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[Dallas Morn News] Mavs Won't Get a Better Chance (post all post-game articles here)

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by tigermission1, May 6, 2005.

  1. tigermission1

    tigermission1 Contributing Member

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    http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...aw/stories/050605dnspocowlishaw.7d59d089.html

    Mavs won't get a better chance
    Team coming home again, but its edge has gone away


    12:47 AM CDT on Friday, May 6, 2005

    HOUSTON – We won't know until Saturday night whether the Mavericks just lost a game Thursday night at the Toyota Center or whether the series went with it.

    Right now, it all looks bad for Dallas.

    The Mavericks had more than they could have possibly asked for in the second quarter in Game 6.

    They had a 10-point lead. They had an exhausted-looking Tracy McGrady headed to the bench. They had an ineffective and foul-plagued Yao Ming, who would never get his act together on this night, looking on from the bench.

    They had this series in their hands.

    But just as Houston could do nothing to capitalize on a 2-0 lead in this series, the Mavs displayed nothing approaching a killer instinct in Game 6. They went silent for more than six minutes in the fourth quarter as the Rockets won the series' first blowout, 101-83.

    Coach Avery Johnson was angry afterward about the focus of this series having been on Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy and his complaints about the calls against Yao.

    "Maybe I need to go crazy," Johnson said. "Then you won't talk about Game 6, you will talk about the coach going crazy. [But] we lost the game. We don't make excuses. The game was called fairly."

    Johnson also called out his team's defense again, and rightly so. The Mavs let the Rockets hit 48.6 percent of their shots to extend the series.

    "Our defense is not where it's supposed to be," Johnson said. "I think our guys came in with a satisfied attitude, and that's not acceptable."

    When everything was going Dallas' way early, the Mavs let Mike James come off the Rockets' bench and spark Houston right back into the game.

    They let Jon Barry kill them from 3-point range in the fourth quarter. And they let a golden opportunity slide through their fingers because Yao can't conceivably play this poorly and this soft a game Saturday night. Yao may never play another playoff game as badly as he did in Game 6.

    That the Mavs couldn't win with Yao contributing just eight points and five rebounds in the first three quarters is a bad sign. Yao sat and watched as Dikembe Mutombo played the fourth quarter when the Rockets pulled out front and ran away from Dallas.

    Dallas held a one-point lead going into the fourth, but the Mavs were outscored 25-10 in the first eight minutes of the quarter. Their defense reverted to its old ways of giving up layups and uncontested jump shots.

    Their offense went completely stagnant. There was little movement and less energy. In the first nine minutes of the quarter, when the game and the series' lead vanished, the Mavs' main scorers went 3-for-17.

    Dirk Nowitzki, who had another awful night from the field, was 1-for-7 in that stretch. Jerry Stackhouse, Dallas' best offensive weapon on this night, was 2-for-5. Jason Terry went 0-for-3, and Michael Finley was 0-for-2.

    No one could ignite an offense that was stuck on 80 for almost seven minutes, and so the Rockets ran off and hid and forced a Game 7.

    Why lean toward the Rockets in Game 7?

    Well, it certainly is no great advantage for Dallas that the game will be played at American Airlines Center. Home teams have won only two of six in this series.

    But the main reason you lean toward Houston is McGrady.

    Once James got Houston going in the second quarter, McGrady came to life. He finished with 37 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

    In a Game 7, you go with the great player most likely to impose his will on the opponent, and that player in this series clearly is McGrady.

    It's not Nowitzki, who went 5-for-22 in Game 6 and who is shooting 35 percent from the field against Houston.

    Dallas can still win, of course, but the Mavs are going to have to find that elusive "best" game that Johnson keeps talking about.

    He says the team still hasn't played a complete game in the series, that it can give a better effort. It's hard to change everything after six games.

    It's hard to imagine Nowitzki suddenly lighting up the Rockets for 40. It's hard to imagine the Mavs being blessed with Yao having another terrible game. He had come into Game 6 shooting better than 73 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free throw line before going 3-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-6 from the line and committing three turnovers.

    About the only Mav who doesn't have to dial it up a notch after Game 6 is Stackhouse, who hit his first six shots as Dallas quieted the crowd and had the Rockets down 10 and looking confused.

