All-Access Pass: Wizards 102, Mavs 91

    The telling moment of the Mavs’ 102-91 season-opening home loss to Washington came with exactly 3:08 remaining in the first half. Dallas was down 52-43 and coach Rick Carlisle turned right, toward his bench, and began to motion with his right arm for a suitable answer, an effective fix, the proper sub.

   But then he retracted his arm and turned the other way. Carlisle had no suitable answer, no effective fix, no proper sub. There was no "there'' down there.

   Your All-Access Pass to a deflating night at the AAC:

  

   

   A HOLE IN THE MIDDLE: Already in the game at that moment described above was the fivesome of Dirk, Kidd, Jet, Marion and JJB. None of them are centers, of course, but Carlisle had already run through all of them. … just as the Wizards had run through them.

    Dallas started Erick Dampier, went to Drew Gooden, played both of them together for a bit, experimented with Kris Humphries for a failed stint, and then finally settled on that familiar 3-PG Attack of Kidd, Jet and JJB. That meant Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion were the “big men.’’ And it was a disaster.

   Damp recorded a block early in the game, but the Mavs didn’t fully contest another shot in the paint until guard Quinton Ross did it in the final Wiz possession of the first quarter. The lack of rim protection allowed starting center Brendan Haywood to score on three consecutive dunks in the first quarter and to finish with seven points and 10 rebounds. Meanwhile, big ‘un Andray Blatche gave Washington 20 points, most of them on the interior, most of them rather surprising.

   How did Dallas’ centers respond?

   Damp got his numbers but he didn’t win his battles. Humphries was ineffective in his five-minute trial run. And most of all, there was Gooden. Gooden was awful on defense, and when he tried to compensate on the other end, unraveled into the shot-hunting kook that he’s been in previous stops. (Somebody needs to tell Drew that he’s not Karl Malone. And that if he keeps this up, he won’t even be James Singleton.)

   The nicest thing I can say about Drew as a “co-starting center’’ is that he played like a minimum-wage backup forward. (Seriously, I was a bit surprised when Gooden’s first appearance really was as a 4. He replaced Dirk at 4:27 of the first quarter when the Mavs were up 15-11. Three minutes and two wild Gooden misses later they were down 19-17.

   A COMPLETE DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWN: These things tend to go hand-in-hand, interior defense disappearing after perimeter defense does the same. That was the case here.

   As we predicted Jason Kidd opened covering Gilbert Arenas. You’ve got to take your chances there. Arenas finished with 29, but there’s more to the story than “beating Kidd.’’

   Washington scored 35 points in the second quarter against Rick’s “your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine defensive aligment. So Carlisle largely gave up on trying to come back on the strength of his defense. Jason Terry started the second half and the move failed to work immediately and failed to work after that, too. With less than eight minutes remaining and Dallas trying to stay alive, there was Carlisle’s 3-PG Attack. Guess who drew the assignment of covering Arenas?

    At times, it was Jason Terry. And it was like those two guys were playing two different sports.

   Carlisle said, “The problem, I felt, was our second-quarter defense," Carlisle said. "When they got 35 points in that quarter ... it deflated us to a certain degree.’’

     But really, the problems didn’t exactly stop after the 35-point quarter, you know?

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COACH CARLISLE: Rick turned 50 on Tuesday, and gave himself a present: performing the National Anthem was his buddy, musician Bruce Hornsby. Hornsby’s jazz-piano rendition was absolutely brilliant, and our group had the honor of meeting him. He shook our hand left-handed, and limp-wet-fishy. We assume it was to avoid injury to his money-maker. So we shook softy in return.

    GOODEN DOESN’T GET IT: In a move reminiscent of what Josh Howard did when Jason Kidd first came to town, Drew Gooden decided he would run the Mavs’ fastbreak his way.

    The Mavs generally have a fastbreak policy: The outlet should go to J-Kidd. Always. On three different occasions, Gooden made a different choice, and two of those were the more difficult choice. There was certainly no reason to sling the ball downcourt to Jet when he had no path to the basket. And on the final play of the first half, when Gooden grabbed a defensive rebound and then decided to leave his feet to make the outlet pass, there was certainly no reason to not simply find Kidd and let him make the last decision.

    Instead, Gooden wanted to do it all himself.

    So with a couple of seconds left, Gooden unnecessarily flipped the ball into traffic. Washington's DeShawn Stevenson picked it up and launched a 30-footer that swished … but was reviewed and negated.

   The Mavs deserved to be down 59-50 at the half. Instead they were down just six – and that’s about the best thing that happened to them.

    AAC REVIEW: A few sideline sights and sounds. …

    *The PA announcer tryout was a success for the one of two finalists who did his thing Tuesday. His only stumble? “Dreeeeeeeeewwk Nowitzki!’’ he screamed, smoothly correcting himself when he realized that it wasn’t Gooden but rather Dirk that had scored.

