Mavericks Win!
April 25th, 2008 Posted in Avery Johnson, Game Recap
Now that was the team I know that these guys can be. What an impressive show by Dirk, Jason, Josh, Jason, Erick and Brandon. Adjustments were made, the guys finally played like they were in the playoffs, and just an overall good vibe came out of the AAC tonight.
Quick disclaimer before I get into this post. I was at the game, but before hand I indulged quite heavily in Hooter’s $1.99 domestic pint happy hour. So any thoughts in this post are bound to be short or incomplete.
Let’s start by talking about the monster that is Dirk. 32 points, 19 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks. You can’t ask much more from any player than what Dirk gave tonight.
Jason Terry was also money tonight, going for 22 points including a dagger three with 1:39 left. He also did an outstanding job guard Chris Paul tonight.
Avery’s adjustments for tonight’s game were very good. Starting Terry and having him guard Paul was a great move. Both Terry and Kidd deserve major credit for the defensive job they did tonight. They fought through picks to stay on Paul all night. This prevented any horrible mismatches with Dirk, Damp or Bass having to try to guard Paul off the pick. And having Damp start off on West was a good move as it prevented West from getting easy layups and dunks off the pick and roll.
The overall defensive effort was outstanding tonight. I’ll take Jannero Pargo going 12-20 and being the Hornets leading scorer any night. Paul, Chandler and West went a combined 12-43 from the floor. Very nice.
Avery also keep a much tighter lineup tonight by basically going with a 7 man rotation. Malik Allen and Jerry Stackhouse only played a combined 10 minutes. Other than that it was all Kidd, Howard, Dirk, Terry, Damp, George and Bass. That type of rotation management is going to be key the rest of the games in this series. Like I’ve said previously, the playoffs aren’t the time to limit Dirk’s and Kidd’s minutes to around 38-40 a game. They need to be playing 44-46 a night and that worked out for the Mavs tonight.
Just a great game by everyone involved tonight. The AAC was rocking all night long and it was just fun to watch this team play a game like that. Of course the Mavs are still down 2-1 in the series so I’m going to hold off on getting too excited until the game Sunday, but if they can keep up the energy levels and just all around solid play tonight they can extend this series out to 6 or 7 games.
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25 Responses to “Mavericks Win!”
By Fred Krueger on Apr 25, 2008 at 10:54:50 pm
Right on, Greg.
I’m not going to “drink the Mavs kool-aid” just yet as that one guy puts it but I really dig the adjustments that Avery made tonight. Terry on Paul was awesome and I was just waiting to see paul or West foul out.
These ARE the mavs we should see every night and if we see them again for the rest of the post season we could even have ol Chuck Barkley singing our praises.
We will just have to see if we run back in to Jump Shoot Josh after his celebratory win tonight, “the streaking” Jet or back court Kidd come Sunday.
I think if the Mavs win Sunday they could pull through on Game 5 and surely win game 6 at home. I saw a very stunned and frustrated young NO crew tonight and I am wondering how it will play off in the next few days.
Aspirin and water before bed, Greg.
Go Mavs! Coach to save your career in Dallas, Avery!
By Fred Krueger on Apr 25, 2008 at 10:59:03 pm
Also, what was Paul thinking bowing up to Damp? Damp would beat the hell out of that scrawny idiot…
Kids….
By Slikkster on Apr 25, 2008 at 11:02:24 pm
You fair weather fans are really something! One minute you’re castrating a guy and next minute he’s “Coaching to Save His Career” “Go Mavs”! So all it takes is a W and Avery has fans giving him a BJ.
By FreeDirk on Apr 25, 2008 at 11:24:37 pm
Glad to see the owner of this blog seeing and speaking the truth about Avery’s adjustments tonight. I’m in doubt about Avery, too, but I’m not so set in my opinion that results like tonight won’t sway me. Glad to see that the blog owner is able to respond to real results, as well.
My favorite thing about tonight’s game was how we attacked offensively and exploited their lack of depth by getting guys into foul trouble, in addition to the great defensive adjustments/performances.
Players and coach alike stepped up big tonight. Bravo. Keep it up.
By Fred Krueger on Apr 25, 2008 at 11:41:42 pm
Go to Hornets247.com Slik.
That’s your home. I am far from fairweather. I have always said Go Mavs, you clown. I have been a fan far before I moved to Dallas. Through good and bad.
I said the coaching to save his career because everywhere they were saying that he would lose his job most likely if helost the series. I was in no way agreeing or saying he should stay.
Win or not I don’t think he should stay. He’s very inconsistant.
Hence the “not drinking the Mavs kool-aid” meaning that I’m not saying it’s game over for the Hornets or something ignorant.
I can’t believe I just explained myself to some idiot who has nothing better to do that sit on the blogs of teams he doesn’t like.
GO MAVS!
By JaredNow1 on Apr 25, 2008 at 11:49:54 pm
*****Anyone?????
So I was at the game tonight, awesome…but the reason for this post is this-
*****
I saw some guy wearing a killer Mavs shirt.
He was too far away for me to ask him where he got it so hopefully someone here knows. Can’t find it anywhere on the net….
It’s a black shirt and it says
“MAVERICKS” in the Metallica font/logo!
then underneath it instead of “Kill em All”
it says
“Dirk em All”!!!!
Does anyone know where to find this amazing shirt that I must have?!
By hody12 on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:02:06 am
I just want to know if howard was high when he called that time out during the nba finals!!!
By hody12 on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:02:40 am
at least I won my bet on the mavs tnight at
http://www.knowyourbet.com
That website has been treating me good this nba playoff season!!!
By Richard on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:05:13 am
Where are the Kidd haters at now? The rebound off the missed free throws and the timely steals were just awesome.
