The Two Man Game - Latest Comments

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 103, Dallas Mavericks 97

Andrew — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:06:36 -0000

I am definitely upset that we were ousted in the first round but maybe you are being a little tough on the ownership. Mark Cuban has spent alot of money to keep this team a championship contender for a decade now. He gave Dirk the pieces to win a champioship and, with that end in mind, he is taking a calculated risk. Realizing how old this team is, Cuban is rightly thinking about the future. We have to ask how long Chandler can remian an elite defensive player, he is in his 30's. What happens when we sign him to a six-year contract and then in 2 or 3 years he turns into Brendan Haywood?

That being said, I would have liked Cuban to Re-sign Chandler and Barea. That being said, I really doubt this team every had it in them to win another championship. Last year was insane and really improbable.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 103, Dallas Mavericks 97

Matt Hulme — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:57:21 -0000

Everything depresses me at the moment.

I know we (I use the term "we" in endearment; I know I am in no way affiliated with the team or organization) weren't supposed to beat the Thunder, or anyone this playoff season, for that matter, but never did I imagine they'd be SWEPT out of their title defense.

I know they lost three excruciatingly close games, and if Durant's heavily contest, lucky-bounce-of-the-ball-in-defiance-of-the-ball's-properties-and-logic had fallen absolutely any other way, this entire series would be thrown to the wind in the most unpredictable of patterns, and yet, it did bounce in. We did blow the lead. And we blew the lead in game two. And we got circumcised in game three. And blew it in the closing moments at home, facing elimination, in game four.

So yeah, it sucks, but yeah, the 2011-2012 Mavericks deserved their fate. Any of the so-called "magic" from the majestic prior was gone, faded away like the Big German's form in the early stages of this season. It wasn't our year, I tell myself. Better things will come with time. But this is at best a half-truth. We have, what, four players under contract next season? Our endgame, as it has long been known, is to land a top-five point guard in Deron Williams, to share the load with the venerable Dirk Nowitzki.

But, the fear lingers like the cloak of Death as the playoffs march on without us; what if we don't sign Deron?

What's the backup plan? The fall back? Was this wasted title defense season all for naught, or do we, and will we, see greatness once more in 2012-2013? The Dallas Mavericks are the oldest team in the NBA. Our best player will be 34 in June. Our second best player is a tobe-35 year old defensive machine with an interesting jump-stop shot. We won't resign our second best scorer, simply because we cannot afford him. Our next best defensive stopper is an injury-prone yet exciting guard who's price tag is surely to land him on another roster. Our other expiring contracts are a muddled mess of past-their-primers, waver-wires, and decently effective-for-their-draft-position bench pieces.

This is an old dog with fewer and fewer teeth, and more of a whine than a bark. Time is not our friend. This must be THE off season of change, of progress, or motion toward youth while maintaining the former status quo of Championship contention, and not just the illusion of it.

The fans won't stand for it, and neither will our superstar. Don't paint an old car and call it new, Mavs organization. Shoot us straight, and we'll trust you better for it. More importantly, your franchise star and the backbone (and heart, soul, mind, and muscles) of over a decade of success has earned it. We deserve straight answers, but Dirk deserves better.

Until we see that progress, that change, that solution to the (pun intended) age-old-question, I do fear the Reaper. Don't waste the twilight. Go out with a bang, and build for the next great adventure.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 95, Dallas Mavericks 79

Jensen — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:33:19 -0000

If Carter is waived before next season, the Mavs owe him next to nothing and any guaranteed money can be spread over five seasons which equates to next to nothing in terms on the cap.

Wood is still an amnesty candidate but we'd need a true starting center to replace him. As hit or miss as Wood has been, I wouldn't love the idea of bringing back Ian to start and Wright backing him up because our rebounding would be terrible. If the Mavs can make a run at a Roy Hibbert (restricted) or maybe Spencer Hawes or they miraculously put together something worth while for Howard, then we could use the amnesty on Wood. Otherwise, I think we need to keep him. Here is the list of unrestricted FA C's this summer and Wood is unfortunately a better option than the vast majority:

Chris
Kaman

Marcus
Camby

Spencer
Hawes

Kwame
Brown

Aaron
Gray

Jermaine
O’Neal

Nazr
Mohammed

Omer
Asik

Semih
Erden

Ben
Wallace

Hamed
Haddadi

Mehmet
Okur

Jeff
Foster

Greg
Stiemsma

Daniel
Orton

Hasheem
Thabeet

Ryan
Hollins

Jason
Collins

Joel
Przybilla

Eddy
Curry

Tony
Battie

Greg
Oden

Jamaal
Magloire

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 103, Dallas Mavericks 97

Andrew — Sun, 06 May 2012 08:52:27 -0000

Many people think that when Marion is on the floor, one is trading defense for offense. Maybe this is part of why Carlisle was willing to bench Marion at times in order to play Carter. However, as we saw in this series (and as we have seen through the past couple years of Marion being a Maverick) is that he is actually a very good finisher around the rim and can create for himself when put in optimal position. Why Carlisle didn't utilize Marion more offensively is beyond me.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 95, Dallas Mavericks 79

Andrew — Sat, 05 May 2012 16:25:37 -0000

How to get rid of Carter and Haywood while still being nice?

