Playoffs Round 1: #3 Spurs vs #6 Mavericks

[ScolaFan]

Well that sucked. congrats mavs fans and spurs haters.

[br3akdwon]

Nice win for the Mavs!

[Legend D]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]No surprise here either. DON predicted the Mavericks to win the series.


DON is almost always right.[/FONT]

[TMT]

Can't say I watched much of the game. I was rather busy. Any neutral fans care to explain how it all went down?

[Hawker]

Great win...60 points in the 4th quarter. Let's keep this up baby!

[Kiddlovesnets]

The Spurs shot like 80% from the 3pt line but still lost?

[OldSchoolBBall]

Duncan spurred (heh) a nice 3rd quarter comeback, but Dallas kept the gas on and pulled away late. Doesn't look good for the Spurs. They'd need 3rd quarter Duncan to show up all game and get a big contribution from Parker (mainly more efficient; he had a good game). Bass looked very active tonight for Dallas, Howard played about as well as he's going to, and Barea's defense against Parker and timely offense was a surprise.

[niko]

Can't say I watched much of the game. I was rather busy. Any neutral fans care to explain how it all went down?

i'm not neutral but i'll give you waht i saw with no spin. two things..
1) The defense is the second half by SA was very porous on the dribble penetration. Barea had a run where he was driving to the basket at will. In the 1st half, that wasn't happening as much. This allowed Dallas to get easier baskets and for the kickouts to result in easier shots. (The Barrea / Parker matchup at times went heavily to Barrea when Dallas made their run.) in the 1st half SA gave Dallas nothing inside, all jump shots until the very end of the 2nd.
2) When Dirk went out the Spurs took their foot off Dallas's throat and let up a little. The 10 point lead was only 4 (2?) at halftime even though Dirk didn't play the last 6 or 7 minutes.
3) It felt a little like Shaq in LA where he'd be killing, and the ball would stop going to him. Duncan was a BEAST (he had a play where they intentionally fouled him and he muscled the ball up with a little spin and it still went in). But down the stretch, it didn't go to him all the time.

That's what i saw.

BTW, on a totally not neutral point, Parker saying Barrea was flopping during the game is a total joke. Barrea fouls Parker, parker backflips and falls down. Parker hits Barrea, Barrea barely moves. How is that flopping? Flopping includes diving and exaggerating contact, no?

[Hoggle]

When dallas would make their run, spurs would be totally off their game. On almost every possession of the spurs, they would settle for some kind of jump shot and the ball wouldn't go into duncan for a kick out. Spurs thrive on duncan being able to get the ball and then kick it out for a 3, but I'm pretty sure they didnt take a 3point shot from halftime until the last 2 minutes of play(they were about 8/9 i believe).

All in all I wasn't surprised that the Spurs lost their first game. It seems like its an ongoing thing that they lose the first game of the first series (didn't they lose the first game vs the Nuggets the last 2 seasons and then win 4 straight?)

[kentatm]

Barea has killed the Spurs before this year. I forget which regular season game it was but Pop actually assigned Bowen to guard him b/c he was driving at will.

I also don't think Barea flops really all that much. Its more that the dude is just 5'10 170 and literally bounces off of bigger guys (ie everyone) that drive hard at him. He also is excellent at getting good position so make up for his height.

I posted it before in here but Barea is top 10 in the L at drawing charges even though he only gets 20 minutes a game.


Also, its extremely funny to hear Parker cry about flopping when Manu is his teammate.

[kentatm]

Easy for the Spurs. The Mavs bench is trash outside of Terry. Bass is not going to have any impact in a series like this.

[JustinJDW]

It's funny, we made all the Defensive Adjustments for Dirk and Terry, but Josh Howard and even Barrea are the guys that end up killing us. No fair.

It was a great Game, until the 4th Quarter. It was tied going into the 4th. But the Spurs just fell apart in the 4th. We put Duncan in too late, we put Bowen on Howard instead of Terry too late, Parker did not drive enough in the 4th and we let Barrea do whatever the hell he wanted.

I can't say Duncan and Parker did not play great though, they did. Duncan looked like 27 again. Roger Mason played great and Drew Gooden played great. We dominated the 3-Point Line and even the Paint for a little bit, but the Mavs just played better in the 4th and that's what mattered and that's what got them to win. I tip my head off to the Mavs, but mostly Josh Howard. That fool was ballin.

Anyway, Game 2 is obviously a must win for the Spurs. If we go 0-2 to the Mavs with the next 2 Games in Dallas, then there is no chance. Spurs HAVE to win Game 2 and we HAVE to steal a Game in Dallas, just like the Mavs stole one from us. Hopefully we can go 2-2 going into Game 5, and if we do that, than we have a pretty damn good shot at winning this Series. But we have to win these Games before we can even talk about winning anything else at all.

Go Spurs Go! And this should be a kick ass Series!

[iLoveNBA]

J.J Barea is pretty underrated, It's nice to see that he's playing behind Jason Kidd and Kidd is also mentoring him.

Spurs will probably take the next game, but the Mavs will still win in 6 or 7.

[kentatm]

J.J Barea is pretty underrated, It's nice to see that he's playing behind Jason Kidd and Kidd is also mentoring him.

Spurs will probably take the next game, but the Mavs will still win in 6 or 7.

JJBs improvement this year is directly related to Kidd being on the team. The two have become pretty good friends and Kidd has worked with him quite a bit this season to improve his passing and decision making.

At the start of the year, most Mavs fans and observers (myself included) thought of JJB as something of a toy that was fun for the spectacle of seeing somebody his size on the court but ultimately useless as a rotation player. There were calls to get a "legit" backup PG almost all year. People actually got pissed the Mavs wouldn't trade for Beno Urdrih and his crap ass contract b/c they thought JJ couldnt be of use.

RC though has shown creativity and patience with the way he uses JJ and along with Kidd has developed him nicely. Before the year started I would have never thought of playing a lineup of JJB/Terry/Kidd/Dirk/Bass but RC threw it out there (starting in late December I think) and it has proven to be very effective when the matchups are right.

[Biddy77]

i was off. predicted dallas by 12, and howard with 19. bleh.

that game was fun to watch. guys from each team really showed up to play! finley 5-5 from 3, 7-10 overall... that's sick. barea, howard, bass, even dampier put in some good work.

duncan was nuts. parker was 'meh'... 8 assists, but 5 turnovers. scored well, but took a lot of shots to do it...

great game to watch, though. very nice battle for the 1st round.