Wizards v. Mavericks: Preseason Game Blog 1
by Truth About It
on Oct 8, 2008 7:21 AM EDT
in Game blogs
WARNING: The preseason game blog below elicited immediate postings last night/this morning from all three contributors to this blog. Enjoy!
- I hate being a fan of this team sometimes [Pradamaster, 1:13 am]
- That's one way to start your preseason off with a bang [Jake The Snake, 11:18 pm]
- Latest on Brendan Haywood from Comcast's Chris Miller [Truth, 11:16 pm] (oh yea, and this one at TAI - What 'Being In Good Spirits' Means For A Washington Wizards Fan)
1st Quarter
Well, disappointing news to start....both Nick Young and Juan Dixon will be out tonight.
With Brendan Haywood out as well, Etan Thomas gets the start and not Andray Blatche. Good. AB needs to stay used to bringing his energy off the bench.
11:37: To start, DeShawn Stevenson loses his man (Antoine Wright) off a curl, Jamison must help and the pass goes right to AJ's man, Dirk Nowitzki, for the baseline jumper.
11:08: Hmmm... the offense starts with an iso for Stevenson, not a lot of movement and Antonio Daniels has to force up a long J, no rim, shot clock violation.
DeShawn loses Wright again, who drives, opens the lane for a pass to Erick Dampier, and a dunk. 4-0 Mavs. I'm not going to lie though, I do like the look of Stevenson's ol' school flat top.
The Wiz look a step behind on D so far...whether it's closing out, fighting through screens, etc....Etan Thomas makes a nice move on Dampier. 6-4 Mavs. The Wiz are aggressively playing the passing lanes.
8:41: Ohh...on a broken play, Butler makes a great back door cut on the baseline, gets the ball from DeShawn (who had picked up his dribble), and dunks on Dampier. They'll cite the Princeton, and that's true...Princeton cuts allow you to recover from broken plays.
The Wizards are not crisp so far....but that's okay. It's is the preseason.
7:42: Dirk makes Antawn Jamison look silly...uh oh...somehow, AJ gets caught in a bad position on the close out....gets frozen by the shooter and Dirk just goes right by Jamison for the baseline dunk. The initial replay doesn't show contact, such as a banged knee. AJ is rolling around on the floor...this doesn't look good at all. Going back to the close out...it just didn't seem right, Jamison was almost standing straight up with his hands at his side...giving Dirk the baseline......And now Jamison is being carried to the locker room. The second replay shows his right knee buckling as he planted, then tried to recover (albeit waaay too late) for Dirk's drive.
Weird....before that happened, I was just about to wonder..."If AJ shows that he's lost a significant step and Andray Blatche shows out in a major way, does AJ come off the bench like he did in Dallas that one year?".....then that happened. I gotta let out a huge sigh.....with a strong dose of here we go again.
Back in the action: Blatche, Songaila, Daniels, Butler, and Stevenson in the game.
6:15: Dallas goes up 14-11...no one accounts for Howard coming straight down the middle on the break after a long Blatche miss.
The Mavs don't exactly look in sync either....but again, to be expected from all angles in the first game for both teams.
4:55: Blatche tries to do a spin fade away over Dampier....and gets blocked.....bad shot.
3:24: Nice strong move by Blatche...give and go with DeShawn....AB used his length to get to the hoop for the scoop. 20-17 Mavs.
2:36: Dee Brown enters for Daniels (or Stevenson)....looking for some pushing with him, McGuire, Blatche, Butler, and Pecherov.
And the Presidential debatin' begins.
2:02: Blatche showing his ambidexterity with a lefty scoop. The update on Jamison is a sprained right knee.....judging from how it looked, that's about the best the report could be....but sprained knees could mean a wide range of missed time. 22-21 Mavs.
0:51: Taser gets a foul call on Jason Terry....driving against the smaller guy to the hoop. Dominic nails both FTs. On the other end, D-Mac is having to keep up with Terry on D....Brown is on Jose Barea.
0:22: Playing the two spot, D-Mac drives again, gets bothered and blocked on reverse, but Pecherov picks up the slack, gets a board, fouled and FTs. 25-25 tie.
0:02: Pech nails a three off a high screen and roll with Dee Brown at top of the key....Pech's face looks serious...and the Wiz take the lead, 28-27, after one. Blatche leads with 9 points, Butler second with 8.
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Competition Discussion: Dallas Mavericks
by Pradamaster
on Sep 17, 2008 12:05 PM EDT
in Team Analysis
The season is still two months away, but most of the rosters are set, barring the requisite Michael Jordan comeback rumor (just kidding, but only a little). We have an idea where our team stands, but we can't really know unless we discuss everyone else. In that spirit, I'm going to throw up a "competition discussion" thread for each of the other 29 teams over the next month or so. We'll go in alphabetical order from A to Z. Today's team: Dallas.
Last year's record: 51-31
In: DeSagana Diop, Gerald Green, Shan Foster
Out: Tyronn Lue, Antoine Wright, Jamaal Magloire.
Projected starting lineup: Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, DeSagana Diop.
Key themes:
- What difference will new coach Rick Carlisle make?
- Does Jason Kidd have anything left in the tank?
- How does Josh Howard respond after a tumultuous summer that continues to this day?
- Is Dirk Nowitzki beginning to slow down?
- Why in God's name did they re-sign Devean George?
- Who exactly do they expect to produce off the bench, other than Brandon Bass?
- Does the return of DeSagana Diop help at all?
Let's be clear: Dallas is no longer a championship contender. A lot of shuffling happened last year, but you can't tell me that the team as currently construced will really make a dent in the Western Conference. Jason Kidd is old and declining, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry are in their 30s and nobody knows how Josh Howard will respond after this summer. The Mavs are expecting Rick Carlisle to be the answer, but his coaching style is just the same as Avery Johnson's.
That said, I don't expect Dallas to be bad. Through all the problems last year, they still won 51 games with an expected win/loss record of 54-28. In Terry, Howard and Nowitzki, Dallas still has a Big 3 that can rival most teams in the league. Kidd may be slowing down, but he's not awful just yet, and the return of the Diop/Dampier two-headed monster at center will help matters. Dallas' guard depth is atrocious, yes, but Brandon Bass emerged last year off the bench.
The thing is, this team is suited for slow-paced basketball, which is what Carlisle teams have traditionally done. Nowitzki and Howard are excellent at scoring from the pinch-post (aka the elbow), and Terry and Nowitzki still run one of the meanest pick-and-rolls in the league. Of course, this begs the question of why Kidd was acquired in the first place, but Diop's return will help the defense and hopefully trigger more fast-break opportunities, which suits Kidd well. That's the hope, anyway.
Under Carlisle, I expect this team to defend better than last year, because they won't have tuned out the coach. That at least should get them back to 50 wins, but I can't see too many more because they'll never be able to run the same halfcourt offense with Kidd in there. Those wonderfully efficient Dallas offenses under Avery Johnson? Gone, because of Kidd, Carlisle and general age.
So, I see another low Western Conference playoff finish and another first-round exit. Not great, but not falling off the face of the planet either.
Prediction: 50-32, fourth in Southwest, sixth in West
Previously (predictions are me/Jake/Truth)...
4 comments | 0 recs
