Heard It Through the Grapevine

Posted by admin on April 19, 2010 under The Grapevine | Read the First Comment

• With 36 points on  12-14 shooting (12-12 FT), Dirk Nowitzki enters very select company for scoring efficiency in a playoff game.
• Gil LeBreton of the Star-Telegram on Popovich’s defensive strategy: “To all who wondered what would happen if, for whatever silly reason, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich chose to defend Dirk Nowitzki one on one, the answer came with near-perfect resonance… “Well, you know, they had scorers last year too.” Popovich explained later. “You pick your poison…” Popovich rolled the dice and it came out 36. Wrong poison.”
• Spurs guard George Hill was benched after 18 scoreless minutes but claims his ankle feels fine.
• Popovich calls out his supporting cast: “We’ve got to have a few more people step up and play worth a damn, I thought we had a lot of guys that played like dogs.”
• Jason Terry plans on losing the protective face mask for good. With just 5 points on 2-9 shooting though, maybe he should put it back on.
• Mentor Holger Geschwindner on Dirk’s brilliant performance (via Jeff Caplan): “He missed a shot, we’re working on it.”
• Caron Butler talks playoffs on his blog The Real Juice: “Here I am in the playoffs, I’m two years removed from my last postseason appearance and it feels great to be making another appearance… I’m here in Dallas with an actual title contender… and we are on the road to a championship. First victim… San Antonio.”
• Jason Kidd expects Tony Parker to start in Game 2.

Supplementary bullets from Mahoney:

• Sebastian Pruiti broke down two critical late-game possessions for the Mavs, both of which I noted in my recap: JET’s assist to Jason Kidd for an open three, and Kidd returning the favor after the Spurs tried to throw two defenders at Nowitzki. Great stuff from Sebastian, as usual.
• Nothing to do with basketball, much less the Mavs, but here’s an interesting traced history of our link list’s namesake (via ShareBro Matt Moore).
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie looks ahead to Game 2 in his typically excellent Behind the Box Score: “Of course, even with Dirk going off, a massive (25 to 12 makes) free throw advantage, and a good turn on the offensive glass, the Mavericks only won by six points, at home. Is that score closer than the game actually was? Sure, but you get the feeling that double teams will be in the offing next time around, and that Caron Butler and/or Shawn Marion’s jump shot will be the one on display in Game 2.”
• Dirk Nowitzki turned Peter Holt into Mark Cuban.
• Andrew A. McNeil of 48 Minutes of Hell diagnosed the Spurs’ turnover problems as the key to their demise, despite the misleadingly small turnover margin.