The Mavs’ game against the Warriors may seem like ancient history at this point, but there’s still plenty to glean from the loss. Despite all of their defensive improvements, the Mavs have shown two different shades of defensive failure against quick point guards (Monta Ellis, Chris Paul). Though other speedy guards have been contained, Ellis’ performance against the Mavs was a reminder that there’s still plenty of work to be done on the defensive end. In this installment of Moving Pictures, we’ll examine exactly what went wrong against the Warriors, point a few fingers on who’s to blame, and hopefully take away some possible adjustments for the future.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on November 26, 2009 under News | View Comments
No recaps, or previews, or posts of any kind for a spell; I’ve got to see a man about a turkey, and then I’ve got to see the back of my eyelids about some hibernation. Come back on Monday for fun, fun, fun, and hopefully some new video.
None of this works without you guys, so thanks for spending a bit of your days here with me and the Mavs. Enjoy your time with friends, family, football, the early morning shopping crowds, or, for you out of country types, a steady wage.
Wednesday is Hump Day, and here at The Two Man Game, we’ll celebrate every Wednesday with a random picture, quote, or miscellaneous bit of trivia concerning Kris ‘Hump’ Humphries.
Dirk Nowitzki on last night’s loss (via Tim MacMahon): “There are good losses and there are bad losses, and this is definitely a bad one…We just didn’t have it down the stretch. We were a step slow. Offensively, we looked lost. Defensively, they could get to the basket any time they wanted to and they hit some timely 3s. But it’s really our fault.”
Whatever the opposite of a ’silver lining’ is, Eddie Sefko may have found it: “They were going against a Warriors team that used only six players. Yet they got beat to every loose ball in the fourth quarter and couldn’t keep up with the Warriors’ motion offense. Worse, the Mavericks had to use all their heavy lifters for long, exhausting stretches. That certainly will have an impact on their legs at some point tonight in Houston.”
Adam Lauridsen of Fast Break chimes in with the difference between the Stephen Jackson/Corey Maggette-led Warriors and the younger, more energetic model we saw last night: “With Jackson or Maggette on the court (and Nelson on the sideline), the response to the second-half adversity would have likely been to pound the ball in one or two mismatches while everyone else stood around. Instead, with Jackson gone and Maggette and Nelson out, Smart had the team stick with a simple attack — let Monta look for early shot-clock seams in the defense, and provide safety valves at the three point arc in the form of Morrow, Curry, and Radmanovic. The plan hit some rough patches, but it ultimately proved to be enough to bring home the win.”
Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie has a fair assessment of last night’s perimeter dynamics: “With just six players on hand, while playing its fourth game in five nights, the Warriors looked as fresh and as active as they’ve looked in years. The ball movement was spot on, heaps of extra passes, and Golden State worked a quickness advantage. Actually, the Warriors didn’t really blow past the slower Maverick backcourt. It just turned out that Monta Ellis (37 points, eight assists, four steals, 11 turnovers; seriously) and Stephen Curry (18 points, six assists) went nuts on the Dallas D.”
“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret of disappointment.”
-Jim Rohn
Somehow it’s only fitting that when the Mavs are on the cusp of elite status, some familiar demons push them down a peg. I couldn’t care less that they were wearing Warriors uniforms, but yet again, quick point guards had their way with the Dallas defense time and time again, and the results were downright depressing.
Nothing in this game quite turned out as it should. That much should have been certain from the opening tip, when the probable turned questionable turned out Shawn Marion found his way to the bench in a suit. That much should have been certain when the normally careful, deliberate Mavs offense was turning the ball over just for fun. That much should have been certain when the impressive Mavs defense suddenly collapsed on itself rather than on penetration, and when I was begging for Dallas to pick up someone, anyone, in transition. What should have been an easy win over an undermanned team turned out an ugly loss to just six players, and if that didn’t keep each and every Maverick up last night with nightmares of Monta Ellis layups, then we have a problem.
The first half was just sloppy basketball on both ends, which you can live with provided the Mavs show some second half intensity. But despite having a deeper roster and more talented personnel, Dallas very much looked the part of the inferior team for the latter half of the game. The offense was completely out of sorts by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, with the Warriors’ maniacal defensive strategy disrupting the Mavs’ flow plenty. It wasn’t as if Radmanovic was playing stellar defense on Dirk, or that the Warrior guards were locking down Terry; Golden State’s team defense (I know, it surprises me to type this as much as it surprises you to read it) just forced turnovers with help, double teams, and some sleight of hand (creating the illusion of a passing lane when there, in fact, was none).
