Monday Morning Links

Box Score | Lowlights | Postgame Quotes

To be honest, I expected Dallas to lose game one anyway.  But why did they have to lose like that?  Why did they have to get my hopes up with that first half?  I guess it's one thing to lose.  It's another thing see Juwan Howard, Tyron Lue, and Devean George sharing the floor in the 4th quarter...

The obvious conclusion from game one, is that Dallas probably needs to try something else for defending Paul.  Don't worry - Avery agrees.

"We got to make it tougher on him," Johnson said of Paul. "We have to make it tougher on his drives. We have to make it tougher on him in every way. On the offensive end we have to do a better job of attacking him and trying to keep the heat on him there. It was just one game; we can't let him have several games like that in the series."

 

"We have a couple of ideas," Johnson said. "Whatever we do, we have to do it effectively and efficiently. He's a heck of a player. He's been doing it to everybody all year. We have some ideas. We're not going to give away our scouting report. But we just have to make him work on both ends."

Kidd spent most of the game defending Paul by himself, so something other than that...

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The Hornets, on the other hand, are loving their defense right now.

"We felt if we could keep them in a half-court set, we'd have a good chance of guarding them," New Orleans coach Byron Scott said.

"Our defense was spectacular. Our guys were moving on a string. They were challenging shots."

Tyson Chandler echoes that.

"In the second half we were flying back on defense and making them set up in half-court sets, and they struggled a little bit. That's what we're going to have to do throughout the whole series."

New Orleans wants us in half court sets, so try something other than that...

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And what happened to the offense in the second half?

"We didn't do a great job of getting the ball to the basket and swinging the basketball," Johnson said. "We shot too quickly, too many contested shots. When we shoot those contested, fadeaway shots, we're not as efficient. But when we take the ball to the basket and the ball moves several times, we're a better offensive team. And we think that helps our defense."

Cough*joshhoward*cough.  Try something else...

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All the Mavs are saying the West face tap thing was just part of the playoffs...

Should Dirk have reacted differently?

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Randy Galloway loves New Orleans.

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Mike Fisher doesn't feel too great about this team on the road in the postseason.

Well, two years ago they lost three straight at Miami. Then last year they lost three straight at Golden State. Now this year they’re down 0-1 at New Orleans.

That’s a trend, kids.

And this year it's not just the postseason.  Dallas was 17-24 away from the AAC in the regular season.

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Thanks to bigcat1 for pointing out a post by Mike Fisher over the weekend that speculated Avery was already preparing to be a coach somewhere else next season.

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This Day in Mavs History

2001 Played in their first playoff game after an 11 year drought.