<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> Use "The Others" - So far it seems that Dirk isn't in his groove, he's missing shots that he'd normally make, if those shots had gone he would of had 40 or so on us, the point is if he's not playing well the other players have to step up, Finley has to hit those catch and shoot jumpers, Josh Howard has to drive to the rim like he did in game 2 more for easy layups or free throws and Jason Terry has to hit his jumpers, if Dirk can't get it going, the rest have to. Don't let Houston build up Confidence - Strange key point here eh? Well it's hard to explain, but once Houston gains confidence they play alot better, for example Jon Barry his a three, ok good he hits alot of them, he hits another three and you can sense he's feeling it, he shoots the third and you know its going in, same with Bob Sura and his clutch three pointers, look at Yao he only missed 1 shot in the previous game, and that could of been argued as a turnover, look at T-Mac throughout the whole regular season, must I remind you of the game against the Spurs? 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 - Same key as before, the Mavs stayed in the game because they out rebounded us by alot, i'm not sure of the exact number but i'm pretty sure it was over ten, and the the thing is on every posession anything can happen right? someone might miss a shot and if someone gets an offensive rebound it can lead to a four point play, you never know, and the Mavs have much better rebounders on their team then we do, if they take advantage of this again, and their players are all in order, we're gone. Trip?s Prediction Although many would like to call the series over, it is anything but. The Mavs are a great team on the road and in a must-win game 3, we might get a battle for the ages. If the Rockets clinch it, they most likely win the series; if the Mavericks do, they have a chance. Expect Nowitzki to finally snap out of his shooting funk, and Michael Finley to lead the Dallas backcourt. However, the Rockets, if they keep up their play in the first two games, should take this one at home. Rockets 108 Mavericks 100 AznxBaller's Prediction Alright, we've won two games in Dallas so there should be some easy wins in Houston right? Wrong. Although we've got home crowd and a lot of confidence going into this game, it won't be easy. Dallas is still a strong team with arguably the best bench. In this game, they would be going strong at us and basically playing with everything on the line since they wouldn't want to play with a 0-3 on their minds in the fourth game. However, I also definitely think this game is well within our reach. McGrady has been involving teammates and making our team flow much better. Houston win, 100-98. Note-In my opinion, Dallas has found a weakness in our team on Monday and might even be exploiting it by playing small ball. However, this is if and only if Avery Johnson figures this out and switches his lineups. And since he didn't do it in the last game, I don't think he will this game. Dan's Prediction Looks like i'm going to be the bad pessimistic one here, I still can't see us winning, well maybe I can but since my predictions against our team have normally come up with good results i'll stick to it, we're a better team on the road then we are at home and our next two games are home games, I hope the crowd really gets into this since it's our first game at home in the playoffs this year and we really need the support because I really don't think we can hold Dirk to another average game, even though I said the same thing to myself in Game 2, but then again T-Mac has been playing great and it looks like Yao has picked up his performance as well, it's a coin toss this game. Houston - 108 Dallas - 116
sorry to say, but I gotta be pessimistic here right with ya Dan Le...My current prediction is Rockets in 6, but I really wouldn't mind 5 games or dare I say a sweep?
Heh I see you're keeping to your pessimistic self Dan? lol Dallas will be real hyped up for this game so it will be a hard one for sure. Hopefully we could get off on the right foot right from the start like the lastgame. We have to bring back our defence for this game and keeping up the attack. We should not let them outrebound us like they have the last 2 games. TMac and Yao will hopefully keep up their form from the last game and continue hiiting big shots. Sura and co. better bring their A game as well. I think we could win this by 6 or 8, depends on how well we cope with them this time around. This is a make or break game. The series has just begun.
Rockets need to take this one to grab this series by the throat. Dallas will be ready, but I have a feeling the Rockets will pull this one. Listening to their comments yesterday on the news, they aren't taking the Mavs lightly. Rockets 119 Dallas 116
I think we have to be careful with this game. We may have the home court advantage, but Mavs may be out for blood this game. They may have alot of doubts from their own fans, so they have something to prove to us all. Avery would have prepared them for this game very well knowing that their backs are against the wall. JVG being a good experienced coach should realise this and is hopefully preparing the Rockets for this.
we have to take into consideration our momentu mfor this game.we beat them in their home and i think wecrushed their spirits kind of haha. so i think rockets will pull this one off
Damn we're down 32~27 at the end of the first. Our offense is there but our D was nonexistent. We have to bring our D up if we are to win this game. Dallas came out guns ablazing and we gotta shut them down on both ends of the court. Hopefully we'll regain the lead by the half.
we're down by 8 now. 41-33. we can't let go this game coz mavs will regain their confidence if they win. I can't watch the game though cuase nets-heat goes into double overtime..
Down by 5 still at the half. Even scoring at 22 apiece in the second quarter. We're playing good but we seiously gotta step up the D. Dirk has been heating up and Finley's like hot from the 3 point land. TMac and sura are in double digits but we gotta keep Yao in the game too. Feed him the ball constantly because he is a factor in the game for sure. Hopefully we bounce back in the second half and mount a comeback because we really need to get that 3rd win.
This is more like it. We're winning 70 to 61 as i type this and we've scored 23 points in the 3rd quarter while they only have 9 points. The D is stepping up like we needed them to and things are looking up. Maintain this momentum inot the 4th and we got the game in the bag.
i think we're just too complacent.. right now we're most likely lost this home game. Better come fully prepared saturday
We got too cocky, and didnt match the intensity of dallas. Houston was lackadaisical tonight. We didnt deserve to win.
T-Mac was smiling at the end....that REALLY pissed me off...where's the competitive fire? If they don't bring it saturday...
The good thing about the loss was that it was a wakeup call for the Rockets. They won't be so cocky next game.
the rockets were too complacent when they got 88-80 lead. They tought they had the game already. That's why Dallas made that 20 - 0 run. The Mavs will come with a big confidence on staurday and we have to match that confidence with intensity. the game on saturday is a must win for us. If not i can see our hope to advance to WCF will dissapear. and is it just me or our crowd was not loud enough? seems like Dallas crowd were a LOT louder than us
If we end up losing this series, that 20-0 run will haunt this team all off-season. What a terrible way to lose a game. At this point, I think we'll win the next game and win the series in 5 or 6 games. But if we lose the next game, I think the Mavs will win in 7. The last time Houston faced Avery Johnson in the playoffs, ironically, was in the '95 playoffs when he was the start PG for the Spurs. In that series, we won the first two games on the road, then lost the next two. But we were able to wrap up the series in 6 games regardless. I don't expect we'll be able to do that if we let Mavs take game 4, however.
