Dallas played defense. I talked before about the Mavs' winning with defense but this is different! Ironically in that post I talked about how Shawn Marion brought a new defensive aspect to the Mavs' and about how he blocked Caron Butlers potential game winner. Well...now Caron Butler is a Dallas Maverick as is his teammate Brendan Haywood.
Haywood is the guy I want to talk about first. He had a nice line last night with 15 points 9 boards and 2 blocks, but it was something else that he did that doesn't show up on the stat sheet that allowed Dallas to get the win. He is a true defensive presence in the middle for Dallas! Superman (Dwight Howard) got his with 29 points 16 rebounds and 5 blocks. But Haywood allows Dallas to play a big man like Howard 1on 1...which they've never truly been able to do. Typically when Damp is the starting center for the Mavericks they'd double team big men like Howard or even power forwards like Duncan and Garnett which obviously leaves a shooter open around the three point line. Good bigs can pass out of a double team effectively and get the ball to the open man for an open look at the basket. Dallas used to get burned by the likes of good 3 point shooting teams like the Suns, Magic, and Nuggets because there seemed to always be an open man shooting the three. But the last two games against two of the best three point shooting teams in the NBA (Suns, Magic) the Mavs' have been able to nearly completely take away their three point shooting ability making it a virtual non-factor. The Suns the other night shot a horrific 5 of 22 from beyond the three point line, and last night the Magic were even worse at 4 of 25! Why...how? Well the answer is Brendan Haywood. He plays Dwight Howard 1 on 1 and even though Superman scores 29 points the other guys are still guarded! There are so many options for the Magic when it comes to 3 point shooting, but last night they had a hand in their face every shot they took! Haywood gives the Mavericks the ability to guard the perimeter and hold teams to a low 3 point %. This will definitely come in handy when they play the Nuggets and Lakers who are both very good 3 point shooting teams.
Now, Caron Butler! He seems to be figuring things out now and boy does he look good! He is terrific off the dribble and can drive to the hoop with the best of em! I'm so excited because he scored 16 points last night and I believe that will only get better. He'll continue to figure out the Maverick system and become a deadly option for the Mavs'. Dirk scored 23 and the Mavs' beat Orlando in Orlando! Typically to win a road game against a team like that Dirks got to put up 30+ to keep them in it. But he scored 23, Butler had 16, Terry had 16, and Haywood had 15...thats what you call "great stuff"!
The game was fun to watch. The Mavs' started out slow and fell behind by eleven at one point in the 3rd quarter. But Dirk kept them alive scoring 13 points in the third alone, and then his team took over. During a 5 minute stretch starting with a minute and 49 seconds left in the third and the Mavs' down 11 Orlando stopped scoring. It was 69-58 when Dirk got the run started for the Mavs' with a couple straight buckets, and then Terry hit a big three to cut the lead to 4 heading into the 4th quarter. The Mavs' forced the Magic into six turnovers during the run and held them to only 6 attempted shots (all of which they missed). The Mavs' continued the run in the fourth scoring the first 12 points of the quarter. So after being down 11, in only 5 minutes they were up 8 having gone on a 19-0 run from which the Magic never recovered! Dallas held up defensively and Kidd hit a huge dagger three with a 1:20 left to put the game out of reach.
This was a huge win for Dallas inasmuch as the win over Phoenix was a good win and a confidence booster...this win was an even better road win that could boost Dallas to win more than a few in a row for the first time in two months! They have a chance to make it three straight tonight against a Dwayne Wade-less Miami Heat. This game is in Dallas and could be another nice home win over a Heat team that has won 5 straight games and 4 straight on the road. We'll see how the Mavs' play tonight on the second night of a B2B and their 4th game in 5 days, hopefully they can continue playing well together and learning with their new teammates!
No comments:
Post a Comment