The numbers don’t properly reflect just how out of sorts Dallas was when it mattered most, but Jason Terry’s infuriating turnover with the Mavs down four and just under a minute to play (video forthcoming) epitomized the night spectacularly. JET and Dirk, two machines created for the sole purposes of putting a ball in a hoop with no unexpected hiccups, combined for nine turnovers. Nine. As in, the titular Plan from Outer Space. The thing seven ate. Just to put things in perspective, before last night, Nowitzki and Terry combined to average just 3.2 turnovers per game.
The defense, as I mentioned before, was an abomination and hopefully an aberration. Though the Warriors themselves had plenty of turnovers, they more than made up for them with frequent and effective drives to the basket as well as the sweet outside shooting of Anthony Morrow (6-8 3FG) and Stephen Curry (2-4 3FG). Morrow simply had one of those games where you’re shocked to see any misses at all in the box score, as his confidence level and on-court positioning were pitch perfect. All the while, Monta Ellis had his way with just about every Maverick defender, in particular exploiting J.J. Barea on the left side of the zone defense. The only Mavs player that showed any effectiveness in guarding Ellis was rookie Rodrigue Beaubois, who managed to slow Ellis on a few drives while the Mavs were in man-to-man sets. Otherwise, the perimeter defense was a turnstyle, the rotation D nonexistent, and the interior D simply a means to the end of an Ellis three point play.
This loss isn’t the end of the world, but it should sting like hell. And it’s a shame, too. Dirk Nowitzki had an excellent night scoring the ball (28 points on 9-18 shooting), despite only getting a few touches during the game’s crucial closing stretch (Dirk had just three shot attempts in the fourth, none over the final 4:28). Jason Kidd (13 assists, 10 rebounds) had a spectacular night offensively, even if he had trouble with the quickness of the Warriors defensively. And Drew Gooden (14 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks) again filled in well for the ill Erick Dampier, providing the low post scoring the Mavs have always lacked against Golden State. But it was all for naught, and worse, the momentum the Mavs had been building over the last five games has essentially been shattered.
Closing thoughts:
File this game away as Exhibit A for why Rodrigue Beaubois should be eating into J.J. Barea’s minutes. Though Barea’s +/- on the night isn’t bad at all, he was clearly the weakest point of the Mavs’ D last night, and as such, the entry point for a lot of Golden State’s drives.
I’m a bit surprised we didn’t see more James Singleton, especially considering Quinton Ross missed the entire second half with back issues. The Mavs missed Ross’ D (and Marion’s, and Howard’s, for that matter), and probably could have used Singleton’s energy at either forward spot to ditch the woefully ineffective three guard lineup.
Tim Thomas is playing pretty well. I haven’t seen anything to worry about in terms of his shot selection or defensive intensity, though his mobility is pretty clearly limited by that knee injury. He looks rusty, but he’s still converting from the post and got his first look at a made three last night. Once the real, healthy rotation falls into place, I definitely see a few minutes for Thomas.
GOLD STAR OF THE NIGHT: The Gold Star of the Night Goes to…I won’t even bother.
Despite early indications that Shawn Marion would play tonight, he’s still questionable for tonight’s game according to Rick Carlisle (via Eddie Sefko). Here’s to hoping he gets a little burn against the defenseless Dubs.
There also has yet to be a conclusive timetable set for Josh Howard’s return, and Erick Dampier’s mystery illness continues to keep him out of the lineup and has not been cleared to practice yet.
But at least it’s another fair(ish?) fight, as the Warriors will be without Kelenna Azubuike, Raja Bell, Andris Biedrins, Devean George (a huge loss), Ronny Turiaf, C.J. Watson, Brandan Wright, and Corey Maggette. The Mavs are missing two or three starters, the Warriors are missing a platoon. Only fair, right?
The Golden State Warriors visit the Dallas Mavericks
7:30 CST
Don Nelson, Papa Bear of the chaotic entity that is the Golden State Warriors, has a complex relationship with his players. So complex, in fact, that I get the distinct feeling that he enjoys throwing everything into the fire just to see if it’ll burn. He ordains Monta Ellis the point guard of the future for the Dubs, just before openly bashing Ellis’ game and drafting Steph Curry to take his job. He hands Stephen Jackson an oversized check and smiles for the photo op, and then can’t manage to appease his team’s most talented player when all goes to hell. He drafts Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph, lauds their high ceilings and shiny chandeliers, and then digs them a hole under the bench. He’s not a simple man, that Nelson, and claiming to understand him is, in itself, an act of considerable arrogance.
So I won’t bother. I don’t know what caused Nelson to do all of those things, or what led him to believe Antoine Walker would work out as a point-center, or why he decided one morning to hand the team to Avery Johnson. But I do know that Nellie, for all of his glory as an unconventional offensive mastermind, has marred his time with the Warriors by making mistake after mistake after mistake. Any magic that the bay once had is long since gone, and the heroes of “We Believe” have been chased from the city limits by an angry Nellie and his torch. It’s not Nelson’s fault that the team’s design was flawed, or that Baron Davis or Stephen Jackson gave in to their lesser, more selfish instincts. But is is Nelson’s fault that Chris Mullin is now an outcast, and it’s on Nelson that this team disintegrated in a truly spectacular fashion. That’s item 1-A in Nellie’s playbook, and the only reason Dallas was spared was because of a strong team infrastructure, a stable talent base, and an owner with enough dislike for Nelson (by the end of his tenure, anyway) that he simply refused to let it happen.
But on occasion, even the deranged antics of a self-involved diva of a coach are at the mercy of basketball’s supernatural forces. Enough was enough, and though the people of Warrior Nation have yet to be relieved of Nelson entirely, they were granted one small token by destiny itself: Anthony Randolph.
In a way, Randolph was the ultimate tease. He redefined summer league dominance, carrying his momentum into the regular season with all the fanfare a depressed fan base could muster…and began the season with the resounding boom of just ten minutes of playing time. A team so desperate for big men that they employ Mikki Moore, and there were so few minutes to be had for perhaps the team’s brightest young star.
But over time, fate has forced Nelson’s hand. Foul trouble. Injuries. More Injuries. A few more injuries, just for kicks. And now the Warriors are essentially eight deep, and that’s if you’re willing to count the contributions of Moore and Chris Hunter. It’s the perfect opportunity for Randolph to break free of the stockades, and though his versatile game and bizarre gait don’t infuse the Warriors with a sense of order or purpose, sometimes it’s enough just to get one fan off the ledge. Nellie has tried his damnedest to keep this franchise in a box since 2007, and though Randolph is impressive enough to be notable without being earth-shattering, it’s a bit tricky to fit a 6′11” frame and that much game into such rigid confines.
It’s sad to see the once beloved Don Nelson of old become nothing more than the crabby old man next door. Especially so when you consider that Randolph, a lanky, unconventional, and talented big man, is the prime target of his tirades. How might things have turned out differently for the Mavs if Nellie took the same approach eleven years ago with a lanky, unconventional, and talented Maverick big man? Nellie was probably the best guy for the job of properly unshelling Dirk Nowitzki, and though his reputation isn’t quite what it used to be, that relationship was a bit of serendipity for the Mavs organization. Dirk simply isn’t Dirk without the opportunities and teachings that were afforded him by Nelson, and as an appreciator of fine talent and strange, versatile combo forwards, I can only hope that Randolph is given a bit of the same.
I’d love to grandstand, and tell you that Dirk has completely revolutionized his game, reinvented himself, or even gone back to basics. But in truth, this season’s Dirk Nowitzki has just another very good version of Dirk Nowitzki. There was no renaissance, just Dirk doing what Dirk does, even if in slightly different ways from before.
Nowitzki is an improved defender, but two factors of that improvement leave Dirk with the “defensive liability” label glued to his back. For one, Dirk’s advances on the defensive end were incremental, essentially beginning with the Avery Johnson era. For two, Dirk didn’t make a sudden leap in eye-popping defensive displays (a la LeBron), but instead made subtle modifications to his technique and increased his defensive awareness. That’s the kind of adjustment that comes from hours in the gym and the film room, and though Dirk will never be Kevin Garnett, he’s become a perfectly competent (and sometimes downright impressive, as he was against Tim Duncan in overtime last week) defender on one of the best defensive teams in the league. On that end of the court, Dirk is exactly where he needs to be: moving his feet, challenging shots, staying out of foul trouble, and making a difference.
On offense, the biggest modification of Dirk’s game is a natural expansion of his mid-range game. Nowitzki no longer seems reluctant to shoot 3s, opting for the benefit of that extra point when open. But even more impressive is Dirk’s increased shot attempts going to the basket, up from 3.2 attempts at the rim per game over the last three years (3.2, 3.1, and 3.2 respectively) to 3.9 per game this season, and a welcome bump in his free throw attempts as a result.
