Dallas giving away game 1...

[Lyion]

Bet Vonk will be miffed... Dallas should've won Game 1.

[Phlegm]

What was Stackhouse thinking with that last shot?

[Tuggan]

how bout that cleveland game?

[Phlegm]

how bout that cleveland game?

Close game. Cleveland would have tied it if they hit 9 three pointers in a row.

[Tuggan]

[Zanchief]

What was Stackhouse thinking with that last shot?

Stackhouse stinks in the playoffs. This is fact.

[Lyion]

It appears Bowen can foul the bejesus out of Dirk and not get called.

Ah well, Ginobli appeared to be fouled a lot and it wasn't called. That or the guy falls over a lot in his goal of winning an Emmy.

[vonkaar]

It appears Bowen can foul the bejesus out of Dirk and not get called.

It just sucks because... we just need ONE game on their home court... and 'this' was the best game to do it. They had the least amount of rest... Parker was hurt... we were rested... blahblah...

it's bullshit.

Nobody is really blaming Stack up here. He played pretty well for us. Dirk did his thing... Bowen is a punk. Dirk needs to post up more. The biggest let down were our centers. Timmie played them like they were his bitches. The three of them combined for 4 points and a handful of rebounds... and 11ty billion fouls. If we have ANY chance at this series, our centers need to wake the fuck up.

[Zanchief]

Dallas doesn't have a player that can stop Timmy. you may think Diop and Dampire can, but they can't.

[vonkaar]

Shrug... they did in the regular season... which I'd say is a measure of success for ANY OTHER TEAM... or hell, ANY OTHER PLAYER. But... Tim just turns it on in the playoffs.

[Lyion]

The extra rest really showed for Duncan. He was a monster.

Dallas should've won the game, but in the 4th when I expected them to pick it up, they didn't.

How about Dirk with the breakaway dunk, not getting caught from behind.

[Spliffs]

Bowen is a monster. Excellent pick for the '08 Olympic team.

I feel bad for Dallas - to use a baseball term, they have "warning track power"

[vonkaar]

Bowen is a monster?

No... he's a dirty fucking player and 90% of the league complains about him after SA leaves their town. That game was NOT legit. Cuban is going to have fits if Bowen gets away with that bullshit in game 2. He was basically hugging Dirk for the entire game.

[Rotj]

Game 2: Dallas vs San Antonio: 113-91

cue celebration from vonk

[vonkaar]

whee

[Phlegm]

What happened in the second game? How did Dallas trounced San Antonio so badly?

[Zanchief]

My guess would be TD in foul trouble.

The parts I saw he wasn't playing.

[Lyion]

What happened in the second game? How did Dallas trounced San Antonio so badly?

San Antonio looked tired in game 2. They looked tired in game 1, but Dallas played down some in the final quarter and gave a game away that they should've won.

Game 3 wasn't close. Dallas came out firing on all four cylinders and quickly took the lead and never really looked back. They were up by 20 at half.

Duncan was in foul trouble from the get go and it seems Avery employed more of a driving and attacking mentality to help his overmatched centers out on the other end.

Ginobli also played like complete garbage. He was somewhat of an X factor in game 1, but didn't really provide the same spark in game 2.

Game 3 should be fun. I expect San Antonio to make changes.

[vonkaar]

Basically... Avery had two ideas for the first two games. In game one, we tried to play 'San Antonio' basketball. That is, grind it out, half-court offense... take your time setting up shots - fast breaks only when you know you got em. We did pretty well with that. We missed 9 free throws and had a couple of other strange 'un-maverick-like' mistakes and we lost game one. In all seriousness, we should have won that first game. Avery also noticed some key things. He saw that Parker and Ginobili were NOT very quick off the draw in game 1. Our centers couldn't stop Duncan, but Timmie wasn't enough of a threat to carry an entire team anymore. Their long-range game isn't nearly scary enough to spend ANY time on double-teams... we just have to clog up the middle to prevent easy post-up plays and slashers jumping in and scoring, or kicking out to open men. Make the MIDDLE the priority on defense. On offense... we don't need to be so slow because San Antonio isn't nearly as fast as they were last year.

See... Last year, Phoenix' game was to outrun San Antonio. They failed because Ginobili and Parker ALONE were fast enough to outscore Phoenix - even with Amare. They bulldozed Phoenix without much of an effort. This year, Manu and Tony are injured and it shows with their speed. Parker's shooting touch is still there, and he can still cut to the basket like nobody in the league... but he has HALF of his fast-break ability because of his injuries.

So... game 2 rolls around. Avery makes a few simple adjustments. We go 'fast' with Harris in the starting lineup... and that makes the huge huge difference. He's the parker killer... he's the difference maker in this whole series.

Foul trouble wasn't that big of a deal... both teams had 15 fouls at the half. San Antonio was booing like mad but... seriously, we were TIED going into the half. Gimme a break. If anything, our centers were heavily fouled and Tim should have been able to exploit our smaller lineups even more.

It was a simple matter of San Antonio's inability to run with Dallas. Chalk it up to injuries or their lack of rest... Dallas simply outplayed them. Pop's quotes in the postgame totally reflect this. He made no excuses, he just congratulated Dallas on a job well done.

I honestly don't know what type of changes San Antonio CAN make at this point. Michael Finley is THE x-factor in this series though... seriously... he's the one that I keep going back to as the 'oh yeah...' in their arsenal. He's healthy, he's shooting well... and he's got a chip on his shoulder.

but so do the mavs

Very very good series in the making.

[Snero]

I only watched a couple mins of the game, but you can't really say fouls weren't an issue because the totals were even, it's more important who got those fouls. Timmy was out with 3 fouls pretty early and that killed the spurs

[vonkaar]

Diop, Terry, Dampier and Daniels all had 3 fouls in the first half... Dirk had the other 2. Tim is the ONLY Spur who had 3 fouls the entire first half. The TEAM had a lot of fouls, but only ONE player had those 3 fouls.

Besides... "Fouls weren't an issue," means "don't blame the refs" more than anything. Because... those fans were booing like CRAZY. As if San Antonio was the only one getting whistled.

[Spliffs]

Bowen is a monster?

No... he's a dirty fucking player and 90% of the league complains about him after SA leaves their town. That game was NOT legit. Cuban is going to have fits if Bowen gets away with that bullshit in game 2. He was basically hugging Dirk for the entire game.

He gets away with it and its effective. Whether you or anyone else thinks its "dirty" is irrelevant. It's all about wins and losses. The only people complaining are the ones who are burned by it. The league office has about 4 bazillion hours of tape to look at, but they havn't ever taken action against him, so what's the problem?

[vonkaar]

I love when people argue about things they have no clue about...

The league office has about 4 bazillion hours of tape to look at, but they havn't ever taken action against him, so what's the problem?

Uh... Just this year (in March) , the league fined him 10k for kicking Ray Allen in the back...

Two years ago, he was suspended and fined $7500 for ninja kicking poor wally in the face...


Off the top of my head... in the past 5 years, only Rasheed Wallace, Ron Artest and Bonzi Wells have been fined more often and more severely for on-court infractions than Bruce Bowen. Other than Mark Cuban, of course .

[Rotj]

poor m.finley if SA gets knocked off by the Mavs

[Spliffs]

Well, I was more refering to the way he plays night in and night out. Sure kicking people in the head is bad form, but it has nothing to do with how he guards. He is an excellent defender, and you know it.