Absolutely Inexcusable

March 18th, 2008 Posted in Avery Johnson, Game Recap

This post is kinda going to be a stream of random thoughts that may not be in order. Just go with it for now and I’ll be back in the morning after some quotes from Avery and the players come out.

I really hope there isn’t talk tomorrow about this being a “moral victory” for the Mavericks. Yes, they came to within 1 point after being down by 25. Yeah, Kobe was held to “only” 29 points after some pretty good defense by Devean George and Josh Howard in the fourth. And Dirk had a great game by going for 35 points, 11 boards and 5 blocks.

But you know what? The Mavericks should have won this game by 10 - 15 points. But now they are 0-6 against Western Conference teams with a record better than them.

If Jason Kidd is supposed to be this great play-making point-guard, why doesn’t Avery let him do his job? He only played 16 minutes in the first half first of all. Which is okay when you’re playing ding-dong East teams and you’re up by 20. But if you’re supposed to be running this team he needs to be out there for 18-20 minutes a half. And Avery’s half-court sets are pathetic. Most of the time in them Kidd doesn’t even touch the ball. There was a stretch of 2 or 3 possessions, all in the half-court, that Kidd didn’t even touch the ball. And instead of letting the team run and be more free-flowing, like there were making the comeback, Avery insists that they play this half-court set that just isn’t working for this team right now.

There’s also no excuse for the lack of defense in the first quarter. Avery’s absolute refusal to double Kobe is amazing. He went 7-11 in the first half. The first double team on him didn’t come until sometime in the fourth. But he only ended up shooting 12-23, so Avery’s brilliant strategy of hoping he misses shots kinda worked in the second half.

Being down 21 at the half to a team playing without two of their three best players should never happen. Vlad Radmanovic should not score 21 on you. His three 3’s in the fourth were an absolute killer, and they were all three open shots.

And yes, that foul call on Stack at the end of the game was a bad call. But the team shouldn’t have been in the position for that call to matter.

Hey, at least Houston lost tonight.


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  1. 13 Responses to “Absolutely Inexcusable”

  2. By Dirk Nowitzki on Mar 19, 2008 at 12:35:37 am

    No intensity in the first half…

    I just don’t understand how this team comes out so flat and unmotivated knowing what is on the line and what it has to prove.

    That starts with Avery.

  3. By captainjack on Mar 19, 2008 at 6:37:20 am

    First, You cannot win. Not with Michael, Larry or Magic if the “officials” call it like it is a Laker home game and not a Dallas home game. The call on Stackhouse, at home, again, looks more like WWF than actual sports. Of course nature, the refs and everything else in the world sides with the aggressor the majority of the team. And I saw little aggresiveness out of the mavs last night. Second, If you are going to come out in a game of this magnitude, making millions, with the new arena rockin and all those fine women cheering for you and play like you just got out of bed and have not had your coffee,….bullshit., no that is too kind of a word. Chickenshit. THEN…Some damn body needs to get fired. We finally have the big guy showing some sack and everyone else is in a daze. Defense is effort. No reason for an off night. Offense not working? Iso the league MVP, you know, the 7 foot guy who can put it on the floor and shoot the longball well enough to win the 3 point contest and make the damn ref blow the whistle. Use this unique player because he is the reason you have hope. Why the hell trade for Kidd if you are going to coach him like he is a freshman and you are trying to teach him a lesson. He is never going to respond to that nonsense. What are they going to do when the lakers have Gasol? And he is not the only key player out for the lakers. When Barkley sayes “soft”, of course he means “white” and I don’t want to get started on that fool. But I hate it when he looks right about “soft”. You don’t get behind that far at home in this kind of a game. Hell, I would rather have watched them when they had van exel and edie n. At least they would kick someone in the balls and TRY to take the opponents heart instead of having theirs taken. I don’t want to hear about and damn rally. The Lakers were so far ahead that they lost interest and quit playing defense. Finally, Hey Avery. If you have a chance to win and you want Josh Howard to inbounds the ball could you see if you could get his head out of his butt? You see the passer is susposed to get the pass the your best player, at the end of the game, with seconds remaining, in a position where he can do something with it. Mabe it’s me but if I had just traded the farm for THE BEST PASSER IN THE LEAGUE. Perhaps I would have him throw in the pass…..just a thought…….FIRE AVERY. Heck Mr. Cuban, why don’t YOU coach the team until the end of this season…I don’t see how you can do worse that have em quit. And they quit last night.

  4. By Paul Westphal on Mar 19, 2008 at 7:15:24 am

    Avery is just a stubborn jacka@@. Kidd has had plenty of rest in the past few blowouts. When the Mavs play the Lakers he needs 40+ minutes. A good coach will play the game to his players strengths. Avery has gone from being the little general to the little tyrant. Remember the last Mavs coach this stubborn…. Jim Cleamons?? Its all about Avery’s ego not bringing out the best in players. Cuban needs to immediately fire Avery the next time Kidd plays under 40 minutes vs a team above .500. Let Paul Westphal coach the rest of the season. Avery can then go be an assistant coach for Pop down in San Antonio where his heart really is.

