Throughout the years, the San Antonio Spurs have never had an answer for Dirk Nowitzki—nor did they in Game One’s 100-94 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Dirk usually set up on either elbow, planted himself, caught the ball and either hit rise-and-fire jumpers, one-dribble pull-ups, and got to the line whenever he drove to the basket.
Antonio McDyess offered minimal resistance on Dirk‘s jumpers, the landlocked Matt Bonner offered no resistance, and smaller Spurs were taken to the woodshed.
Because San Antonio’s only recourse was to crowd Dirk and hope for the best, he was repeatedly fouled on his jumpers and granted three-point plays.
And when two-timed, Dirk made accurate passes that usually led to assists.
San Antonio’s only alternatives were to deny Dirk the ball by fronting him, but Dallas does a great job of using high sets to clear the basket area—meaning the Spurs either can’t offer backside protection against over-the-top passes—or Dallas’ set will open up wide-open shots for other Mavs who did a good enough job of hitting their shots to keep San Antonio honest.
San ...
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Article written by Erick Blasco
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April 19th, 2010 by Erick Blasco Leave a reply »
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