    *The HD screens are impressive … but there was a glitch on one of the sides. A piece of the screen was blocked out, creating an accidental picture-in-picture look … ‘cept there was no real picture in the little picture.

    *The ManiAACs and friends did a “Thriller’’ tribute that was a crowd-pleaser. And Shawn Marion tried the same theme in a pregame greeting when he took the microphone and wished everyone a “Happy Halloween.’’ Appreciate the thought, Matrix, but I gotta tell you: Opening night at the Mavs game, and it’s a Tuesday, and I’m almost 50, and Halloween is about the last thing on my mind.

    *Cowboys sudden-star Miles Austin was in attendance. Seems he’s taking T.O.’s spot in that area, too.

   THE RUNAWAY: Washington led 77-76 with 11:25 to go in the fourth quarter. This is the moment when the veteran team, the home team, the better team, is supposed to assert itself. Instead, it was the Wizards who went on a 10-1 run to extend their lead to 87-77 with 6:06 to play. It was right around there when Carlisle went back to that 3-PG Attack … and for a moment there, even had Shawn Marion on the bench in crunch time.

    Not wise. Maybe there was justification for it (see below), but the Mavs aren’t going to come from behind in many games if they don’t have available the only guy on the team who is both a stud scorer and a stud defender.

   ABOUT ANDRAY BLATCHE: Antawn Who?

  PREDIRKTABLE: Dirk Nowitzki would get off in this game; we all knew that. Whatever Blatche or Fabio are good for, they aren’t good for guarding The UberMan. He scored a game-high 34 points (on 10-of-25 shooting and 12-of-12 free throws). He remains an auto-20 guy; dating back to last season, Nowitzki has now scored 20-plus points in 26 consecutive regular-season games. That’s the longest such streak in the NBA.

     Nowitzki was 7-of-13 in the second half, had a team-high nine rebounds and pitched in with two blocks.

     Hey, whatever happened to that notion that this year’s Mavs would be less reliant on Dirk, that the supporting cast was much improved, that this wouldn’t have to be a one-man show?

    "The big thing is,’’ Kidd said, “we can't rely on him to do that for 82 games, or he'll be dead before Christmas."

   PAGING ERICK STRICKLAND: In the first 19 minutes of the game, Dallas used four different guys at center. Had Nellie been coaching, he would’ve tried a fifth center and his name would’ve been JJ Barea.

    SPEAKING OF THOSE BLOCKS: As a team, the Mavericks blocked nine shots. Wow!

    Now, I hate to let facts get in the way of a good story. … so I won’t.

   It is a fact that Dallas blocked nine shots and it is a fact that nine is a lot. But consider the fact that Washington outrebounded Dallas 46-42 and you tell me if the rim wasn’t their exclusive playground.

   I say that this is the most inconsequential collection of nine blocks in NBA history.

    THOSE REFS UNIFORMS: What the hell was that? I know they had to make some concessions to get their jobs back, but did they have to concede their fashion sense? That was like “The James T. Kirk Collection, by UnderArmor.’’

    Dudes, what’s wrong with stripes?

    RECORDS IN OPENERS: The Mavs PR staff wants you to know that Dallas is 17-13 in season openers, 18-12 in home openers and 6-3 in home openers at American Airlines Center.

    I would like to supplement that by letting you know that this team – which started so poorly last year after a home-opener loss to Houston – was really, really intent on not starting poorly this year. At 0-1, with a roadie at the Lakers coming up next, “poorly’’ looks possible.

   Now, in fairness. …

   In 05-06 Dallas started 2-2... and finished 60-22.
   In 06-07 Dallas started 0-4 ... and finished 67-15.
   In 07-08 Dallas started 1-1 … and finished 51-31.
   In 08-09 Dallas started 2-7. … and finished 50-32.

   So one loss is nothing more than that. But one loss – in this year and in those years – will be the difference between, say, 52 wins and 53 wins, or 49 and 50, or whatever.

    And it does sort of cool the possibility of a fast start, is all I’m saying.

   SHAWN VS. CARON: The key matchup of the game, I said, right?

   And it was. So who did the edge go to? Here's Wiz coach Flip Saunders:

   "Mr. Steady ... was Caron. Caron steadied us when we had Gil out of the game. He was efficient, he was aggressive with the ball, which we ran a lot of isolation type stuff so he could stay aggressive when Gil was out of the game. And he did a nice job defensively on Marion, who killed us (in the preseason meeting). And I thought that Marion got some buckets, but he didn't get all of them on Caron. I thought Caron fought him and did a nice job. He really keyed us defensively."

    Now, I'll check on this later, but I think between all those lines we will find this factoid: When Butler was out of the game, Washington survived. When Marion was out of the game, Dallas didn't survive.

