Mavs heading to the Big Easy
April 16th, 2008 Posted in Avery Johnson, Game Recap
Good win by the Mavs tonight to close out the regular season and clinch the 7th seed in the West. Jason Kidd picked up his 100th career triple-double and the Mavs came back from 11 point deficits twice. Brandon Bass had a big game which may lead to questionable lineups by Avery this weekend.
There’s no doubt that New Orleans came out to win this game. At the start of the first half it looked like they may run away with it but the Mavs stepped it up on D and got back in the game. After trying to give the game away a few more times the Mavs end up with the 13 point win.
But enough about the game, it’s time for the playoffs.
This was by far the best possible outcome for the Mavericks. They get to play an untested playoff team that’s been struggling down the stretch. Compare that to possibly having to play Kobe in the first round and that’s no doubt the Hornets are the desirable choice. There are still plenty of questions about the Mavericks and what Avery is going to do however.
I think it’s a good idea to put a half-court trap on Chris Paul like Avery had them several times through the game. But it needs to be done with someone besides Dirk or Damp/Bass. Bringing a big out to trap led to a layup line for David West and Tyson Chandler.
The other thing that’s bothering me right now is Brandon Bass’ play tonight. Don’t get me wrong, it was good to see and he definitely helped the Mavs win the game, but what kind of impression did it leave on Avery? There’s no way he would sit Damp and start Bass, is there?
Much more to come in the next few days so keep checking back.
Loading ...
Subscribe to the RSS feed
12 Responses to “Mavs heading to the Big Easy”
By KeepingItReal on Apr 16, 2008 at 10:00:15 pm
Don’t mess with me, Greg. If Avery starts Bass ahead of Damp then I will lose it. It is still important for Damp to get his minutes and clog up the paint. Bass is a solid backup but he still isn’t what you want at center.
By selke99 on Apr 16, 2008 at 10:08:58 pm
Actually, it looked like Bass matched up much better with their bigs. Damp still needs to get minutes, but Chandler and that other dude may be too fast for Damp. Don’t contradict yourself. It’s up to Avery to play Bass more than the 12 seconds he played against LA.
By Greg on Apr 16, 2008 at 10:20:19 pm
No doubt Bass needs to play, he’s shown that’s he an effective player for this team. But you cannot change your starting lineup again after last year’s disaster.
And for the record I don’t think there’s any way it would actually happen. I can just already picture the uproar if it does.
By mrtwister on Apr 16, 2008 at 11:40:33 pm
I posted a few weeks back that we’d probably end up playing NO in the first round and suggested that we should double CP in the back court so he’s forced to give the ball up early and make someone else call the shots. It worked well tonight, I would almost say it was perfect.
Yeah the bigs were drawn out for the double but who cares, that means a big will get the ball at half court. Bigs are dumb, they’ll see some space and go for it. Yeah they’ll score some layups but even if this happens as much as half the time this is good for us in two ways.
1. It increases the tempo of the game. With a half court grind, NO will win, every time. We don’t have the sets or the off ball movement to compete in this style of play. Even tonight when CP gave the ball up early the Mavs killed them because of the increased sped the game was being played. CP is great at controlling the tempo but if he doesn’t have the ball, he can’t.
2. CP is having little or no impact on the game. NO haven’t proven that they can win in the playoffs let alone win with CP out of the flow. They showed it tonight.
The only question that remains unanswered now is Avery.
Now that ’supercoach’ has shown his hand by doubling CP tonight, will he not do it in the first few games because they are expecting it? This cat and mouse rubbish is what got the Mavs kicked out the playoffs last year.
Advice to Avery: if it works NOW, then stick to it until it doesn’t.
The other thing is, surely Byron Scott has seen this so many times before. The guy played with one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game. It won’t take too long before he combats the double team with someone else receiving the inbound and have CP running off screens as the ball crosses half court to receive it early enough to call and run some plays and control the tempo.
Anyway, big offensively, the Mavs looked great in motion offense but, as usual, when sets were run, everybody just stood around spectating. I don’t think any of the set plays resulted in anything better than a jump shot 90% of the time and because everyone was standing around, there was no-one in position to rebound. When we had movement and spacing we got the o-boards on our misses and made them pay. Terry shot the lights out when he was catch and shooting even in the 2 man game with Dirk.
Lastly, Avery needs to give Bass the chance to back up tonight’s performance. He was BIG tonight which needs to be rewarded. Start Damp, but go with Bass without hesitation in the first quarter if needed.
Sorry about the long post.
PS- Where are the Kidd haters tonight? Aubrey, are you out there?
By Lee on Apr 17, 2008 at 12:10:49 am
I think you guys are right on point. Damp and Bass both need minutes, but how and when they each get them is key. I thought Damp’s presence in the lane (esp. late in the game) was critical in big wins against phoenix and utah. I didn’t get to watch the whole portland game, but it seemed like Damp didn’t get enough minutes.
I love Dirk, but I think that his unorthodox style at the 4 position makes it difficult to build a frontline around him. Maybe some of avery’s horrendous lineups are due to the fact that it is hard to design a lineup around dirk’s very unique set of strengths and weaknesses. If he were more of a banger, it would be easier to find time for an undersized guy like Bass. Ideally, the Mavs need to find a long athletic 3 that can help on the interior but is still quick enough for the perimeter (the prototype would be shawn marion).
