<div align="center"></div> <div align="center"><font color="blue">Dallas Mavericks</font> VS <font color="red">Houston Rockets</font></div> When: Saturday April 23rd, 5:30PM EST/4:30PM CT Where:America Airlines Arena Local TV: ESPN Position-by-Position Analysis <u>Center to Small Forward By Aznxballer</u> C- <font color="DarkRed">Yao Ming</font> vs <font color="Navy">Erick Dampier</font>- This is a pretty crucial matchup here. Very different players here, Yao plays through jumpers and finesse while Dampier plays more physically and bodying. However, Houston's fate in the playoffs depends on this matchup. Yao Ming needs to really step it up and bring down rebounds and points. First off, since Dallas makes a lot of their shots, its very important to grab the ones that they don't. Between these two guys, Yao has more capabilities of scoring than Dampier- but has to score as well. He has the obvious height advantage over Dampier as well as a bigger offensive arensal. Question is, can Yao step it up for the playoffs and bring his A game? Houston Advantage PF- <font color="DarkRed">Ryan Bowen</font> vs <font color="Navy">Dirk Nowitzki</font>- Definitely not a matchup of the century. Here we've got Dallas' best player against Houston's weakest position. However, thats not really the point here. We already know that combined, all the power forwards on Houston probably can't outscore Dirk on a given night, so the key here would be for Bowen to contain Dirk's scoring. Bowen's got the height, speed, and hustle to do it, so the question is if he can keep up with Dirk and draw double teams away from McGrady. If Bowen gets open shots, he needs to take it to make Dallas think twice about doubling McGrady. Meanwhile, Dirk will probably have his usual game on- hitting the threes, scoring inside, and giving Houston a world of troubles. Dallas Advantage SF- <font color="DarkRed">Tracy McGrady</font> vs <font color="Navy">Josh Howard</font>- This matchup hopefully will even things out with the whole Dirk thing going on. Basically, Dallas is sticking their best defender on McGrady and trying to contain the game that he brings. On any given night, McGrady can light up the crowd and will the team to victory. Plus, he has a huge arsenal of offensive weapons at his disposal- the one on one game, the long range, the inside, and the midrange. Which is like the entire court. Don't underestimate Josh Howard however, if he stays aggressive, he can put up around twelve points a night and grab a decent amount of boards. However, the just doesn't equal McGrady. Houston Advantage <u>Shooting Guard to 6th Man by magnomonkey</u> VS. SG- David Wesley/Michael Finley Key matchup here, Finley still hasn't lost that explosiveness he once had, and Wesley is a deadly spot up shooter. Shooting-wise, both are basically even, but Finley's ability to score in the oddest situations, whether he is tripled, or throws up a random shot, seperates the two. If Wesley can just hit his shots, this matchup shouldn't be as uneven as it could be, but by going by pure talent and stats, Finley wins this. Advantage: Dallas VS. PG- Bob Sura/Jason Terry These two are very streaky players. Both can go off for 30, or give you 7 a game. But both have the ability to keep their team in the game. Whatever defense you throw at him, Terry can will his way into scoring points. Sura can will anything into happening, battling back from surgery and asserting himself in our offense well. Terry is to big of an offensive threat to be left alone, so do not expect Sura to be doubling Dirk. This is a tough one to call, so I'll say it even, but Terry has a bigger advantage on the offensive end. Advantage: Even Sixth Man- Mike James/Jerry Stackhouse A Former Superstar in Stackhouse, versus an experienced, talented role-player who won a ring last year with Detroit in James. Most people would pick Stack' in this matchup, but they shouldn't be playing each other straight up consistently. James is just as explosive as Stackhouse, and his defense is rated higher. If the Rockets take out Stackhouse in this series, they have a HUGE chance to win it, that being said, Dallas should have a really hard time taking James out of the series. Like Terry, he can find a way to score. Advantage: Even Keys to the game by Trip Threes - The Rockets attempt quite a few three pointers every night. With great perimeter shooters like David Wesley, Jon Barry and Mike James on the roster, it should be deemed reasonable that the Rockets live and die by the three at times. If Houston wants to win on Saturday, they'll have to make their three point attempts. Yao/Mac Produce - Like a lot of teams that rely on stars to pull them over the hill, the Rockets' success each night depends on the MacMing combo. Both players will have physical defenders on them, so they would have to be smart and not get stupid offensive fouls. McGrady would have to make his shots and Yao would have to do a good job getting offensive rebounds and scoring in the post. Keep rest of Dallas in check - Houston will most likely feature Ryan Bowen, Scott Padgett and Clarence Weatherspoon in an effort to stop Dirk Nowitzki, he the same superstar who scored 53 points on the Rockets in December. The team will have to face this bleak reality: Nowitzki will score at least 30 on you. Thus, it is very important to make sure no one else on the Dallas roster scores too much. Keep everyone else from putting up big stats; Dirk can't win games by himself. AznxBaller's Prediction I think the key for Houston would be two things- control the tempo and for Yao to step up. For the past two playoffs, Yao hasn't been doing that stellar and has really backed off from the pressure. However, if there was ever a time to step up, this would be it. Also, controlling the tempo would help stop Dallas' insanely fast offense and give us some edge. If Houston plays good enough defense and good enough offense, they should be able to give Dallas a run for their money. Stop everyone other than Dirk- stop Dallas. Houston win, 105-101. magnomonkey's Prediction This game should be hard fought, with Houston being a good road team. But Dallas is playing at home, and this being their first home play-off game, the crowd should be up for it too. A close, high scoring contest being decided late in the fourth. As badly as I want the Rockets to take this one, which is very possible (See first game against LA last year), Dallas should be just as hungry and ready on their turf. Rockets 113 Dallas 119 Trip's Prediction: Both teams have ended the regular season on big winning streaks. Houston needs to keep check of Dirk, while Dallas needs to find a way to stop McGrady, who no doubt would be playing like a mad man in his search for victory in the playoffs. It's a fairly even matchup but I would go with the Mavs since they have the playoff experience and have homecourt advantage. Houston: 99 Dallas: 105
Good preview. I see Dallas taking this game because they're kicking of the playoffs, at home trying to give the fans a better experience from what they witnessed last season. It should definitely be close and I see it going down to the wire. Dallas: 103 Houston: 97
It will be a close fought game. I expect Mavs to win by 4..Dallas bench is just too deep. I expect Dallas to expoit Houstons weakness at the PF spot especially with Keith Van Horn as Dirk's backup. I think Mutombo could be Houston's X factor if they are to win the series against Dallas.
