Spurs 92 Mavs 90 Grades: Oh Dirk, Where Art Thou? A dynamic game with lead changes galore, this one came down in championship style with it all tied up at 85 all. Heroes turned into goats in a the blink of an eye in a game told with cold-blooded jump shots, missed free throws, amazing steals and stupefying turnovers, all with the ghost of Nellie sitting on the bench. The Mavs had their chances, all the way to the end as the refs called traveling on Tim Duncan inbounding the ball with 3.5 seconds left. Dirk had a chance to tie it but missed the short baseline jumper as the buzzer sounded. Johnson: C, Avery (who earlier was announced as the Western Conference Coach of the Month for November, a rare back-to-back feat) had some mind-numbing coaching decisions tonight with the return of Nellie?s ?Hack a Shaq? late in the game in the form of ?Hack a Bowen?. Unlike when Nellie used to do it, there was no change in momentum in favor of the Mavericks as Bruce Bowen calmly made both free throws. Still the Mavs were in this game until the final shot, and Avery does deserve some credit for taking the defending champions that far. Daniels: B, Marquis led the Mavs with 24 points in what could have been the best game of his career if it weren?t for the mental mistakes at the end. Marquis breaks the 85 all tie by stepping up to the free throw line, but like Dirk can only manage 1-2 to give the Mavs a slim one point lead. On the ensuing play, Devin strips a driving Tony Parker, but a miscommunication between Keith and Marquis has Keith has the ball going out of bounds. Tony Parker runs Devin into his own team mate (Keith) as a flat footed Marquis waves goodbye to Tony for the uncontested layup to give the Spurs the one point lead at 87-86. On the ensuing possession, Dirk misses and Michael Finley skies for the rebound. Marquis immediately fouls the best Spurs free throw shooter on the floor as Finley sinks both from the charity stripe to give the Spurs a 3 point lead at 89-86. Devin drives the basket hard for a layup to pull the Mavs within one point at 89-88 and Marquis immediately, again, fouls the Spurs best free throw shooter on the floor. Michael, probably not wishing to embarrass his former friend only goes 1-2 from the stripe, but this still gives the Spurs a 90-88 lead with 18.7 seconds left. Gregg momentarily feels sorry for Marquis and puts Barry into the game to help Marquis out. The Mavs run the same play to Devin, but this time instead of rolling to the basket, Devin pops over Barry and misses. Michael Finley again gets the rebound and Marquis again fouls Michael as Finley passes the ball to Tony Parker. Dirk, feeling sorry for Marquis grabs Tony Parker, whipping him around so instead of Marquis getting called for the foul, Tony Parker gets sent to the line to make 2 points. Facing a four point deficit, Marquis dribbles the ball straight up the court and flings one of his best shots, a falling forward trey over Michael Finley. Marquis misses, but gets the long rebound and flings it towards the basket with Brent Barry hanging all over him (Great, by the way?). Marquis goes to the line for three free throws with 6 seconds remaining in the game. Marquis calmly makes the first two free throws then misses (on purpose?) the third free throw. Tim Duncan gets the missed free throw rebound, but Tim gets an MVP-type call as the refs call him for traveling as Dirk surreptitiously pushes Tim out of bounds with both hands with 3.5 seconds left. Jason finds Dirk curling towards the baseline for a fade away jumper over Bruce Bowen that misses everything. Jason Terry, still standing out of bounds, jumps up and taps the rebound back to Dirk who flings a short jumper as time expires. The microcosm that the last minute and a half represented is not fair to Marquis, who otherwise had an excellent game, but it does highlight just how far Daniels thinking still has to progress. +17 Nowitzki: D, Against the Bucks, Dirk admitted he was so bad, he was the Bucks sixth man. Tonight he moved into the starting lineup. The Mavs lead 84-83 is lost as Tony Parker blows by Dirk doing his impression of a matador. Dirk has a chance to make up for it being fouled quickly by Bruce Bowen, but falters at the line, going 1-2 to tie the game at 85-all. The Mavs have one last chance under their basket with 3.5 seconds left to