    So head-to-head, maybe the matchup was a push. But Washington could afford to play without Butler (and without Arenas). Dallas without Marion and especially without Dirk? The Mavs were on empty from the second quarter on.

   OK, NOW TO ‘BEATING KIDD’: J-Kidd got off to a terrific start … drawing a charge, getting a rebound, there’s an assist. … there’s a post-up power move on Arenas. … but man, did he fade. Maybe Kidd was trying to do too much defensively, because it seemed like he roamed out of position (to help guard the unguarded?) instead of just sticking with his man … who was already a handful for him.

    Dallas got four really good minutes out of Kidd. Unfortunately, Dallas didn’t get much from him after those first four minutes.

    THE PICK-AND-ROLL: Want a pleasant new development from the Mavs’ offense? While Marion said the team was “stagnant’’ and seemed a bit confused by the newness of it all, he and JJB twice teamed up on pick-and-rolls that were beautifully executed and impossible to stop.

    IF YOU SHOOT 3’S BADLY …:  The Mavs and I have a fundamental philosophical disagreement here.

   Based on their performance, not just in this game but last year, too, Dallas seems to believe that the way to make up for deficits is to shoot more 3’s. And that if they aren’t going in, they should just shoot more of them.

   In fact, that’s my assumption not just based on performance, but on Rick’s postgame analysis:

   “Within our system,’’ he explained, “you want to take good 3’s because it's one of the most potent weapons in the game. … The missed 3's weren't the problem.’’

   In this game, they shot more of them. … 18 of them. … and made four. (Jet was especially off here, his 1-of-6 from the arc fitting right into his 4-of-15 night.)

    Me, I think a layup made 65 percent of the time for two points is a better than a trey made 30 percent for three points. But that’s just me.

    THE BEST OF JJB, THE WORST OF JJB: In many ways, JJ Barea is the only reason this game wasn’t a complete blowout. Concede that Dirk is going to get his 30 (I think the Wiz conceded that), and the wild-card was JJB.

   But, gosh, he can’t cover these people. Not Arenas, not Foye, not anybody Washington was sticking out there. JJB would get Dallas one step up offensively, only to be part of Dallas then taking one ensuing step back defensively.

    How to complain about 13 points on 50-percent shooting with five free throws, four assists and six boards? No complaining, except that JJB’s effort in achieving those numbers isn’t as effective as what would result from, say, Josh Howard giving that same effort plus the added talent.

    If JJB could’ve been allowed to do the positive things without also being asking to be an Arenas Stopper, the result might’ve been a success.

   EXHAUST-SHAWN: Shawn Marion said sitting out in the preseason with that calf problem would mean he would need time to rebuild his stamina.

   He wasn’t kidding. Maybe that’s the reason he was taken out for a moment late in the fourth, because yeah, as solid as he was  in 35 minutes – 16 points, seven rebounds, three blocks -- the Matrix was sucking air. It was almost certainly the reason that on two failed dunk attempts, he looked like he was back in that exercise-swimming pool, fighting too much resistance.

   “He plays at such a high capacity," Carlisle said. "He gets winded quickly. There’s going to be a period here where he has to get himself back into shape.’’

     JOSH HOWARD UPDATE: I don’t know who is guilty of suggestion that J-Ho will miss more than a couple of weeks with the ankle – I’m innocent! – but the Mavs made an effort to clear up the issue.

    “It's not going to be a few weeks for Josh," owner Mark Cuban said. "I think it might be sooner than we expect. I think Josh is getting antsy, too. I don't think it's going to be three weeks. I think it could be as few as two weeks."

    I thought that’s what we already knew. And again, my only question isn’t about when he’s coming back, but about whether it is normal for it to take however long it ends up taking.

   BARBERSHOP: Both Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion got pregame haircuts. Dirk’s is still long and flowing … just less so. The Matrix is cleeeeeeaaaan.

   THE BENCH IS IMPROVED. OR NOT: Before the game, Cuban raved about the team’s new-and-improved depth.

    “Last year, the second unit was just awful,’’ he said. “Every time when a shot went up it was a just a prayer.’’

    But this year … well, Coach Carlisle, what did you think of the bench?

  "The guys on the bench,’’ Rick said, “when they come in, they’ve got to be engaged in the game."

    Which, I take to mean, they were not.

    JJB wants a piece of this, too.

"We need to come off the bench with energy, and we didn't," Barea said. "I think we need to come out with more passion and play like we do in practice. We've practiced harder than we played tonight in the game."

    Yikes. Really?

    QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: I’ll let Jason Kidd summarize:

    "It was a zero," said Kidd. "We didn't do anything right."

 

 

 

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214am oct 28 2009

 

                                                     

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