  5. By Avery Johnson on Mar 19, 2008 at 7:21:55 am

    I hate the Mavericks. I hate Cuban. I hate Dallas fans. I love myself. I can’t wait to get fired so I can go to a team I like. I am the LITTLE DICTATOR !!!

  6. By Josh Howard on Mar 19, 2008 at 8:26:49 am

    I’m not sure why coach had me inbounding the ball. I begged him to let Kidd make the crucial pass at the end since he’s the best passer on the team, and I’m the worst. But he just looked at me and said ‘Run tha Seeystem!’

  7. By WyldMavsFan on Mar 19, 2008 at 10:24:48 am

    The fact that he had Howard throw the ball in on the most crucial pass of the game, just shows Avery just doesn’t have any clue what he is doing. If you don’t want kidd to throw the ball in, fine, I don’t like it, but fine. Have Stack or George (who played great D on Kobe, but was taken out of the game for no reason in the 4th) throw it in. IT’S JUST COMMON SENSE, and Avery doesn’t have any.

    Also, he took out Dirk, Kidd and Howard in the 1st and start of the 2nd and watched a 3pt game go to 12pts before we put them back in. Way to give your guys the much needed rest.

    He made so many mistakes that just don’t make sense, he has no business coaching in this league. We aren’t the Spurs, we need to run the fast break, and not have Howard run it, b/c he can’t pass worth a damn.

  8. By Mav in Cali on Mar 19, 2008 at 3:32:12 pm

    Hmm, let’s see how Avery coaches close games in the last seconds…

    1) Takes out a hall-of-fame point guard and puts him on the bench at the most critical time of the game
    2) Puts in an inexperienced player against the best player in the league to grab the most critical rebound of the game
    3) Decides to let one of the worst passers on the entire team inbound the ball, instead of one of the best passers in the ENTIRE LEAGUE in bound the ball, on the most critical pass of the game

    All crucial, game-on-the-line situations that could have given the Mavs the W (or at the very least an extremely higher chance of success)in each of these games, had the proper coaching decision been made.

    Based on how Avery sabotages these highly important games every time the Mavs are close to winning them, I wouldn’t be surprised if Avery is betting against his own team on the side.

  9. By Avery Johnson on Mar 19, 2008 at 7:41:43 pm

    I am the KING!!!! The best ever !!!! I am going to come out of retirement so I can teach Kidd how to be a point guard.

  10. By selke99 on Mar 19, 2008 at 9:09:19 pm

    Hey man, most of those 3s by Radmanovic were actually tough and contested. I don’t remember him getting an open 3.

    I don’t necessarily think they should fire Avery, but another call Avery made was not putting Dampier in near the end of the game. I don’t think the Mavs can play small with all the jump shots they take. You need someone to rebound the misses. Of course having Howard throw the ball in has been mentioned ad nauseam. And call me crazy, but when that comeback was made with Lue in, maybe he should have been playing instead of Kidd, but I guess everyone would have jumped
    Avery for this.

    The bottom line is if you are still going to stick with the iso offense, which has been effective the last few years, we should have just kept Diop and Harris. Total waste of Kidd’s skills. He just looked so tentative last night.

  11. By JaredNow on Mar 20, 2008 at 9:58:47 pm

    okay, DAMN IT!!! WHY THE FLICK did avery not call a timeout in tonight’s game (boston) when they were down by two with 20 seconds or so left?!?!?!?!? HE FREAKING BLEW IT AGAIN!!!!
    DAMN IT! SERIOUSLY, AVERY SUCKS SO DAMN BAD!!!!
    CAN WE PLEASE GET A LEGIT PETITION GOING TO FIRE HIS SORRY ASS NOW??!??!?!?!?! AVERY PLEASE QUIT, WE HATE YOU! Im not even playing, PLEASE AVERY QUIT, YOU ARE DESTROYING OUR MAVS!

  12. By JaredNow on Mar 20, 2008 at 10:00:05 pm

    and how can anyone say we shouldnt fire avery like dude up there and then LIST off things he SHOULDVE DONE?!?!?!? HE IS THE REASON WHY WE LOSE GAMES BECAUSE OF TERRIBLE FLICKING COACHING!!! DAMN IT! AVERY YOU ARE A DAMN TOOL, I HOPE I NEVER SEE YOUR SORRY ASS OUTSIDE OF THE AAC!

  13. By Josh Howard on Apr 1, 2008 at 3:00:32 pm

    I miss Devin so back the hell off

  14. By sele on Apr 1, 2008 at 3:01:49 pm

    Mavs rule

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