tie the game but Dirk airballs the short jumper. Zero turnovers. +18 Dampier: C+, Erick delivered a solid 7 point, 7 rebound , 2 blocked shot game tonight. The only problem is that Poppovich resorted to Nellie?s smallball to win this game. +10 Armstrong : C, Darrell started the game, but lasted only 2:24 before Avery decided to switch gears and go for height (Keith) over quickness. -1 Terry: C, Jason backed up Marquis with 18 points, but had Zero assists in 38 minutes. +14 Van Horn: C-, Keith?s jumper was not on tonight, but he did what a good shooter does when his shot is not falling: Drive the paint and go to the line where Keith was 7-8 on his way to 12 points. Might not have been so bad tonight if it weren?t for his pass behind Marquis in one of his blonder moments. +6 Harris: C-, Devin?s jumper wasn?t on tonight either as Devin suffered through a 3-10 effort from the field. Devin did manage to deliver 4 assists though. Devin did have what could have been a game saving steal from Tony Parker in the last minute if Keith hadn?t have thrown the ball away. +7 Diop: B, DeSagana had a good game tonight, scoring 8 points (4-5 FG) and grabbing 9 rebounds.+17 Griffin: C; Adrian?s first game back as a Maverick, Griffin grabbed 3 defensive boards and missed his only shot. Zero turnovers. +2 M?Benga: DNC-CD. Powell: DNP-CD. Marshall : DNC-CD. Howard: DNC-CD, Josh is out for the next few weeks with the ankle sprain suffered in the closing minutes of the Memphis loss. Podkolzin: DNC-CD, Pavel had surgery to repair his right foot and ankle and is expected to miss three to four months. Stackhouse: DNP-CD, Jerry was inactive, out with a sore knee that continues to swell. Typical Chef Ed Type
Fantastic breakdown of the game tonight! Some bizzare officiating at the end of the game, but Dirk didn't take advantage of it. I think your title says it all, Dirk had no impact for the Mavs whatsoever tonight. He couldn't hit any shots, his defense was terrible, and he failed to come through in the clutch. Devin Harris needs to learn how to play defense against Tony Parker. He was getting torched and letting Parker get uncontested layups. If Parker gets by you that easily you have to knock him on his butt and force him to make his free throws. Parker can not handle it when a player gets physical with him and when he's off his game, the Spurs offense is quick to follow. The play of the night though was Keith Van Horn's pass to nobody. It's sad when you can almost expect him to pull a bonehead move in crunchtime. Hopefully Avery learns to never have him in the game during those moments ever again. I love watching Quis play. Him and Josh Howard are the only reasons I can stand watching the Mavs. And Mark Cuban is entertaining. Quis is a throwback, he has that deadly midrange game and is always thinking and reacting on the court. I'm not sure how the Mavs backcourt plays out in the next couple of seasons, but they need to find room for this kid.
I'm not going to make excuses for Dirk he needs to do better, but I understand why he was rattled today, Bruce Bowen has a way of doing that to a lot of players. I would definetly put more credit on Bowen's defense/tactis than Dirks struggling.
Good point FedEx, also I wouldn't say Dirk had no impact...yeah he needs to play better but he really didn't take that many shots and he had a lot of rebounds/assists
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting FedEx227:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm not going to make excuses for Dirk he needs to do better, but I understand why he was rattled today, Bruce Bowen has a way of doing that to a lot of players. I would definetly put more credit on Bowen's defense/tactis than Dirks struggling.</div> For the last three games, Dirk Nowitzki is 20-for-64. Last year, I thought Dirk finally turned the corner on becoming a more physical player. He was getting to the charity stripe a career best, 9 times a game. This year it's dropped to 6 a game and he's camping out on the perimeter a lot more. I think playing for Germany over this past summer might have taken a toll on him. Not having Finley around to help him through this tough stretch, must make it even harder for Dirk.
Yeah no doubt, can't disagree with that, last year he was slashing much more, he seems to be back to his old hanging around ways.