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 95, Dallas Mavericks 79

Jensen — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:01:59 -0000

This game was painful. And not because they lost or lost big, it just looked like the Mavs were tired (after 2 days home rest) and didn't have the passion to match OKC (with the series on the line). Way too many bad passes and dropped balls, no hustle on defense, broken or non-existent offensive sets, really early in the shot clock heaves, and a general lack of heart. This was supposed to be the game where Dallas came out and popped OKC in the mouth early to let them know that we're still here, we're a prideful team that will not go quietly, that until the last Finals game horn sounds we are still the champions. But last night was much more an ineffectual whimper than a roar.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 95, Dallas Mavericks 79

Kirk Henderson — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:32:19 -0000

Your last point really hits home. Sigh.

Re: Zoom Out

Kirk Henderson — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:25:42 -0000

Once again, excellent. And brutal.

Re: Dirk Knows

Jacob — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:48:18 -0000

I mean turn on

Re: Dirk Knows

Jacob — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:47:54 -0000

Note that you can turn off closed captioning. I didn't know that until now :L

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Andrew — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:30:13 -0000

I had to miss the latter half of game 2 becauseIi had a flight, so I don't know if Carlisle made any defensive adjusments on Westbrook, but so far I don't think Carlisle has been active enough in countering Westbrook.

In these two games where both Durant and Beard were contained, I would have expected Dallas to grab at least one game. One of the biggest reasons they didn't is that they couldn't contain Russell Westbrook. In the abstract, Delonte West matches up pretty well with Westbrook. However, with Westbrook making his mid-range pull-up jumper, West has no choice any more: he has to start playing Westbrook tighter, which means that he will probaly get beat off the dribble more often.

Carlisle has to do something unorthodox here, or else risk Westbrook dominating this series. Here is my idea, although it is not a novel one: (1) When Dallas makes a basket, whoever is guarding Westbrook should deny him the ball during the inbounds pass, (2) if Westbrook gets the ball, the person guarding the inbounder should immediately and aggressively trap Westbrook, hopefully forcing him to cough up the ball. After the pass, it is then the job of West to aggresively deny Westbrook the ball for the rest of the shot clock, (3) In the case of a missed shot and outlet to Westbrook, a quick big (like Mahinmi or Wright) should aggresively trap Westbrook the moment he crosses the halfcourt line, hopefully forcing him to give up the ball. The other big would be responsible for covering both of OKC's bigs, while the guard defenders should stay tight on their men (especially if Durant and Harden are on the floor). The minute Westbrook passes away, Wright is responsible for getting back to his man in time to bring the defense back to equilibrium. At this point, West must aggressively deny Westbrook the ball.

This would create vulnerabilites in Dallas's defense, especially if OKC puts bigs out who could hit the mid-range J in the game. But it might be worth it.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Jensen — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:10:00 -0000

The Mavs offense just grinds to a halt when Dirk isn't in. With Westbrook shadowing and playing ball denial on Terry, he's had a tough time getting the ball much less decent looks at the basket. The Mavs need to find another way of generating points in the half court.

We don't have the same spread-the-floor shooters (Peja, Stevenson, Barea), alley-oop possibilities at center (Chandler), or lane penetration (Barea) that we had last year so it has been more difficult this year to generate the same offensive flow and open looks. We need to find another offensive option to either open up space or isolate and put in points. Rick seems to think this is Carter; I would disagree. While Carter is capable of posting up smaller guards, he has been so woefully inefficient this series that I would not use him as the primary option to fill this offensive hole.

I would be surprised/disappointed if Rick continues down this path on Thursday. I would expect some different lineup combinations on the floor to hopefully find a spark or two and get some better spacing. OKC is far from an elite defensive team but with only two guys to key in on, they've done a pretty good job. Rick needs to shake it up a little (for both the offense and for the defense especially on Westbrook).

