815: 273: Michael’s Cleveland Revival Plan?
This is the secret to their consecutive victories (Requesting monthly tickets!)_5 815: 273: Michael’s Cleveland Revival Plan?
This is the secret to their consecutive victories (Requesting monthly tickets!)_5 If only that rebound wasn’t so bizarre, the winner would be the Dallas Mavericks.
Although they lost, that game still excited Cuban.
The fact proves that his team is completely capable of wrestling with championship teams, so Cuban is looking forward to the Mavericks handling the Hawks in this game.
Besides, Nash, Dirk, Juwan Howard and Michael Finley against Roger and Pierce.
Three and a half against two, the advantage is on me!
But once the game started, Cuban’s fantasy was cruelly torn apart.
He found that his offensively powerful team was completely useless in front of the Hawks.
They couldn’t grab rebounds, couldn’t complete quality defense, and even their proudest offense felt as painful as constipation.
By the end of the third quarter, the Hawks had already secured a 22-point lead!
Mark Cuban found it unbelievable, he wanted to ask Old Neil on the spot what exactly happened.
I’ve gathered the highest scorers, why is it still such a tragic loss?
The Mavericks didn’t create a miracle in the fourth quarter either, the Hawks easily defeated the Mavericks with a 28-point advantage, Texas’ double power was completely wiped out.
Michael Finley was the only one who performed normally tonight, scoring 25 points at a 47% shooting rate.
Then the rest was all a disaster.
Steve Nash hit 1 out of 6, shooting rate 16%.
Juwan Howard hit 6 out of 17, shooting rate 35%.
Dirk Nowitzki hit 5 out of 16, shooting rate 31%.
And the Mavericks’ rebounds were beaten by 15, allowing Big Ben to achieve double figures with 10 points and 17 rebounds.
After the game, Lenny Wilkens commented on the Mavericks’ problem in front of the cameras: “Dallas Mavericks are great, but you can’t have a team full of Mahmoud Abdul-Raufs!”
“Moonlight Gun” Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, one of the most famous shooters in the 90s, was called by future fans as the Stephen Curry before Stephen Curry.
Of course, all his achievements combined are not as impressive as Curry’s shocking rise, but his playing style does indeed resemble Curry’s.
In this era, the best shooters all rely on screens to bounce outside the three-point line or receive a pass and shoot.
Rauf was so unique, he could dribble like Allen Iverson, create shooting opportunities for himself, and then shoot from afar.
Today, the League only has him and Roger who like to shoot explosively with the ball.
Lenny Wilkens mentioned him mainly because he has several characteristics: his offense depends heavily on feeling and is unstable, he plays too loosely and from outside, and lacks defense.
And this is almost a common problem for all Mavericks players.
The Mavericks lineup is extremely unbalanced, hoarding a bunch of players strong in offense but weak in defense.
Logically, with Finley, Nowitzki, and Nash, the correct reinforcement should be to recruit dedicated defensive players and tough, strong blue-collar players.
But Mark Cuban is like an NBA 2K player, he just opens the data sheet and then tries to recruit all the high scorers.
As a result, from core to role players, the Mavericks are filled with soft, defensively poor players who shoot loosely.
In the game, the Mavericks have no one to protect rebounds and no one who can stand out and solve defense.
For Nowitzki who doesn’t play back to the basket, only facing the frame, he can only initiate offense from high positions.
And once his shooting touch is exhausted, his influence on offense greatly diminishes.
Juwan Howard has never been able to play tough games since entering the NBA.
Late-blooming Steve Nash hasn’t fully risen yet.
When facing high-intensity defense causing unstable shooting, they have no other ways to solve the problem.
So in front of the Hawks, the Dallas Mavericks are worthless.
After Lenny Wilkens finished the sideline interview, the camera gave Mark Cuban a close-up.
His expression was as if he saw his most beloved thing being brutally destroyed by another man.
These two games basically confirmed one thing — apart from the Lakers, no West team can compare with the Atlanta Hawks.
Spurs, Mavericks, and before them the Sacramento Kings, all these top four West teams suffered heavy losses when encountering the Hawks.
Only the Lakers can truly fight the Hawks to the last moment.
If the team from the West entering the finals isn’t the Lakers, the finals will be anticlimactic.
Invisibly, the destiny between the Lakers and Hawks is strengthened.
This seems to be the season that belongs to these two teams, their battle.
They seem destined to meet in the finals, and it’s a fight to the death.
The good locker room atmosphere makes the Hawks invincible, and in this great situation, what reporters love to do most is create trouble for the Hawks.
In the press conference after crushing the Mavericks, a reporter asked Big Ben: “This summer your contract is about to expire, in your mind, what kind of contract do you think you deserve?”
Big Ben felt excited about this, he approached the microphone and jokingly told the reporter: “I think I deserve a maximum salary contract, after all, I scored a solid 10 points in this game!”
Though it was a joke, it still made Hawks fans nervous.
If someone offers Big Ben a max contract this summer, will the Hawks match it, or watch him leave?
In these few seasons, Big Ben, as an important figure in the championship team, his defensive capabilities are increasingly recognized.