The Western Playoff Race

[Sauru]

what i find funny is, if houston never went on that streak tha they did they would be sitting as the 9th team with probably no chance to make it. those other 3 teams are fighting for the playoff lives simply cause houston went on one hell of a winning streak

[Indy]

Hey at least if the Mavs don't make the playoffs Dirk won't gt called out for the innevitable choke job

Amazing how people have this picture of Dirk. As if raising your averages in nearly every important category come playoff time is choking.

[shadowgrin]

But he didn't do that last playoffs, so...

[Andrew]

Golden State is now on the outside looking in, just half a game behind Denver and they're all still capable of winning 50 games. Meanwhile the Hornets, Spurs, Lakers and Suns are already there. Dirk has also been listed as day-to-day and supposedly could play against the Warriors.

[Lamrock]

Hey at least if the Mavs don't make the playoffs Dirk won't gt called out for the innevitable choke job

Amazing how people have this picture of Dirk. As if raising your averages in nearly every important category come playoff time is choking.

If "nearly" means one area (rebounding), then I guess it is.

I'm glad to see GS on the outside looking in. I hope the Mavs manage to beat them too, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Andrew]

Dirk has also been listed as day-to-day and supposedly could play against the Warriors.

Scratch that.

Dirk participates in shootaround, then rules himself out

Still more promising than him being out indefinitely while the Mavs remain in the top eight.

[Sauru]

i got a feeling if the mavs win tonight dirk will stay out a bit longer, if they lose this game though you will see him back real soon

[mvpshaq32]

Shit, Warriors are getting blown out again.
If they get into a tie breaker with Dallas and Denver, we're going to be on the losing end.....
No transition defense, Jackson and Harrington were completely cold the entire game, gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, didn't pass the ball.

[Lamrock]

Yes! The Mavs beat a winning team with Kidd!!!!!!

[benji]

No transition defense, Jackson and Harrington were completely cold the entire game, gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, didn't pass the ball.

And that's the description I expect to hear of every Warriors game, thus my comment earlier in the thread.

[mvpshaq32]

No transition defense, Jackson and Harrington were completely cold the entire game, gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, didn't pass the ball.

And that's the description I expect to hear of every Warriors game, thus my comment earlier in the thread.

For the most part ,yes, but in their last two blowout games, they racked up 8 and 10 assists total respectively for a team that averages over 20 per game.
And both Jackson and Harrington were total non factors in both games as they both went below double digits which doesn't happen often.
And lastly, they got thrashed in the paint and on the other end, hardly got any fast break points of their own for a team that leads(or was it 2nd) the league in fast break points.

[Andrew]

So much for Dirk being ruled out against the Warriors. The Mavs finally have their first win over a plus .500 team and they did it emphatically but that 1-10 record isn't much of an endorsement of the Kidd trade. They are 11-0 in games against sub .500 teams since the deal so they have been beating the teams they should, just not the teams that they can.

[benji]

The Mavs' 1-10 record against winning teams since acquiring Jason Kidd has been well-documented. But here's the thing: They actually played really well in that stretch, and only a flukish series of close losses prevented their record from being much better.

For starters, three of the losses were without Dirk -- two due to injury and one due to suspension -- so let's set those aside.

Now check out the other seven losses. They lost by 11 at New Orleans, three at San Antonio, four in OT against the Lakers, by six at Utah, two to the Lakers, four to Boston and seven to San Antonio. Combined, they lost seven games by a total of 37 points.

Those were Dallas' only defeats in that stretch. Meanwhile, the games against losing teams were all runaways: by 29, 25, 25, 20, 19, 16, 15, 13, 9, 8 and 7. No, hammering sub-.500 teams doesn't impress people nearly as much, but it's just as good a sign of a team's quality. In 11 games against losing teams, Dallas crushed pretty much every one.

So overall, they're 12-10 since trading for Kidd. But that's 12-7 when Dirk plays -- with an average scoring margin of plus-9.2 per game, which would easily be the best in the West. Everyone has focused on a series of consecutive close losses against good teams, which resulted more from bad luck than bad basketball, and ignored the fact that in all the other games Dallas completely outmatched its opponents.

[Sauru]

top notch, they out match the non playoff teams and come up short vs the ones in the playoffs, good job

[Andrew]

The Mavs' 1-10 record against winning teams since acquiring Jason Kidd has been well-documented. But here's the thing: They actually played really well in that stretch, and only a flukish series of close losses prevented their record from being much better.