    In the end, with the Mavs scoring a whopping 13 points in the fourth quarter, it was Dallas that looked dazed and confused.

    The Mavericks' solid play in the middle of this series afforded them the luxury of losing Game 6 and getting another opportunity to advance.

    But their best opportunity was right here Thursday night, and they did nothing with it. You wonder what they will do when it's all on the line in Game 7 and Yao is back on his game and McGrady is in charge.

    E-mail w tcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
     
  2. tigermission1

    tigermission1 Contributing Member

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    http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...ore/stories/050605dnspomoorecol.7d5ac999.html

    T-Mac insists on a Game 7

    Van Gundy asks McGrady to extend series, and he does

    01:47 AM CDT on Friday, May 6, 2005

    HOUSTON – The request was absurd.

    It's the burden that goes with absurd talent.

    Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy knew he was asking Tracy McGrady to do too much. The scoring. Running the offense. Defending Dirk Nowitzki. But he told McGrady if the Rockets were going to extend this series and send it back to Dallas for a decisive Game 7, McGrady had to do something else.

    He had to do more. Both men nodded.

    Then McGrady went out and did just that.

    He scored a series-high 37 points. In the fourth quarter, when the Rockets had faded in the previous three games to lose control of the series, he stood strong.

    "You know what? I accepted the challenge," said McGrady who had 11 of his points in the fourth quarter. "Hopefully, I didn't disappoint tonight."

    Always the All-Star, never the winner. McGrady's inability to lead a team out of the first round in the first seven years of his career was a focal point entering this series. He talked about his hunger to end that streak.

    He then went out and scored 10 of the team's first 17 points Thursday night. He blistered the Mavericks for nine points in the final 2:26 of the second period to help turn what had been a 10-point deficit into a 52-45 halftime lead.

    The highlight: With 33.4 seconds left, McGrady elevated from well beyond the three-point line and buried a 3-pointer. He was fouled by Michael Finley and hit the free throw for the four-point play.

    "I had it rolling from the outside," said McGrady, who made a conscious effort to be more assertive in Game 6. "When I shoot threes the way I did, my defender is pretty much at my mercy because I can pull up at any given time.

    "When I play with that kind of confidence, there is nothing you can do but hope I miss shots."

    Van Gundy talked about how the Rockets feed off McGrady's confidence and intensity. That was evident when Houston needed it most.

    No matter what happens Saturday, the Rockets feel good about their future. McGrady is a player the team can build around. He's the player this franchise needs to move forward.

    "I don't think this series has convinced me of that," Van Gundy. "I think this year, watching his growth. He's played great and now we need more. That's just how it is. You don't want to put a limit on a guy like him who can do anything he wants like it's that easy, but you think he can accomplish even more.

    "I really do want to see him be successful. I think he's really tried to embrace the responsibility and the accountability of being the best player on the team. It's a burden. You can't have days off, you can't have practices off, you can't have a woe-is-me attitude, you can't leave it up to chance.

    "There is so much more that goes into being the best player rather than production on the court. It filters to your team. To me, he's grown so much in that this year. I applaud him for that, because it's not easy to accept that responsibility and accountability of being the best player. You have to be so mentally strong and really impervious to outside thinking.

    "I can't speak highly enough of him."

    And because McGrady did what he did Thursday, we'll be talking about him again Saturday.

    "When you take a series like this to Game 7, you have to be ready," McGrady said. "Hopefully, we can make it a classic game.

    "We're shooting to come out of it."

    E-mail dmoore@dallasnews.com
     
  3. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    Wow, they're totally fearing the Yao

    Laugh Out Loud

    My rhymes make me proud

    Game 7 is in No Doubt
     
  4. tigermission1

    tigermission1 Contributing Member

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    Interesting tidbit...

    Home-court advantage. History says the host gets a huge emotional boost from a raucous crowd, coupled with familiar surroundings.

    Since 1947, 88 playoff series have reached a Game 7. The home team has won 72 of those, a winning percentage of 81.8. Both Mavericks' Game 7 wins have come at American Airlines Center.

