Dirk Nowitzki’s frustrations aren’t going over too well with the General. Asked today if Dirk seems discouraged by the defensive tactics of G-State, Avery Johnson didn’t mince words.
“Too discouraged,” Avery said. “Ok. I’m tired of hearing about how they’ve taken him out of his game and any lack of confidence. You’re just not supposed to have that. I wasn’t the best of players and didn’t have the best of skills, but you’re not going to shake my confidence.
“We need all of our players to be confident, to be resilient, to be persistent and that’s what I want to see tomorrow. if I don’t see it in shootaround, I’m going to be highly upset. I need to have it going into that game tomorrow night. We have to be confident and really show what we’re doing.”
How will he light a fire under Dirk? “We’ll figure something out,” Avery replied. What? “We’ll figure something out.”
Dirk has sounded frustrated and despondent throughout the series when it comes to his offensive game. He’s shooting just 41 percent and averaging 20 points, both numbers considerably down from the regular season.
“They’ve got a lot of athletes out there,” Dirk said. “They make it tough on you. They’re smaller and really sit down on my legs. I can’t put the ball on the floor the way I want to or get to my to my spots where I want to be at. They’re all about 6-5 to 6-8, really the same size, which has really been making it hard.”
Dirk is 7-foot. Some might argue he needs to make it tough on them.
“I’ve got to take what they give me and they don’t really give me a lot,” Dirk continued. “I’ve got to make stuff happen, help out on defense more, hit the glass harder, as hard as I can, get some extra possessions. If I have a shot, try to knock it down. If I don’t, move the ball and help somebody else knock it down.”
-- Art
Glad to hear Avery calling out Dirk. Wish he would have done it earlier in the series or at least jumped his case behind closed doors to knock off the defeatist attitude.
Posted by: bray | April 30, 2007 at 07:51 PM