I think that the Rockets are going to take the win because of T-Mac. Nobody can stop him because he is to nice. IF Yao can get some good defence they really got the win.
Let's not get caught up in Dallas' psuedo-advantage in terms of playoff experience. Just take a look at this breakdown of playoff game experience by team and you'll know what I mean. Dallas starters: 88 games (2 players with no experience - Jason Terry, Erick Dampier) Houston starters: 95 games (0 players with no experience) Dallas key bench players: 99 games (1 player with no experience - Devin Harris) Houston key bench players: 218 games (0 players with no experience) Advantage Houston.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting $Quan$:</div><div class="quote_post">I think that the Rockets are going to take the win because of T-Mac. Nobody can stop him because he is to nice. IF Yao can get some good defence they really got the win.</div> Well the same can be argued about Dirk. No one can stop him because he is too nice as well. Sniper has an excellent point about Houston. Veterans such as Mutombo (who's been to the finals twice) and Mike James (won a championship last year). Also good advice from players such as Charlie Ward (who's been to the finals too) will be useful. Houston is not at a signifficant disadvantage if any in the experience department.
They souldn't try to hard to stop Dirk because he will score 30 and more anyway.The Key to win this is to stop all other Dallas players.Yao has to use all he got in offense, and he his to make every rebound he can.
This game should be decisive for the series. I see the rockets taking the first one behind TMAC. 102-96
end of 1st quarter, 26-16. I dont know whether our defence are good or dallas just had an off day but they can't seem to knock down the shot. I was suprised when van horn just barely hit the rim from a widen open 3 pointer. But its still 1st quarter though.. Hope we can keep this up
Wow, we lead by as much as 18 and end the quarter by 12. Tmac has 17. The decision to put him on dirk was ingenious. Dirk has been a lot more silent then it looked like he would be. We need to hold on to this win rockets. They started to slow down near the end of the half with a scoring drought. Keep up with the great d and scoring. We should be able to win this one.
The Rockets are looking pretttyy good right now. They were up by as many as 18 I believe? Well, anyways the Mav's cut it down to just twelve points, and we know the Mavs and a twelve point deficit is equivalent to a six point deficit. So the Rockets must continue playing good defense, and for the Rockets sake hopefully McGrady can keep shooting the lights out.
8.40 in the 4th - Bad situation for us. Same crappy game by Yao (5 fouls with over 10 mins to the end) and 22 team fouls. Only James can save us (and T-Mac of course).
WOO HOO!!! Rockets win!!! Bowen did an admiral job on Dirk! Bet that surprised a lot of Maverick fans that said Dirk couldn't be stopped... he got half of his points from the foul line too.
Wow u got to give it up to the rocs. the mavs had almost perfectly balanced scoring and still couldnt win. Tmac Led the way offencively. Congrats to the rocs. Good Rocs defence holding the mavs to such a low score. Expect Dirk to have a monster performance in game two.
yeahh we won the game 98-86. Our key players were t-mac (obviously) , ryan bowen for his numerous hustle play...also for succesfully guarding nowitzki all the time. His tireless play was just amazing.. and last one mike james.. our sole scorer when mavs make a scare run in the early 4th quarter. Its very good for us to be able to steal a homecourt. But still we can't be too complacent.. there's still 3 more games to win.
Yes great win.....Ryan Bowen came up big and TMac was jus amazing.....the refs called some bad fouls on Yao, but look at it this way, we still dominated the mavs with Yao on the bench most of the game.....Mike James was fantastic also.......no one on Dallas really scares me besides dirk or howard. Rockets 1 Mavs 0
