Sunday, April 19, 2009

San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks

Wow, all I can say is that the Spurs played the game the way they wanted and got all of the calls and lost at home. The Spurs came out hitting on all cylinders. Tim Duncan looked like the rest really helped his knees and he was hitting his patented bank shot. Tony Parker was getting to the rim and the Spurs were able to get Nowitzki in foul trouble and things didn't look good for Spurs. This looked like the Spurs would just pile it on. Duncan ended the game with 27 pts and 9 rebs, while he got help from Tony Parker (24 pts, 8 asts, 4 rebs) and Mike Finley (perfect from 3 land for 19 pts and 4 rebs).

At that point in the game when all hope was slowly going out the door, enter JJ Barea. Barea was able to get to the lane and hit shots and was the spark plug that turned the game around for the Mavericks. He only had 13 pts and 3 asts, but they were big for this team. Josh Howard had a great game with 25 pts, 4 rebs, and 3 asts. Dirk had a rough game as he got in foul trouble early, but I noticed two things. Dirk whines way too much and he was able to collect himself after some dubious calls went against him (attn NBA refs: You can call a foul on Bruce Bowen, really). Dirk ended with 19pts, 8 rebs, and 2 asts. Please continue to run that isolation play for Dirk at the foul line, that's money.


Key facts:

- Jason Kidd really doesn't have to score too much for this Mavericks team to win, and that's probably a good thing. He ended the game with 4 pts, 8 rebs, 5 asts, and 2 stls.

- The player of the game for the Mavs was Erick Dampier, yes Dampier. He quietly played Duncan tough (yes Duncan had 27 pts, but it didn't seem like that at the end of the game) and he had his own double double, 10 pts , 11 rebs, 1 blk, and ONLY 1 TO.

- The player of the game for the Spurs was Roger Mason Jr. I knew this kid could shoot when I watched him at Virginia, but he needed to go to the right team and guess what, he did. He hit some tough 3's last night to keep giving the Spurs their lead or to catch back up to the Mavs. He ended with 13 pts, 5 rebs, and 4 asts.


I know it's one game, but I think the Spurs are in trouble. They don't have Manu over there on the bench to come in and save them anymore.

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