GAME 76 - @DAL Preview and Open Thread

by John R on Apr 9, 2007 12:39 PM PDT Comment 1 comment

So you say you want a win in Dallas. The Dallas Mavericks don't lose often. Let's take a look at the few ways to beat them.

Loss #
Method
Probability of Success

1-4
Get up pretty early in the morning.
0%. Even though the Mavericks waited until Game 5 this season to wake up, they are awake and alert now.

5
Play excellent Wizar*s defense and have your star score 38 points on 27 shots. Oh, out rebound the Mavs too.
0%. My best guess is someone in DC poisoned the Mavs. Since this game is in Dallas this option appears to be off the table.

6, 7
Catch them as a clicking, veteran team while the Mavs are in a heavy stretch of games with travel.
20%. The Clippers are clicking, and moderately veteran. They are also reasonably rested while the Mavs are going through a moderate stretch. Shouldn't be enough to deter them at home.

8
Be the Lakers at home on national television where somehow anything is possible.
0%. In the scheme of NBA Globetrotters and Generals, the Clippers are still far down on the Generals slider. Expect no magical help. Ever.

9
Catch them at home and be a lockdown defensive squad.
35%. The Clippers can be lockdown on defense, but again this one is in Dallas.

10, 12
Be a run-them-out-the-building squad and catch them at home on the second night of a back-to-back and riding a 9+game win streak.
0%. None of that applies. At all.

11
Be a fast team and catch them coming off loss #10 and drag it out to overtime.
0%. No help there.

13
Catch them at home with a hobbled Nowitzki. Don't think that made it easy.
10%-40%. If his ankle isn't 100%, its at least something. In the ballet of the NBA season winding down, who knows how real those injuries are to Dirk and Howard.

Here's some things that are 100%:

The Clippers need TT to be healthy.
The Clippers need a lockdown defensive effort.
Everyone, especially Kaman, must show up.
There can be no extended offensive lapse.

Or just write the whole thing off and save energy for tomorrow vs NOK.

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This one is sort of winnable, kind of..

but not much, really.

Cat Mobley played Bruce Bowen defense on Dirk in the first matchup of the year. The Clips won big. Cat is in that shut em down zone right now. MDSr. would be crazy to try putting Kaman on Dirk, so I expect we will see Kaman guarding Dirk anyway.

The Mavs, I don't get. Why are they so good? Aside from Dirk, they have Howard, who, while being a very complete player, is not a guy you can turn to when you need some points, and Terry, who is John Starks without the hops. Diop/Dampier are big middle men, but can be easily had, and the bench is ok (Stack/Croshere/George) but nothing to write home about.

So I think that Avery is the key. His winning percentage as a coach is ridiculous. He did everything in his power to bring a championship home to Dallas. What was not in his power was putting a muzzle on his stupid owner, who was too busy complaining about conspiracy. All Cuban did was give his players an excuse to phone it in, which after two games of having Shaq and Zo beat on them down-low (Riley ball), they were more than happy to do.

I was really turned off by the interview while working out on the stair-stepper before Game 6. How arrogant. Why not just do the interview from the toilet?

That, of course, is in addition to an MJ like performance by Dwayne Wade, who, with Shaq's help, did what Kobe never could, which was be "the guy". I swear Shaq was giving Kobe the bird as he handed the MVP trophy to Wade.

Now you know how I feel about the Mavs. I used to root for them when I lived in Dallas. That was during the Derek Harper/Brad Davis/Rolando Blackman/Sam Donaldson/Sam Perkins/Mark Aguire days, and drifted into the Triple J's days, before Toni Braxton undid all of that. Cuban bought the team as I moved to Cali and adopted the LAC.

A first round preview? Go Clips!

by mp on Apr 9, 2007 4:12 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs