Heard It Through the OMG DIRK SCORED 29 POINTS IN THE FOURTH QUARTER Grapevine

Posted by Rob Mahoney on November 4, 2009 under The Grapevine | 7 Comments to Read

• Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune: “For all the available options to slowing a player on an (admittedly) unstoppable roll, the Jazz seemingly explored few alternatives, not even mustering a token hard foul. They stuck with Okur and Carlos Boozer on Nowitzki, even with Andrei Kirilenko and Paul Millsap offering other options. Kyrylo Fesenko even matched up against Nowitzki in the first half and seemed to frustrate him with his size and physicality. The Jazz also opted not to double-team Nowitzki upon catching the ball or all-out denying him the ball in the first place. Sloan said he thought the Jazz would leave shooters open by double-teaming and that Nowitzki would get the ball no matter how much denying. …Okur said he could have done more to try to deny Nowitzki the ball and that he was making a concerted effort to pressure Nowitzki at the top of the floor, to avoid giving him open looks at the kind of jumpers he torched the Jazz with last season. …The Jazz additionally could have considered a zone defense, to at least deny Nowitzki those easy drives down the lane. They could have given Nowitzki different looks with different defenders, hanging and draping themselves all over the former NBA MVP. Anything to break his rhythm, including calling timeouts. In contrast to Dallas coach Rick Carlisle, who called one timeout Tuesday after his team gave up consecutive baskets, Sloan is not predisposed the same way.”
• Mark Cuban on Dirk’s performance (via Evan Grant): “Best [I've seen] in a regular season [game] by far.”
• Proposed trade in Jazz-land: Carlos Boozer for a can of tuna.
• Click here to see the visual representation of Dirk going NOVA.
• But if you’re more of a reader, Matt Moore explains just how impressive Dirk’s performance was: “[Dirk]’s release point is so high it’s insane to think he’s ever been blocked. It’s like lining up a missile. But tonight, that was just part of it. He was unconscious, which is a key element of going Nova. You have to have that flow where you’re just scoring. Not thinking, not analyzing, not deciding, just getting buckets. And Nowitzki did everything. Random loose ball ends up in his hands for a fading three? Yes. Slide off the off-ball screen and grab the inlet pass off the glass? Indeed. Stop pull-ups with a little bit of fade in the key? Danke. You almost half to feel bad for the Jazz. Almost. 29 points in the fourth quarter, 40 points total, with 5 blocks. And a reminder that when Nowitzki is in that zone, that level, he can take a game that you feel is on lockdown to absolute disaster. Don’t look away. It’ll hurt more if you don’t see it coming.”
• Rick Carlisle on Dirk’s performance (via Eddie Sefko): “I put it up there with a lot of the stuff [Larry] Bird pulled off. …And some of the all-time greats. It was just phenomenal. And the rest of the guys knew where to get the ball and how to feed off him. It was something to behold.”
• InsideCorner, D Magazine’s sports blog, is no longer with us. Frown town.
• But InsideCorner alum Zac Crain did hijack D’s FrontBurner blog to drop the most topical 2006 quote you’re likely to read this season.
• Mike Fisher puts a spotlight on the difference between the Mavs of this year and yesteryear: “The evidence is clear: Last year’s team shot well enough to win 50. … but used its shooting ability as a crutch, and when its shot failed it, Dallas lost. [With] Team Carlisle 2.0, and the early evidence [is] that the Mavs can push, shove, grind, grit, run, hustle and plow their way to wins even while clanging their shots.”