Mavs-Hornets Game 3

April 25th, 2008 Posted in Avery Johnson, Mavs Talk

This is a must win for the Mavericks tonight if they have any hope of winning this series.  According to Avery on Norm’s show Wednesday Jason Terry will be getting the start tonight.  It’ll be interesting to see what else he has planned to contain Chris Paul tonight.

Eddie Sefko has a column up about where the blame will go if the Mavs don’t win this series.

For Avery Johnson and the Mavericks, their plight going into tonight’s all-important Game 3 against New Orleans is a vivid illustration of the thin line separating players and coaches in the blame game.

On one side, the players are the only ones who can truly impact a game. On the other side, the coach, management and ownership decided on which players to get and are responsible for putting players in position to succeed.

This is where the Mavericks are right now. And the bottom line is if both sides don’t pull together, they can all get together for one long look in the mirror to see why they won’t get past the first round.

The AAC will be banging and the Hornets haven’t won a game there since ‘99 (I think, that’s off the top of my head, I know it’s been a while).  I’ll be there watching the game so it’ll probably be tomorrow before I get a reaction post up.

Go Mavs!


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  1. 21 Responses to “Mavs-Hornets Game 3”

  2. By drew on Apr 25, 2008 at 1:54:19 pm

    I read it’s been since 98 since the Hornets won at Dallas.

  3. By WyldMavsFan on Apr 25, 2008 at 4:35:21 pm

    I BELIEVE

  4. By you talkin' to me?! on Apr 25, 2008 at 4:40:58 pm

    Hornets will finally win in Dallas but Avery won’t run out of vapid, uninsightful anecdotes.

    He’s probably a decent guy, but undoubtedly he’s always had to get by on a certain degree of faux-confidence to compensate for other deficiencies. That confidence has morphed into an unintentional arrogance as he begins to realize that he’s lost, not merely the game, but his way as a coach.

  5. By T on Apr 25, 2008 at 4:43:11 pm

    Go Mavs. I hope to see something to give me faith in this team again. I hope tonight there is a little light bulb above Avery’s head that goes off and he figures out how to coach, adjust and motivate in the playoffs. I would not mind seeing Avery for the next ten years if he will learn and adjust rather than just seeing how much he can yell and strut up and down the court. If not then FIRE AVERY !! Trade Howard to Indiana so he can be back with his buddy Marquis and they can party all the time and spare it up on the court. Play JoHo in the first half and bench him for the rest of the game. He has nothing in the second half so why have him out there?

  6. By Dave B on Apr 25, 2008 at 7:34:29 pm

    Seriously, Josh Howard is just out of it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was high right now. He just doesn’t care.

  7. By mrtwister on Apr 25, 2008 at 7:37:29 pm

    7 points up. I know, rest Kidd and Nowitzki?

  8. By tani on Apr 25, 2008 at 8:10:40 pm

    Can someone explain to me the following decisions by Avery?

    1. Why is he running so many plays for Josh Howard? He is lost and can’t even catch the ball. I haven’t seen a single play called for Dirk.

    2. Why on earth do you bench both Kidd and Dirk when when you are +7? They lost their lead in a few minutes. They should have been up +15 at halftime. Can’t he see that they cannot create plays if both Kidd and Dirk are on the bench?

    This guy is an idiot.

  9. By T on Apr 25, 2008 at 8:13:24 pm

    Josh Howard fried all of his brain. He is not the same player he used to be. He only has one move. Shake to the left, right, left, right, left, right and then pull up a jump shot. That is all he does and could care less about doing more.

  10. By T on Apr 25, 2008 at 8:17:46 pm

    Avery is an Idiot for sure. He played Howard the most minutes on the team while he went 3-11 from the field.

  11. By drew on Apr 25, 2008 at 8:26:25 pm

    Well, one reason you bench starters is they get tired. It’s only the 2nd quarter, you want them to last the whole game or lose all the got by half time?

    And as for Josh Howard. Stupid he talked about his drug use on the radio. Who gives a shit about that though. I seriously doubt he’s high while on the court and it doesn’t even factor into his bad playing recently. Josh Howard isn’t the only NBA or sports player to use drugs and won’t be the last. But that’s his personal life and his business.

  12. By MFFL on Apr 25, 2008 at 8:26:59 pm

    What will bring me more joy than seeing Avery go after they lose this series?
    J-Ho following close behind.
    Seriously, if anyone is going to the next game, make a sign that says “J-Ho needs to Go!!!”
    And then chat “Fire Avery!” while you’re at it. Please!!!

