First half, we went toe to toe with Dallas. After every shot, we ran and got easy shots at the bucket. Peja was hitting his shots, but we punished him on the other end having to guard Wallace or Batum. We had complete control of the game in the first half. Then came round two.... Nate comes in having his team play passive, like prevent D in football. We had 3 shots at stepping on Dallas's neck, when they went scoreless for minute stretches. Instead Nate tries to post up Miller, Matthews and take out Camby. So we too went scoreless. Our guards were out hustled, out played, and dominated when they should have dominated Dallas. I am not a Natesayer, but it was evident Nate was clearly out coached this game.
I think we have to also give DAL credit...it's tough to run when they don't turn the ball over A SINGLE TIME for large chunks of the second half. Now, if you want to say that was b/c of a defensive philosophy we implemented, then maybe. But I don't know that that was the case.
They went to their money play "Pick and Roll". Portland guards kept switching and allowing Dallas to have a smaller "guard" on Dirk. Made Portland scramble; which left the perimeter jump shooter "Wide Open". We needed to go with our money play of Aldridge in the post, or Wallace in the post. What would be better D on Peja, than having him have to constantly guard a stronger, more athletic and quicker Wallace?
I think he coached a pretty good game. He got the team moving in transition. He focused on limiting Dirk. We exploited Peja. We abandoned Roy. Unfortunately, Dirk, Kidd, Barea and Peja just out-played our team in the second half. Particularly in the fourth quarter, Portland just lost its composure. What can a coach do from the sidelines to keep this team from falling apart in the fourth? Was there some magic speech he was supposed to make that would make it all better? That works in Hoosiers, but not always in real life. We used to have an ace-in-the-hole type of guy in Roy who brought the team together and made it feel confident it could win tight games, purely because our players felt our best guy was better than the other team's best guy. Aldridge and Wallace and Miller just don't do that. Dallas does. Nearly all the championships in the past 25 years have somebody on the team who can do that. So we lost. I don't pin any of this loss on Nate. Sometimes you just lose to a better team.
To be fair, the coach can only do so much. He wasn't the one rotating late to get out on Peja. He wasn't the one falling back downcourt instead of trying to hit the offensive glass.
I dunno, I think posting up Miller is a good play, really. Especially with Barea or terry on him. I'd run that play 30 times in a row with no hesitation. He's easily our second best post player.
With the way the refs were buying Barea's flop, you'd only be able to run that play six times in a row...
We were down by 2 and gaining momentum when Barea flopped while guarding Miller and it completely swayed the momentum. I think they turned around and hit a 3. We desperately need to get home and gain some momentum and confidence in this series. We take care of the 2 at home and I see this series going to 7.
I still say you have to post him up. No matter how well LaMarcus is playing, if Barea is guarding Miller, that is by far the best mismatch on the floor. You have to make Dallas pay for putting him in the game. Just like when we put Roy in the game, Dallas immediately attacks him. Whoever Roy was guarding they immediately ran him off a bunch of screens or just blew past him. The players need to realize that they don't need to muscle him or back him down too much. Just turn around and shoot it over him. I believe the last time we played them in the regular season at home, he was in foul trouble and had no effect on the game.
