Mavericks vs. Denver http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...ap.26dd697.htmlBy EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News Series: Mavs lead 2-1 this season, 67-58 all time KEY MATCHUP ANDRE MILLER VS. JASON TERRY Point guards have obliterated the Mavericks of late, with Jameer Nelson, Chauncey Billups, Gilbert Arenas, Luther Head, Steve Nash and Tony Parker all having led their team in scoring against the Mavs over the last month. That makes Miller, who is not a great shooter but can slice through defenses and is one of the best assist men in the league, a focal point of the Mavericks' defense. Terry has been on a downturn for the last couple of weeks and needs a confidence-boosting game at both ends of the court. Inside the Nuggets More conventional: The Nuggets are fourth in the league in offense at 101 points per game, and they do it without relying on the three-ball. At under 33 percent, they are dead last in the league in 3-point shooting percentage. There are only seven teams who have made fewer shots from beyond the arc than the Nuggets. Briefly: Carmelo Anthony's scoring binge over the last six weeks has vaulted him to seventh in the league in scoring, one spot ahead of Dirk Nowitzki ... Marcus Camby leads the league in blocked shots at more than 3.3 per game. ... Former Mav Greg Buckner leads the league in steals-to-turnovers ratio at 1.88. Inside the Mavericks Lesson learned? The last time the Mavericks played an afternoon game, they were down by double figures before they broke a sweat and were trounced at New Jersey. They tried a different approach to getting ready for this matinee by not practicing Saturday. They will have a pregame walk- through before today's game. Briefly: They had won four straight over the Nuggets until a 113-104 loss at Denver on Feb. 10. ... Dirk Nowitzki's four offensive rebounds Friday at Orlando gave him 97 for the season, his most since 2001-02, when he had a career-best 120. Still, 97 is the least among the league's top 25 rebounders. PROBABLE STARTERS Nuggets Pos. Mavericks Kenyon Martin F Dirk Nowitzki Carmelo Anthony F Josh Howard Marcus Camby C DeSagana Diop Bonzi Wells G Marquis Daniels Andre Miller G Jason Terry
We'll need another magical performance by Dirk, but Terry HAS to control Miller.At least the fans are on OUR side.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mavsfan1000 @ Apr 2 2006, 03:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Is it true Van Horn is out for the season?</div>Indefinatly, it looks like he will be though.
Mavs up 44-40 at the half. Howard has definetely helped us in that first half. Now we need Harris to come back. Anyway Josh Powell is a serviceable backup power forward so it isn't a big loss and considering Van Horn's past playoffs stats it might be better this way.
Wow, that was an awesome game.Josh Howard looked better than ever. If there is anything I could reccomend to him, it would be court vision. I liked that feed to Nowitzki for the trey, though, that was a tremendous pass!Dirk Nowitzki did about everything perfectly. Drew a charge, got steals, played defense, drained three pointers, dished it, got MVP chants, and had a solid double-double and 30 point night.Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop once again played excellent defense, but Diop has fouled out the last two games, but this time, it came at a time when Dallas was up by about 20.Avery Johnson's strategies also worked. I loved the way he was furious about giving up an alley-oop, even when Dallas was basically killing Denver, anyway, and I liked his rotation for the players. Stack, Terry, and even Nowitzki got rest, and they still came up big.Dallas started the game off a bit sloppy, but this is the defense Avery wants from his team.
I didnt get to see the game, I just saw the highlights. Everyone play well. Good proformances by Dirk, Howard and Terry. Dirk and Terry shot well. After a 3 game loosing streak, it feels good to win by 20+
Yeah, man. Also, a side-note:Couldn't you guys tell Miller was going to make that loooooong three at the end? I could just PREDICT it would happen after Stackhouse got fouled on the 3 point ark.
Dampier was the key in this game. He was a force in the interior and didn't allow Denver to get easy baskets. Josh Howard makes the offense look much easier. His prescence alone does wonders for Dallas's offense.
Caught the 2nd half, and great 3rd quarter to take over the game. I liked seeing Stack driving a lot during the game. He was getting to the line, rather then shooting jumpers. Also, I love Damp's game, the guy sets great screens, throws great outlet passes, and is one of the best rebounders in the league. And he had some putbacks that were thuderous along with a tremendous block on Melo. He's really our 6th imo. Glad to see Mavs finally win one after 3 losses. And against a good team that has given us troubles all year.
Yeah, man. We KILLED Carmelo, but I still think his being killed by the Mavs was symbolised when Diop blocked him at the buzzer.
We held Carmelo in check the whole game. he had 24 on 9-24 shooting. horrible %. i think a big reason they lost by 20 was that no one else on the team tried to step up on the offensive end. Martin and Camby combine for 10 pts. miller and paterson had 14 pts each.another reason i think is that they tried to play small ball most of the game. they had the combo of najera and reggie evans in at the post postions. they couldnt guard either dirk or put a body on Damp. Damp had 6 offensive rebounds. oh, and did any of ya'll see terry dunk it in the half court set?? it was awesome, had the pass off a curl and dunked. camby was way late on gettin there.
Yeah, I could tell he was going up for the dunk.If I was George Karl, I would probably put Najera on Dirk. In one game earlier this season, Najera knew Dirk enough in practices that he knew where Dirk was going to spin, and with that knowledge, he got an easy strip.Najera is almost like a future-spy to Dirk, eh?
Don't forget the injury to Boykins and Denver trading away Watson. Patterson is ok but Denver depended too much on Andre Miller. They needed a backup point guard.
Well, final word on the game:This is the kind of team Avery Johnson wants in the long-term, and for the short-term, it was excellent to break the longest drought in the Mavericks season in blowout fashion.I have a feeling the Mavs are ready to win the rest of their gmes this year.