On another note, how do you guys feel about running the offense through kidd in the post. Chris Paul can’t handle him down there and they would have to send a double every time. It makes great sense to me, but I don’t know if avery is smart enough to implement it in such a short period of time. Also, I don’t know if the mavs scorers are good enough off the ball to take advantage of that type of offense. They run so much iso that no one seems to know how to cut to the basket.
By Trace on Apr 17, 2008 at 12:33:03 am
Kidd in the post is a good thing. He makes Chris Paul play defense. It opens up the offense for open 3’s mainly. Make Chris Paul play defense so he doesn’t have as much energy to play offense.
Dirk needs to post on the low box (for a baseline move using glass) or top of the free throw line extended so he can’t be doubled so easily.
By JaredNow1 on Apr 17, 2008 at 1:00:59 am
seriously, wheres the kidd haters now?!?!!
i think i remember posting a few weeks back to all of you MAVS haters and KIDD haters that KIDD was going to step up when we needed him too…AUBREY????????
And i also stated that we were going to make the playoffs and kidd was going to heat up without the need for dirk right on time. with that said, let me go ahead and make another prediction. MAVS are going to OWN the hornets in 6 games. Maybe even 5.
We played terrible defense at times, just standing around, and Kidd got his 3double because we don’t rebound for crap. Whenever a shot goes up we go running for the other end of the court. Avery, what’s up with that? Get them to go hit the boards! But look, Tyson chandler is a scrub, david west is a nobody, we shut down the serbian wash-up….Byron Scott is about as overrated as Doc Rivers….Chris Paul??? I think Kidd proved his point. Playoff experience will dominate this weak team (don’t be fooled by the record), Bonzi Wells will be forced to step up because we will play lockdown on everyone else….yeah, bonzi wells. lol…..The hornets are a joke. Chris Paul is a baby. He actually acted his age tonight, kicking his feet over on the bench after getting schooled by kidd and getting into foul trouble. He’s not a leader and he HAS A LOT TO LEARN. IT’S NOT HIS TIME. This is the HORNETS PEOPLE!!!! THE HORNETS!!!! So I guess the point of this post besides reminding the Kidd haters how foolish they are and were is to say, MAVS FANS do not worry! Round TWO here we come. (And Bass was good tonight, we need more aggressive play, Damp does NOT play that aggressive EVER)
By Gabe on Apr 17, 2008 at 2:55:14 am
For how great a point guard Chris Paul is, he doesn’t like playing at an up tempo pace. That’s what I mainly took from this game tonight. And starting Bass would be a huge mistake, he’s a 3/4 tweener that has a 4/5 skill set that would get exposed if he’s in the starting lineup. Tweeners are most effective off the bench (Ben Gordon, Barbosa, and Boris Diaw come to mind at the moment).
By mike on Apr 17, 2008 at 5:09:47 am
100 triple-doubles for the Kidd. Only he, Magic, and Oscar can claim that they’ve done it.
Very nicely played game by the Mavs tonight. Let’s hope we see a replay of it 4(consecutive) times in the first round.
Go Mavs
By PininFarina456 on Apr 17, 2008 at 9:59:58 am
I am really happy mavs put this win away, it provided excellent momentum and lets us play NO rather than LA.
AJ should totally not have Bass start, let Damp start and clog up the lane and have bass come in after that with energy. I have a feeling AJ may start Eddie Jones rather than stack at SG, purely for defense against CP. I think AJ should let Kidd handle CP as he is fully capable of it. (IMHO, Kidd hustles more on defense than anyone else.)
Kidd should continue to go into the post also, that worked great but someone like JHO needs to cut to the basket for an easy score.
Double teaming CP is going great, but please don’t have Dirk do it, he has enough on his plate while he’s not 100%.
By Stevie Howell on Apr 17, 2008 at 2:19:47 pm
They’re already talking smack about the second round over at Hornets247.com. Pretty cocky, eh?
By WyldMavsFan on Apr 18, 2008 at 12:56:59 pm
I don’t even know where to begin on this series. There are so many ways that Avery can and will lose this thing with his incredible substitution patterns and offensive strategy.
1st off, and I think we can all agree on this, Damp will not be playing enough minutes. You can already see it happening. Avery is going to make the same mistakes he made against GS and assume Damp can’t play b/c he isn’t quick enough. So game 1, pencil Damp in for about 15-18min and he will have the best plus minus rating.
Avery will be overcoaching game 1. He will do what he always does in game 1’s which is make adjustments before the game starts (like benching Damp against GS in game 1, or not starting devin harris in game 1 vs the spurs) The only question is what stupid adjustment will he make for this game that makes no sense?
I think in game 1, we need to come out and play OUR game, don’t adjust to them (which is what Avery always does) We need to have our regular startes play above normal min, with Jet, goerge, and bass getting the only significant bench minutes. eddie jones and malik allen should only play at most 5min each. I think George is a huge key to this team, his D is the best on our team along with Damp, but again, i don’t think avery will play him, b/c Avery thinks Josh Howard can do no wrong.
I am very worried about game 1, b/c I don’t want Avery to do what he did against GS and change things up so much that it shows we can’t compete with them. MAKE THEM ADJUST TO US
We better hope this series isn’t a chess match between the coaches because avery hasn’t even mastered checkers, and if we lose game 1, you can bet this site will be blowing up about how many mistakes Avery made.