is huge (>25) or time is running out do you shoot desperation threes.
Also, your backcourt is not inferior to the Nuggets backcourt. Yours is better. I don't know why Kidd especially has been bad in this series.
The much bigger problem for the Mavs in this series though is the inability to do anything about Nene. When you can't slow down Nene, the Nuggets get a free pass on their cheap, unstructured offense. If you do not slow down Nene, then you do not get to see how Chauncey Billups is not Jesus and how Carmelo Anthony is still not good in the playoffs and how JR Smith is half crazy.
Someone else on the subject of the "everyone going for a three" (the ray_sir6 post above):
Posted by rakesh.s
you're right..the other thing that it does is slow the game down -- denver won't be getting long rebounds and throwing outlet passes for easy dunks.
again, this is why denver will not be able to beat a team like LA who can throw the ball into Pau and Bynum to slow the game down and get quick fouls on the denver bigs.
Or Houston if the Lakers blow their series.
FROM MAY 6, 2009, THE DAY AFTER GAME TWO OF THE EARLY MAY 2009 WEST SEMIFINAL SERIES BETWEEN THE DALLAS MAVERICKS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS
[Game Two was won by the Nuggets 117-105; the Nuggets took a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series with this win.]
Posted by Lor20
We did a few things beter than in game 1 (mostly bench play) but there are still 2 big things that have been issues for a long time.
1.)Why do we still play the 3 Guard Terry,Barea Kidd lineup?
we played it for like 6 minutes yesterday and our line was -13 with us getting outscored in 5 of the 6 stretches - the last one was even.
Yes, you can not ever use this lineup and expect to not pay hugely against these Thuggets.
2.) Our interior defense is just too slow. 96 minutes without drawing a charge now and letting them get half their points in the paint (if you include the FT's which were almost all coming from fouls in the paint. WE let them shoot like 20 FT's in the first half - if we manage to play some D without fouling we'd be up by 15 by the end of the third.
Hollins, Bass and Damp again picked up 13 fouls (14 last game) and none of them was a hard one. If you are going to make them shoot freethrows at least make them earn it instead of basically having them go to the hoop and then walk to the stripe
True, if the refs are against you and calling touch fouls against you then foul harder. Stop letting Nene and the Nuggets as a whole make everything look sooo easy.
I suppose it comes down to Howard. If he can't play in the second halves we haveno depth and the other guys don't get quite enough rest or we fall behind too much during those stretches. If we dont get Josh for 4 quarters we can't steal one in Denver - and I##m not sure if we can win without him at home either.
True again. It is uncanny how this series is roughly an instant replay of the Hornets-Nuggets series. Although the Mavs are not as banged up as the Hornets were, they are banged up.
FROM MAY 6, 2009, THE DAY AFTER GAME TWO OF THE EARLY MAY 2009 WEST SEMIFINAL SERIES BETWEEN THE DALLAS MAVERICKS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS
[Game Two was won by the Nuggets 117-105; the Nuggets took a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series with this win.]
Posted by jthig32
Oh, and the TNT guys kept fawning over Duante Jones creating two turnovers on Dirk by "pulling the chair" from him, without ever noting that he was BLATANTLY FOULING HIM!!!
A double arm bar, or a double hand check on a player in the post is a FREAKING AUTOMATIC FOUL!! I was screaming at my tv last night. Then they finally called it on him in the second half which just further confuses everyone watching.
*sigh*
Dahntay Jones is a punk but kind of a smart punk.
========== Editorial Notes ==========
--The above was written in early May, 2009.
--As promised, we are finally posting material written and posted on forums in the spring. Obviously, if you have your own site, you should be posting at least simultaneously on your own site when you for whatever reason post elsewhere. But there has been a bad habit of not doing so, a bad habit that is being beaten down due to new content sharing regulations that have teeth.
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