I'm not sure what he'll do or what exactly I'd like him to do but it would some combination of the following:
1) Keep Wood's minutes down like last game. OKC is a jump shooting team that doesn't score that much in the paint in the half court (11th for the season but almost half of those come from the fast break). As long as we can keep up with them on the boards, there is no reason to have Wood out there versus Ian or Brandan or small with Dirk at the 5 since we can generate more offense and spacing with those guys.
2) Run more Jet screen sets. If nothing else, let's wear out Westbrook chasing Jet versus letting him play ball denial outside of the three point line.
3) Give Roddy a look at guarding Westbrook. Roddy got some burn in the 2nd quarter last game and I thought he did a pretty good job of staying in front of Westbrook (even though it was mostly within the 2-3 zone). He could give us an extra defender to throw out there and if it doesn't work, it'll be apparent pretty quickly.
4) Go down to Trix in the post a few more times in the game. I am not a big fan of the Marion post-up because there are normally better offensive options on the court, but given the difficulties the Mavs have had with spacing in this series, it would be great to have another look for the OKC defenders to think about.
5) Counter their 3 guard sets (with Harden) with 3 guard sets of our own to get West more minutes. He looked great last game but only played 24 versus 33 for Carter playing the 3. West is one of our best defenders and he's one of the few guys we have that can get in the lane. He needs some more burn.

Congrats on reaching the bottom of this post. Sorry about the length.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Jacob — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:12:35 -0000

JET's basketball IQ is as bad as his clutch shooting can be good. Last year's finals game 2 comes to mind immediately. And the Suns game that went to OT in 2005. The only one worse was probably Josh Howard. You gotta take the good with the bad with him.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Jacob — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:09:10 -0000

How are you 4 years younger than the rest of Amar'e's body?

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

49jbert — Wed, 02 May 2012 00:56:11 -0000

The team that shows up will win. Always has been true. Ask ourselves, "Do the mavs really want it" like last year. I don't think so. But I have been a Mavs fan since Mark Aguire days so I will ride um to what ever end there is.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Amar'e's left hand — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:03:33 -0000

I don't know how old you are, but if you're much older than 23, do YOU really think you were very smart or well-versed in the ways of the world at that age? 23 was only two years ago for me, and even still I can recognize I was a damn idiot. And while athleticism helps, basketball is about experience and intelligence (ex: a team you may have heard of that won the 2011 Finals).

To answer your question, I don't know of any such studies, but I thought the "peak" age was generally thought to be between 25-27.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Mr Adam Madison — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:39:38 -0000

Where's the study that players DON'T peak at age 23?

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Mahert001 — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:27:06 -0000

The Jet's stupid foul with the Thunder only have 2 seconds to shoot was a killer. And he is suppose to be "experienced" in playoff games. What a disaster. No points in the 4th quarter of the first game and the stupid foul in the waining minutes of the second game.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

Amar'e's left hand — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:15:31 -0000

I kind of agree with you, but at the same time, Westbrook is 23. It's very doubtful that this is the best he'll ever be. If, however, you mean this is him playing at his current best, then you're probably right. On the other hand, Dirk is a decade older. Again, this is not the best he's ever been. But he might be playing close to his current best.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City 102, Dallas Mavericks 99

@tcindallas — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:26:46 -0000

Great read. However, I disagree with the "this isn't even Westbrook at his best".....part. This is the westbrook we expected in my opinion. Taking over, lots if shots, minimal assists. How long have the "critics" waited on him to be a complete pg? This is his game. He's at his best right now. If we're having that discussion, let's go ahead and say that this isn't dirk at his best. And game 2 certainly wasn't JET as his best. Kidd either.

Re: Nothing Would Be What It Is, Everything Would Be What It Isn’t

Andrew — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:32:21 -0000

We need more of this excellent analysis! I think you just picked up another follower of your other blogs, Joon.

Wonderful.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 99, Dallas Mavericks 98

Kirk Henderson — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:51:33 -0000

Really a game worth remembering. If the Thunder happen to go on a long march towards the finals, they will have Dallas to thank for giving them a real test.

Re: The Difference: Oklahoma City Thunder 99, Dallas Mavericks 98

Андрей — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:27:23 -0000

http://oklahoma.16mb.com/ go to,please

Re: The Two Man Game’s Official Dallas Mavericks Versus Oklahoma City Thunder Official Western Conference Quarterfinals Preview for the Official 2011-2012 Official NBA Post-Season

Guest — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:04:51 -0000

Fantastic read, I was waiting for something like this. Thank you.
I fear I might be turning biased but I still think deep inside we have a chance, it will all depend on game 1 to me, whatever happens, all I'll expect is 100% efforth, is they do that, I'm all good with the outcome.

The only criticism and all in good spirit! get haircut Rob, That 1983 Kevin McHale style hasn't been rocked since... Kevin McHale in 1983!

Re: The Difference: Chicago Bulls 93, Dallas Mavericks 83

Andrew — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:55:28 -0000

It looks like we got OKC in the first round. Oh boy...
That makes me really think that we can't afford to have Carter on the floor, because at one point he will have to guard Harden or Durant and that is a recipe for disaster.