-Faluire to defend the pick and roll -Christies Faluire to contain Finley even though he started off slow -Failure to defend the 3 pointers Dallas was shooting Now to admit when the Kings were leading by 16 at halftime I thought they had it. But they slowed down thinking "we have them beat so we can save enegry" and thats what killed them. You cannot go to sleep when you have players like Antione Walker, Mike Finley, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash getting hot. If you go back and look at hightlights 6 or thier last 9 shots were 3's come on now you have to defend that. Hopefully they can bounce back from this loss and get back on track.
They just didn't come out with the same amount of intensity they displayed in the first half. The Mavs really didn't change much, they just started knocking down their shots. Having Walker for the whole 2nd half didn't hurt either. In the first half, the Kings were getting out on the break and getting easy baskets, were getting a lot of 2nd chance opportunities on the boards, and were playing good Defense. All of these things they lacked in the second half. They played to protect their lead, not to add to it. You can't play that style of ball in the NBA.
They lost track of everything in the second half, defense especially. No one was stopping the Mavs in that second half.
