<div align="center"> Dallas Mavericks VS Houston Rockets </div> Position-by-Position Analysis <u>Center to Small Forward By Aznxballer</u> C- Yao Ming vs Erick Dampier- 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- Ryan Bowen vs Dirk Nowitzki- 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- Tracy McGrady vs Josh Howard- 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 VS. 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 <u>Keys to the game by Trip</u> 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. <u>Keys to the game by Dan for Mavericks</u> Stop T-Mac - In the last meeting Tracy Mcgrady scored 34 points to lead the game in scoring, that needs to change, the Rockets have a very good win record whenever Tracy scores over 30 points, they'll have to rethink their defence and try to come up with a way of retaining him or at least holding him to just over 20 points because as it seems whne he has a good game, everything changes, the confidence, the defence, and this isn't just by him, it's by the whole Houston team! Draw Fouls - They're going to have to get to the rim, try and draw the foul to get them 2 easy shots, in the last game Yao Ming only played 20 minutes of the game before being fouled out, he had only scored 11 points and only grabbed 8 rebounds, Ryan Bowen was also fouled off after 31 minutes of play, although on offense he wasn't too flash he played great defence on Dirk, but couldn't stay out of foul trouble. Dirk had 13 free throws and 11 points from free throws alone, if they can get Yao into foul trouble and maybe even T-Mac they'll obviously have a huge advantage, but easier said then done. Shooting - I don't know if I can be any more straight foward here, this is the same as any game for any team but is really a key to the Mavericks success, they will have to find a way for Dirk to score, although the Rockets did a great job on guarding him, he should find another way to get the ball in the basket, another player who didn't shoot too well is Michael Finley he only scored 5 points on 2/8 shooting and he's another one of their key players, it may of been the defense that stopped him, it may of been that he was just in a slump, but he has got to get out of it, Jerry Stackhouse had 14 points but was also 4/13 from the field which is far from impressive, this all had to change, but Jason Terry did have a good shooting night and Josh Howard got the points on the board before being fouled out too. Rebounds - The Dallas Mavericks really have to take advantage of this on the offensive and defensive end, they should have a big advantage in this, the Rockets only above average rebounders are Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo, where as the Mavericks have Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Erick Dampier and even Keith Van Horn, in Game 1 the Mavericks only had 5 more rebounds, which is still good, but if they want a really big advantage they'll have to fight for every single rebound, be agressive about it to stop a second chance basket or to create one for themselves. AznXBaller's Prediction In Game 2 of this first round matchup, Dallas is going to go strong. They lost against Houston in the first game and won't lose at home again. Avery will probably have worked out a new strategy for his team and probably will utilize Terry and the swingmen more to take some pressure off Dirk. Once these guys get going, they are going to burn us out since they are an incredibly deep team. If Houston can just stay in the game with some defense and have a nice inside out game with Yao and McGrady, we might be able to pull away. With that said, this should be a tightly contested game. Dan's Prediction We won game 1 when Dallas were at home, Dirk was having an off night, Michael Finley was having an offnight...That won't happen again. The Mavericks are going to find a way to score if not through Dirk then through Terry, you have to remember this team had a 9 game winning streak heading into the playoffs, I think the only way we can survive in this game is play great defence and T-Mac has a really good game again. If I did this wrong then sorry in advance, everyone else was too busy to put it together...
The mavs should bounce back from game 1. If the rockets do win this game, that would be awsome, and we would pretty much clinch the series. That wont happen though. The mavs will come out really hard tonight and take this one in the final minutes. Hopefully Yao can be more effective. 103-97
Great preview guys. It's HUGE. Dirk will have a huge game, that I'm pretty sure. But Tmac and co. will do their best to make them hard earned points. But Tracy should cancel his performance out with one of his own trademark Tmac numbers and game. This game is tough to call, because it can go both ways. Hopefully Yao wont be in foul trouble and contribute the way he has prior to the playoffs. With Yao and McGrady on the top of their game, we're gonna be pretty hard to stop. We should play tough D while keeping a balanced attack. We should win this game if we can contain Dirk's teammates well. Limit finley again and keep Terry occupied. Mike James and Jon barry will hopefully keep their hot shooting from the last game and then we would be safe. Rockets to win by 4.
The Rockets are playing together now, and thats going to be critical for them across the series. Yao is also off to a good start with 11 points inthe first quarter. My god, T-Mac just postered Shawn Bradely to.
Yao probably is at his best today! omg, just imagine, dampier 2 fouls, van horn 3 fouls, bradley 2 fouls just to guard him alone in the first quarter! and that t-mac's dunk... my goodness..
looks like Dallas is trying to be too aggressive... I think the fouls are gonna bite them in the fourth quarter. OMG, that dunk by T-Mac over Bradley was SICK! And Yao already hit his avg per game in the first quarter!
This is crazy lol. Yao is a monster in the first quarter and TMac is right there with him. Hope he keeps this up. And Barry is 3 for 4 from the 3 point land in the second half. This is crazy stuff.
Dallas is really lucky to be this close. Rockets are totally outplaying the mavs.. Bradley was posterized yet again
um did anyone see T-mac Dunk on Bradley. Bradley couldnt get out of the poster fast enough. GL houston!
Damn a 4 point lead at the half. What a game it has been. Nice tip shot from Padgett at the end. both teams got 26 at the second quarter and Rockets lead 60 to 56. A high scoring game so far with Yao having 23 points with only 1 miss. To add to that he has 5 rebounds and Tracy has 12, 5, 4, 2, 2, solid allround numbers. Hope we keep this up till the end of the game.
Wow, thanks for the clip Dan Le, i am watching it for the 50th time. Shawn Bradley just ducked on that one. Tribute that dunk to Yao. Rockets arent doing that great right now. Shots are just off, wesley cant make anything. The rebounds are terrible. Hope we can get back into this one.
The Rockets are surprising.Is this series being dictated by Houston because of Houstons play or because of Dallas's lack of play?Im not sure.Mcgrady is the TRUTH though.
looks like Yao's big play is not followed bty other mainly wesley... he is back to his shooting slump.. we're not in good position right now, dallas lead by 8
The Rockets somehow moved away from getting Yao which is mind boggling considering the fact he was dominating and had the Mavericks frontline in some foul trouble. They really need to solve that Dampier problem. Everytime Yao helps out on Dirk, Dampier just dunks it over Barry when he rolls to the basket. It's a close game but I think the Rockets will pull this one out.
David Wesley is killing the Rockets tonight. I've counted 6 WIDE OPEN misses from him tonight. He's also been terrible on defense and screwed up two fastbreaks, in a close game those mistakes are going to haunt you. I really don't like the officiating in this game either. Yao Ming is getting shoved in the back everytime a shot goes up for the Mavs, it's just ridiculous. And down the stretch Dirk is getting cheap calls and being bailed out by the refs. The Rockets need to work on the trap for Game 3. Rockets still have a chance to win this game, and they better because I don't see Dirk having 3 straight games shooting this poorly.
