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Friday, January 24, 2003
Lorenz: Undoing the Mavs
By Elmo Lorenz
NBA et al.
I like to smell good, that’s why I own a slew of Calvin Klein fragrances, with Escape as my favorite alongside Fahrenheit. I also have an insanely expensive 3.2 ounce bottle of Bulgari, one which I use exclusively for the occasional chick-hunting. Trust me, colognes work like a free throw with the ladies.
But whether or not your cologne is cheap or prohibitive, trendy or obsolete, the smell always fades like the retreating sunlight. Some longer than others, but the tantalizing aroma inevitably wears off.
The Dallas Mavericks remind me of the bottles of cologne that sit harmlessly on my dresser. They smell good, but you can’t swallow them.
The argument that Dallas ain’t a legit title contender was validated last week when Mark Cuban’s squad lost all three games in a brutal West Coast road trip.
On Jan. 15, the Mavs were run out of Sacramento by the Kings, butchered, 123-94, at the Arco Arena. Two days later at the America West Arena, they lost a gunbattle in the desert against the Phoenix Suns, 111-106. And on the 19th, Seattle delivered a supersonic coup de grace with an 85-81 cliffhanger at Key Arena.
ON DEADLY GROUND. Before leaving Dallas last week, the Mavs held a league-best 31-5 slate. They were outscoring the opposition 102 to 92.3 points per game, and shot 44.7 percent from the field, 42.4 percent from 3-point range, and 83.4 percent at the stripe.
But when the road trip came, all hell broke loose. Suddenly, the Mavs cannot find their mojo, nailing just 39.3 percent of their field goals (105-of-264), and 31.3 percent of their treys (20-of-63). Even from the free-throw line, where they have been excellent, the Mavs struggled with 73.1 percent, converting only 51-of-62 freebies.
Against the Kings, the Suns and the Sonics, the Mavs gave up a total of 219 points or 106.3 per. Away from Texas, Dallas’ production fell to 93.6 as the Big Three of Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Micheal Finley played inconsistently. The trio was especially horrendous in the Sacramento swing, pooling only 34 points among them, way below their combined 60.7 season average.
I watched all those games, and I discovered two keys that will unravel the Mavs:
1) DICTATE THE TEMPO. Remember the movie Forrest Gump, where Robin Wright’s character Jenny tells Tom Hanks to “Run Forrest, Run!?”
Well, that’s exactly what teams need to do when they play Dallas. The Mavs are among the poorest defenders off transition, and that showed when they surrendered 21 fast break points during their three-game drought.
To put Dallas at bay, teams must avoid playing in a free-wheeling, easy-go-lucky type of Dallas basketball. Turning the pace of a 48-minute game into a crawl isn’t really hard to do, given the fact that Dallas has been pummeled off the boards all season, 46 to 43.4 rebounds per.
Confused with the contradicting notions of running but slowing down? Don’t be. What I mean is that teams must run the fastbreak whenever the opportunity presents itself on the offensive end.
But on the defensive end, once Dallas pulls a rebound, someone has to put a body on Steve Nash before he takes off. He is the dynamo that sparks the Dallas engine.
When Dallas’ run-and-gun mode is kept under check, as the Kings, Suns and the Mavs effectively did, the Mavs become pathetic behind the arc, a staple in their offensive juggernaut. It’s no surprise that Dallas missed 40 triples during their skid.
2) ATTACK THE BELLY OF THE DEFENSE. The Mavs don’t like to play physical, they being softer than marshmallows. It’s silly, but Dallas only had 16 fouls against Seattle. That said, teams need to attack the Shawn Bradley-anchored 2-1-2 zone defense by centering the assault right in the middle, the weakest link of a zone D.
With accurate ball movement, the zone ultimately concedes enough open jumpers, explaining why Sacramento, Phoenix and Seattle was able to hammer Dallas with a dizzying 96 assists total.
Their defense under duress, the Mavs’ interior became as yielding as a bucket of ice that’s about to melt, surrendering 106 points against the Kings, Suns and Sonics.
That’s what the Mavs are, boxers who love to slug it out, but can’t take one in the body.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME. Oh yeah, the Mavs did halt their slide with a 107-86 mangling of Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets at the American Airlines Arena on Tuesday night.
Even then, the die was cast on that defining three-game stretch between Jan. 15-19. Individually, the Mavs have been exposed as a bunch of guys who cannot stop people (read: Stephon Marbury 41 pts, Chris Webber 29). Collectively, they have been revealed as a team that cannot play defense in the trenches.
Homecourt advantage is crucial, that’s why teams play hard for 82 regular season games between November and March to get more home games during the NBA playoffs.
There is no place like home. And as the Mavs sadly realized last week, road games are a lot like solitude, it’s a nice place to visit, but a terrible place to stay.
(Questions are welcome at nbazen2001@yahoo.com)
(January 24, 2003 issue)
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