For starters, three of the losses were without Dirk -- two due to injury and one due to suspension -- so let's set those aside.

Now check out the other seven losses. They lost by 11 at New Orleans, three at San Antonio, four in OT against the Lakers, by six at Utah, two to the Lakers, four to Boston and seven to San Antonio. Combined, they lost seven games by a total of 37 points.

Those were Dallas' only defeats in that stretch. Meanwhile, the games against losing teams were all runaways: by 29, 25, 25, 20, 19, 16, 15, 13, 9, 8 and 7. No, hammering sub-.500 teams doesn't impress people nearly as much, but it's just as good a sign of a team's quality. In 11 games against losing teams, Dallas crushed pretty much every one.

So overall, they're 12-10 since trading for Kidd. But that's 12-7 when Dirk plays -- with an average scoring margin of plus-9.2 per game, which would easily be the best in the West. Everyone has focused on a series of consecutive close losses against good teams, which resulted more from bad luck than bad basketball, and ignored the fact that in all the other games Dallas completely outmatched its opponents.

Definitely food for thought, but I thought you remained critical of the trade? I remember you bringing out some statistics to demonstrate that bringing Kidd on board wasn't working out, as you had predicted.

[Lamrock]

The Kidd trade wasn't the smartest thing, but now that everyone is jumping on the "OMFG! Kidd sucks! Mavs suck! They are missing the playoffs!" bandwagon, the 1-10 vs. good teams thing needs to be put in perspective.

[Chaser7]

Fuck Warriors are probably out.

[Skills]

Imagine, if the Hornets were still in the East..
The Warriors and the Nuggets battle would be less interesting?
It looks like anyone in the West can get the #1 spot with their records.

[benji]

Definitely food for thought, but I thought you remained critical of the trade? I remember you bringing out some statistics to demonstrate that bringing Kidd on board wasn't working out, as you had predicted.

I do remain critical of the trade, I think it is a terrible long-term move and isn't even great in the short term. I was originally arguing against the idea that Kidd would improve the Mavericks offense, and he hasn't, they're still worse than before the trade. The Mavs have improved Kidd however. Since arriving in Dallas, Kidd is shooting better than he ever has, but his turnovers are still terrible, so I wonder how long that shooting boost will last.

And what Lamrock said, the new meme needed context and perspective. Also, I can be critical of something and not be required to supress anything that may run contrary to my original thesis.

[L10]

why the lakers clinch playoff berth tonight and the spurs didnt?

[benji]

Tiebreakers.

[Matthew]

The Mavs' 1-10 record against winning teams since acquiring Jason Kidd has been well-documented. But here's the thing: They actually played really well in that stretch, and only a flukish series of close losses prevented their record from being much better.

For starters, three of the losses were without Dirk -- two due to injury and one due to suspension -- so let's set those aside.

Now check out the other seven losses. They lost by 11 at New Orleans, three at San Antonio, four in OT against the Lakers, by six at Utah, two to the Lakers, four to Boston and seven to San Antonio. Combined, they lost seven games by a total of 37 points.

Those were Dallas' only defeats in that stretch. Meanwhile, the games against losing teams were all runaways: by 29, 25, 25, 20, 19, 16, 15, 13, 9, 8 and 7. No, hammering sub-.500 teams doesn't impress people nearly as much, but it's just as good a sign of a team's quality. In 11 games against losing teams, Dallas crushed pretty much every one.

So overall, they're 12-10 since trading for Kidd. But that's 12-7 when Dirk plays -- with an average scoring margin of plus-9.2 per game, which would easily be the best in the West. Everyone has focused on a series of consecutive close losses against good teams, which resulted more from bad luck than bad basketball, and ignored the fact that in all the other games Dallas completely outmatched its opponents.

Only John Hollinger could take a 1-10 record and try to convince everyone its a 12-7 clip

[[Q]]

I won't say trading for Kidd was an improvement, but their last two games since Dirk's been back have been significantly better than before. Maybe it's because of their willingness to run for easy baskets as often as they can instead of walking it up and throwing it to Dirk.

[shadowgrin]

It's the team adjusting to Kidd rather than Kidd adjusting to the team's offense which is usually setting up half-court with Dirk.

[L10]

f**k, warriors and nuggets are once again tied. mavs are going to make it this year, kidd and dirk are playing better together.