  13. By drew on Apr 25, 2008 at 8:32:52 pm

    MFFL,

    I think Greg who runs this site even thinks those who want to go to the game to only boo and heckle Avery or any other player looks down upon such negativity. Grow up already or should we show up with signs at your work and chant to have you fired?

  14. By mrtwister on Apr 25, 2008 at 9:02:12 pm

    It seems Avery is doing a better job keeping his subs tight. No random minutes here and there for deep bench players but keeping his main guys on the court as much as possible. Are they playing Paul straight up tonight?

  15. By camaro32 on Apr 25, 2008 at 9:07:28 pm

    I hope that nobody is letting Pargo’s play fool them. Kidd is just old and can’t keep up on D. CP3 lit Kidd up and now Pargo is. I think Byron Scott is pretty smart to recognize that ANYBODY Kidd is guarding gives the Hornets a favored mismatch.

  16. By T on Apr 25, 2008 at 9:52:10 pm

    Josh Howard = Roy Tarpley with less size and talent

  17. By FreeDirk on Apr 25, 2008 at 9:58:32 pm

    Howard’s shot was still absent, but HE showed up tonight. His hustle was great, his contribution to the team defense was great, and he seemed to have some fire again. He logged alot of minutes because he played well defensively and is a young guy who can give you lots of minutes.

    To the Avery-haters and Avery-lovers alike (I’ve been on the fence):

    More of what I saw tonight will pull me over to the Avery-lover side. No one can argue that his defensive adjustments tonight weren’t great, and made the momentum difference in the game. Dirk was a monster, as usual, but especially so tonight. Terry’s passion was refreshing, as was his shooting. But most importantly, the switch to Terry guarding Paul was the big difference-maker tonight.

    Hate Avery or love him, you cannot argue that his defensive game plan didn’t work exceptionally well tonight. We’ll see what happens in Game 4.

    Oh, and where is that Richard guy?? The one who said Dirk can’t dominate games…

    HEY DUDE, HOW ABOUT 32 PTS, 19 REB, 6 AST, AND 2 BLOCKS? If that’s not dominating, please tell me what is.

  18. By FreeDirk on Apr 25, 2008 at 10:13:33 pm

    Wow. Kinda lonely here on Fireavery.com tonight, ain’t it?

  19. By ndnballer on Apr 25, 2008 at 10:21:00 pm

    No matter how much we hate avery, we have to give him props. He really made some great adjustments on the defensive side. And as for dirk, hes been dominating this whole series, but tonight he was AMAZING. He filled up pretty much every category.

  20. By selke99 on Apr 25, 2008 at 10:29:12 pm

    Pargo pretty much lit up anyone who was guarding him. Kidd played great tonight. That anle of Dirks must be feeling fine! He played the whole 2nd half.

  21. By FreeDirk on Apr 25, 2008 at 11:01:24 pm

    Avery’s defensive adjustments were spot-on. Pargo had the hot hand tonight, which was one of the great results of the defensive strategy.

    Avery figured out how to minimize Paul’s, West’s, and Chandler’s effectiveness tonight, and Terry, Kidd, Bass, Damp, and - yes - Dirk executed the plan beautifully.

    Pargo had the open looks. That seems like it was the plan. Someone’s going to get open looks, and coach and players worked together brilliantly tonight to make sure it wasn’t one of the three guys that really gets that N.O. team going.

    I’ve felt that our defensive woes were mostly attributable to Avery’s strategy, but the offensive woes were on the players’ shoulders (except Dirk, of course).

    Tonight, everybody who got significant PT was active, aggressive, and took care of the ball on offense. We forced the ball into the paint (FINALLY!), which is the way to exploit N.O.’s greatest weakness: their lack of depth.

    Getting the ball into the paint forces them to foul, which gets their hands tied later in the game. They can’t be as aggressive, because they really only have 7 players to work with. That was one of the keys to tonight’s victory.

  22. By camaro32 on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:46:47 am

    ndnballer- Avery made some great adjustments tonight, but unfortunately, the Mavs are suffering because Avery takes two full games to figure out what a quality coach would realize in 1/2 quarter of play. That’s pretty annoying. We shouldn’t be down 2-1 but Avery is an idiot and some other good coach probably felt sorry for him and called him before game 3 to explain (in about 30 seconds) what Avery needs to change.

    Regardless, hopefully this is the start of something great and we swing some momentum and win this series. Go Mavs…and Go Cowboys in the draft tomorrow!

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