No team in the NBA I love beating more than the Lakers.
Elton Brand is going to be solid all year like I said three months ago and got clowned.
Where is JA at?
Was tweeting all game, then the girlfriend came over and we carved pumpkins..
On the Lakers.
I don't feel like Dwight is 100% healthy, and if he is, it looks like he's a bit weary about doing anything too athletic because of his back. He just didn't seem to have his normal bounce. There was a play where Beaubois missed a short jumper, and got the tap-in surrounded by Dwight/Pau. That CANNOT happen. I can count the number of times Beaubois has gotten a put-back on one finger.
I want to see how the Princeton does in a good game. The first half the Lakers were getting some decent shots, but not getting ENOUGH shots. Too much dribbling from guys you don't want to see dribbling, like Ron Artest and Antawn Jamison. If I'm the Lakers, I don't care about an offense, because I have two guys that can dominate the ball and be efficient with it (Kobe and Nash). Carlisle handed the keys to Kidd and never had an issue with the offense. Nash should have that same freedom. I just don't want to see Nash walking the ball up, then seeing Howard in the high-post not setting a pick, but surveying his options. That's ********. You have Nash, an excellent pick-and-roll player, and you have Dwight, the most dominant big in the game. Back on Dwight though, he was getting out-hustled from Wright, Brand, and Curry all night and that's just part of the reason that makes me think he's not all there, health wise.
Also, I know Fisher/Ramon/Blake were never anything to write home about when you're talking about defense, but God DC/Beaubois torched him. I can't wait to see Westbrook play these guys. You talk about Nash feeding guys to Dwight, well that didn't work too well tonight. It will get better, but DC made easy work of Nash. It wasn't even close.
On the Mavs.
All-around I was shocked at how efficient the Mavs were on both ends. I was shocked to see DC so efficient offensively AND defensively. Maybe it's just because he was playing Nash, but I didn't think he'd be such a good defender. Maybe he's not, he looked good tonight. Mayo was off-and-on. It's a tough assignment when you gotta guard Kobe on one end then try and create for yourself on the other end. I fully expect him to struggle until Dirk comes back.
Wince was Wince. he will take the same terrible jumpshots every game, and some he'll hit. I'll take 5/12 from him. Shawn Marion is going to be huge while Dirk is out. He still has quite an offensive repertoire, he just hasn't been able to show it off too much in Dallas. He has that ugly release, and his post game is ugly too, but it's efficient. I was hoping Marion would be on Kobe, as I know he wouldn't have shot 11/14 on the Matrix, but whatever. Crowder, as I've said many times, is my new favorite Maverick. He's replaced JET rather easily. I was kind of disappointed not to see him more after how good he was in the first half.
The bigs were great. Brand shot 3/10, but that's not indicative of how well he played. Defensively, he was great. He was great on the boards, and decent offensively. Curry did exactly what we needed him to, and I'm happy enough there. Wright though… Wright always has had great games for Dallas, then he dips for a bit. I'm happy he played so well. It will do wonders for his confidence.
The main thing I was happy about was the passing. 20+ assists in a game, and a 2:1 ATO ratio. The Mavericks struggled MIGHTILY with turnovers in the pre-season, but the passes tonight were crisp, short, and on-point. There was the occasional bad-pass, but I liked what I saw from the guys. No selfish basketball.