    But two road teams have won Game 7s this decade – the Van Gundy-coached Knicks in 2000 and the Lakers in 2002.

    •Team history. The Mavericks have been good in Game 7s with a 2-1 record. Houston has been better. The Rockets have lost only one Game 7 in six tries – and three of the victories came in 1994 and '95, when they won back-to-back NBA titles.

    But neither Hakeem Olajuwon nor anyone else from that team will be in a Rockets uniform Saturday.
     
  5. MartianMan

    MartianMan Contributing Member

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    wow, respect....hmm...i rather have them talking trash. That's just me.
     
  6. vwiggin

    vwiggin Contributing Member

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    Wow, Dallas' writers are giving up kind of easily. If I were a Dallas fan I would be kind of pissed.

    Oh well, the truth hurts. :)
     
  7. meh

    meh Contributing Member

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    Yao's game notwithstanding, I thought the Rockets played with as much intensity as a team can play in game 6. So it would be hard to match that in a game 7 on the opposing court. Plus, we made a much higher % of 3s than we normally do. While the Mavs were missing a ton of open 3s they normally make. It would be hard to count on such a big discrepancy in 3pt shooting in game 7.

    Overall, I think the Mavs should have a slight edge in game 7.
     
  8. AMS

    AMS Contributing Member

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    overall i think you should sthu..

    i believe.
     
  9. elisabin

    elisabin Contributing Member

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    We stopped their 3:0 run...

    Yao got a good rest this evening and is due for a good game...

    We love our away-court advantage... :D

    Yeahhhhhhhh ClutchCity2005.... :)
     
  10. Panda

    Panda Member

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    Dallas completely fell apart under the "Last Quarter of Series Pressure". They are vulnerable now and it's the perfect time to stick the dagger into their hearts coming game 7!
     
  11. Davidoff

    Davidoff Contributing Member

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    HAHAHAHA..

    The first one is a Tim Cowlishaw article, he has to look some what good when he goes on TV today... BOO THIS MAN!!
     
  12. pettinati

    pettinati Contributing Member

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    b*itches!!!!!!
     
  13. BiGGieStuFF

    BiGGieStuFF Contributing Member

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    Well 1 of 2 rarities will happen tomorrow.

    Either one team will come back from 0-2 deficit, or a road team will win in game 7.

    Why is it I feel more comfortable with the rockets on the road :).

    We had our little losing streak and now we should reel off a couple wins.
     
  14. emjohn

    emjohn Contributing Member

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    Mavs won't get a better chance

    That's a genius headline for a game 7 if I've ever seen one.

    Evan
     
  15. Cesar^Geronimo

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    watching this series convinced me of the difference between McGrady and Nowitzki. Dallas has a deeper, younger team but McGrady has the "heart of a champion", Dirk doesn't.

    If you removed McGrady and Dirk from this series I think Dallas wins --- but with McGrady and his role players it is a great series.

    To think this is only year 1 in the rebuilding and we are already talking about being contenders. I believe there is no doubt that over the next few years the rebuilding and retooling will continue and this team will only get better.
     
  16. rudager

    rudager Member

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    Give him the wrath of the numchucks.
     
  17. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    LOL, what? Their best chance - in a series that has gone to the last few minutes of every game, was when they were up 10 in the 1st period? A 10 point lead has proven about as safe as an exploding Ford Pinto in this series.
     
  18. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    that's what i was thinking. double-digit leads are disappearing by the minute in this series. i get the feeling it's a coin-flip. which team will go on their run LAST?? that team will win the game and the series.

    man, i love this team, though!!! bob sura is my freaking hero. and i did not just faint.
     
  19. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    Things turned around after Sura knocked down Josh Howard. The game seemed more personal rather than defensive. It always gets me how the team will stand up for Yao.

    The crowd helped a lot. It took the drama of an elimination game to bring them out, but I'm not complaining...

    Overall, if there's something to keep them on edge (other than the fear of losing), these guys are unbeatable. Mutombo will play like he's 32, the bench will kick in, and McGrady will be McGrady.
     
  20. Nautic

    Nautic Member

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    Game 7 News headline:

    [Dallas Moaning News] Mavs won't get another chance
     

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