Did any one hear Ben and Skin after the game? They said the reason Avery has played Stack, Jones, and Howard in this series is because Avery remembers how good they were when he played. Classic.
By JaredNow1 on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:21:00 am
Yeah, I heard Ben and Skin. They also said (half-joking) that Paul W. is really running the team now. Which I thought was great to hear because Paul W. is in my book the man, and with him on the bench (and even Elie) that makes me a little happier.
By mike on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:48:40 am
Now we know why Josh Howard hasn’t been the same since the NBA Finals… all that damn pot has turned him from an All-Star into an average joe.
Good to see some improvement from the Mavs last night, but a loss on Sunday means the end of the series for us. Here’s hoping Avery goes with the same lineup.
By Sofi on Apr 26, 2008 at 1:30:02 am
so i was at the game too…prolly the only ONE yelling and screaming for the Mavs today…anyone hear a girl curse so much? i was sittin in section 102 and i will have to say that the fans sittin in 124/101 end court SUCKEDDDDD today…like when New Orleans were shooting free throws…only 2 rows were up on their feet…those fans that were in that section tonite…GIVE YOUR TICKETS TO REAL FANS PLEASE! my throat gave out by the end of the game so dont’ come on here and argue that im not a real fan…good effort by the boys today but Howard is an idiot for admitting his pot use!
By mrtwister on Apr 26, 2008 at 7:40:58 am
A job well done on the substitution management by Avery last night. He only made 2 subs in the 1st and 3rd quarters. He gave Stack a chance but he wasn’t cutting it so he sat him back down. Kept Howard out there too, knowing he’s young and could probably handle the extra minutes more than any of the other starters.
Forcing someone else to win the game for them other than Paul and West was good as well. Playing Paul straight up without any gimmicky tricks or defensive strategies makes it harder for NO to combat it as well. Playing him straight up means he’s just gonna have to work harder next game to overcome the closer attention.
Seems like they had more of a flow offensively as well and racking up 38 free throws sounds like the boys took it to them a bit more as well.
Don’t get me wrong, Avery needs to use this win to turn the series around before I’m convinced he’s a legitimate head coach but I think he took some big steps last night. I just hope he doesn’t make any major changes tactic-wise for the next game until he sees what NO come out with. After all, you need to stick with what works until it doesn’t.
By ogleboy on Apr 26, 2008 at 10:47:17 am
that was a good win last night and i hope we can keep that momentum going so we can win this series
By MC on Apr 26, 2008 at 11:57:19 am
What a defensive performance by Dörk!!!
By Rishabh on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:31:10 pm
excellent win, i especially loved seeing JET and DAMP standing up and pushing paul and chandler around. JET got under his skin after paul pushed dirk on the fast break and JET got up in his face. THe foul DAMP committed at the end of the 4th was hilarious. Paul actually went back towards DAMP like he was gonna do something about it and then Chandler pushes DAMP and you could see him saying “man, please” like they could do anything to that Brick wall. Just gotta win sunday n we are good heading back to NO. Get the momentum swing
By mike on Apr 26, 2008 at 5:30:48 pm
Tyson Chandler and David West are thugs. Sorry for stating the obvious, but that’s just become more evident with their behavior in this series…
Let’s rip the Hornets a new one in game 4 tomorrow!!
By JaredNow1 on Apr 26, 2008 at 9:15:33 pm
uh, you left out chris paul. don’t let that fake smile fool you. he’s a thug too. big time. he was ticked off the whole game and acted like a little baby. plus, what nerve to act the way he does when he’s actually hitting.
that’s a team of thugs lead by another thug, and loser, Byron Scott. Can’t stand the hornets. The only guy i like is peja. Saw him shooting around before the game and he missed like 2 shots out of about 50.
By Kirk on Apr 27, 2008 at 12:00:12 am
Hate the Avery, Love the Mavs.
Damp has driven me nuts since the moment he arrived since it seems to be all about focus for him. However, one thing that can’t be contested is that he is in the top 10 of “NBA Players I Don’t Want to Piss Off”. Frankly, a good hard shot by a man that big and strong can end the career of any small person like Paul. Or even a 7′1″ twig like Tyson Chanandler Bong. I know everyone has to man up and defend their team mates, but that smile by Damp after the foul was so creepy I def wouldn’t mess with him. Got Paul back for those blantent shoves in the back from earlier in the game
By Elraptor on Apr 27, 2008 at 12:07:39 am
About time.
By drew on Apr 27, 2008 at 7:53:29 am
Damp’s shove I think to Paul was their answer to West all up in Dirk’s face, tapping it. You mess with our star, we’ll mess with your star.
By WyldMavsFan on Apr 27, 2008 at 10:45:51 am
we did win the game, and Avery did do a better coaching job, but where was the effort and adjustsment for game 2. Why does it take Avery an extra game to figure what other coaches can do in one half or one game.
The thing that still worries me is the start of the 2nd quarter, he still takes Dirk and Kidd out at the same time and we always took lost on offense. 1 of them should always be in the game at all times. Just watch, Avery will do is for a 4th game in a row, b/c we won game 3, we won’t make any adjustments for game 4, and that is when everyone is going to say Avery sucks again.
Like I said before, he did coach a better game, much better, but you know that needs to still make some adjustments, I mean, NO shot the ball terrible, and we only won by 10, so Avery still needs to make some adjustments.
I did like how Avery shortened the bench, but again, why does it take him 2 games to see this crap, that’s way to long if you want to win this series.
Dirk is the man, he needs to touch the ball everytime down the court, push the ball, a limit the isos to Howard, and we are good to go
By avery.supporter on Apr 27, 2008 at 10:32:03 pm
Leave Avery alone. What percentage of the comments left are by people that have actually played a real game of basketball. No playing at 24 hr fitness is not real basketball. Clueless!!!