All that said, Dirk’s adaptations on the offensive end are more a matter of need than a desire to diversify his game. While I hardly doubt Dirk’s commitment to becoming a complete player, Nowitzki is desperately trying to jump-start his shooting in the best ways he knows how: by building his confidence with open 3-pointers, putting the ball on the floor, and getting to the foul line. Those are the reasons why Dirk is averaging a career high in points per game (26.9), despite shooting his lowest percentage from the field since his rookie season (.444). Not because Dirk has suddenly decided to radically change his game, but because Nowitzki’s bread and butter, mid-range jumpers, have gone sour. The attempts are the same but the results are significantly different. On jumpers ranging from 10-23 feet (which account for 12.7 out of Dirk’s 20.6 field goal attempts on a per game basis), Dirk is shooting just 41.7%, a far cry from his 48.4% last season. If anything in Dirk’s game was a given, it was those shots finding net on a fairly regular basis. Remove that given, and Nowitzki is thrust into a twisted Darwinian basketball experiment, left to his own devices, wits, and adaptive abilities to fend against the cruelties of nature. It’s survival of the fittest on hardwood, and Dirk is not only surviving, but thriving.
And as so often is the case, as Dirk goes, so do the Mavs. The defensive effort and focus has been there all season, but the Mavs’ offensive woes closely resemble Nowitkzi’s. But despite being in the bottom third of the league in terms of field goal percentage, the “new” Mavs dig deeper and deeper into their old selves, unearthing not new tricks, but deep-seated resolve. It’s the same resolve that guided the Mavs through their regular season and playoff successes, simply sparked anew by a different coach and a different system, and catalyzed by a few personnel changes.
This team, this 10-3, division-leading, world-beating, conference-eliting basketball team, is Dirk Nowitzki’s. The team’s success has coincided with building strengths of Dirk’s supposed weaknesses (defense, shot selection, clutch play, the last of which I scoff at). But despite Dirk’s tremendous play and the Mavs’ relatively surprising start, Nowitzki still has a hard time sharing a sentence with the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, or Dwyane Wade. Nevermind the fact that Dirk’s Mavs have faced injuries to three starters (besting Kobe’s Lakers), overcome a slow start to their offense (besting LeBron’s Cavs), and faced some pretty decent competition (besting Wade’s Heat). Nevermind the fact that Dirk is doing the impossible, leading an offensively-skewed team on a defensive rampage, succeeding in spite of his own and his team’s poor shooting, and unseating the Western Conference powers in the process.
This isn’t even about a head pat in the MVP race, or the glaring black and white elephant in the room. It’s just about Dirk Nowitzki and the respect he deserves. Not merely for contributions in seasons past, but for currently heightening his already extraordinary value under some fairly bizarre circumstances. You may not win the argument that Nowitzki has been the best player in the NBA this season, but there certainly is an argument. Name your criteria and Dirk delivers, whether it’s punching in ridiculous scoring numbers, creating opportunities for his teammates, or playing tough interior defense. Nowitzki has gone to work silencing the critics. But amidst all the deafening silence, I ask a simple question: where are the superlatives?
Drew Gooden insists that his big game against the Spurs wasn’t a personal statement (via Tim MacMahon): “Not at all…From the day I got there to the day I left, I knew it was all business. That’s a great group of guys over there. I enjoyed playing with them and trying to make a playoff run with those guys. …But this is a business. I had to move on. Now, I switched sides to the team that beat us. Spurs fans don’t like it too much, but it wasn’t my choice.” That last sentence may sound strange, but Drew has a very valid point, one that I wish Mavs fans would have taken to heart in 2006. The Spurs decided to move in a different direction, and chose not to re-sign Gooden. In the same vein, the Mavs decided to move in a different direction, and chose to cut Michael Finley. Considering the circumstances, does it really make sense to declare either a turncoat? Especially Finley, whose years of playing his ass off for a miserable Dallas team were forgotten with a quick change of clothes?
Dirk has scored 30+ against the Spurs 10 times in his career, third to only Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson.
Dirk Nowitzki, on the difference between this year’s start and last year’s start (via Art Garcia): “Last year coming into camp, after Avery, we focused so much on offense, opening up the offense, let [Jason] Kidd run a lot of stuff…This year we said screw that. We’re going to do all defense. We worked a lot of defense and it’s really paid off early, but now the offense is slacking a little bit.”
D Magazine’s Zac Crain has gone above and beyond to create the most comprehensive history of Dirk to date. It starts with a bang, as Crain’s introduction carefully appraises Nowitzki in the contexts of basketball and the city of Dallas. It’s a refreshing combination of breadth and depth, as the key points in Dirk’s career are put under the microscope by teammates, coaches, friends, journalists, and Dirk himself. It’s the most interesting Mavs-related waxing you’ve read all week (month? season?), and it’s well worth the journey to venture through the piece in its entirety.
A few things (among plenty of others) to look forward to:
Dirk and Steve Nash talk about the pictures. Yeah, thosepictures.
Understanding young Dirk as a frame of of reference and a contrast point to the sure, confident star in Dallas today.
View Comments 
