As expected, Tim Duncan ate the depleted Mavs front court alive tonight, scoring 31 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and shooting 12 of 20 from the floor. Jamaal Magloire was inactive in his first eligible game as a Maverick, so that meant Erick Dampier and Brandon Bass got to trade off guarding him. That evidently didn't work, and Duncan turned out to be a huge part of the game.
The matchup of Jason Kidd vs. Tony Parker wasn't quite what it was billed as, however. Parker is still slowed by the ankle injury that held him out for nine games, and is obviously not his usual self. But, Kidd wasn't able to utilize Parker's hindrance anyway tonight as Manu Ginobili was paired with him defensively most of the time. So, the longer, more agile Manu was able to hold Kidd to seven points on 3-of-8 shooting. Kidd was able to dish out 10 assists, but he wasn't even in the game for the last half minute and didn't impact the game as heavily as the Mavericks may have expected.
It's worrisome how the Mavericks are coming out of late-game timeouts with busted plays. They lucked out with two big offensive rebounds, which was the only reason they had multiple chances to tie the game. Maybe if that's Jason Kidd driving and dishing at the end of the game (instead of Terry driving and getting blocked ugly-style by Bruce Bowen), then things might have ended differently. Of course, that's assuming that Kidd was even quick enough to get into the lane to dish it out in the first place.
-Scooter Hendon, Hoops Nerd
After all the talk about Parker & Kidd, it was Manu who pull off another great performance.
That's what I like about him, less talk but more action and results.
Posted by: john | February 29, 2008 at 05:30 AM