Dirk Nowitzki 12-of-15, 24-of-24 FT for 48 points in Thunder-Mavericks WCF Game 1!

[24r2]

don't forget he's only borrowing the trophy if he does win this year

[LA_Showtime]

You make a good point.

Oddly enough, I think the big who has great foot speed, quick off the floor shotblocking, and is above 7 feet with the reach and quickness to potentially seriously bother dirk in wing or post iso's....just so happens to jump center for the Dallas Mavericks.

The Thunder should just play Dirk man-to-man and let him go off. Keep everyone else in check. I think it'd be rather simple, as the Mavericks have few players who can actually create shots for themselves on a consistent basis. Let Dirk get his, put Thabo on Terry, and pray the rest of the guys miss contested jump shots.

Let's face it: Dirk isn't beating OKC by himself. Ibaka, 1st quarter aside, played Dirk pretty well. He contested every shot, and when he wasn't fouling him I'd say he played him as well as you can. Give him those shots, and stop sending double teams when it's obvious the Mavericks have guys who will kill you when you do that. Let him take contested 15 foot jump shots. He's a great player, but it's not feasible for him to shoot 12-15 every damn game.

[Teanett]

Another overreaction thread

overreacting to whopping the blazers, sweeping the defending champs and putting on a record-breaking shooting display in the span of 3 weeks?

[Teanett]

remember how good collison looked against z-bo?

[dirkdiggler41]

The Thunder should just play Dirk man-to-man and let him go off. Keep everyone else in check. I think it'd be rather simple, as the Mavericks have few players who can actually create shots for themselves on a consistent basis. Let Dirk get his, put Thabo on Terry, and pray the rest of the guys miss contested jump shots.

Let's face it: Dirk isn't beating OKC by himself. Ibaka, 1st quarter aside, played Dirk pretty well. He contested every shot, and when he wasn't fouling him I'd say he played him as well as you can. Give him those shots, and stop sending double teams when it's obvious the Mavericks have guys who will kill you when you do that. Let him take contested 15 foot jump shots. He's a great player, but it's not feasible for him to shoot 12-15 every damn game.

They are always covering him one on one, but you still need to play him with your whole team. The defense starts before he even catches the ball. The Mavs tried to play Steve Nash like that during a series. It's impossible to make it work.

[tpols]

The Thunder should just play Dirk man-to-man and let him go off. Keep everyone else in check. I think it'd be rather simple, as the Mavericks have few players who can actually create shots for themselves on a consistent basis. Let Dirk get his, put Thabo on Terry, and pray the rest of the guys miss contested jump shots.

Let's face it: Dirk isn't beating OKC by himself. Ibaka, 1st quarter aside, played Dirk pretty well. He contested every shot, and when he wasn't fouling him I'd say he played him as well as you can. Give him those shots, and stop sending double teams when it's obvious the Mavericks have guys who will kill you when you do that. Let him take contested 15 foot jump shots. He's a great player, but it's not feasible for him to shoot 12-15 every damn game.

Thats exactly what the thunder did in the game. They doubled dirk twice I counted the entire game. Their strategy was to let him go one on one and throw a bunch of different defenders at him and it didn't work.

My ideal strategy would be for the thunder to have a guy hard fronting Dirk at all times when he tries posting up. Then when the mavs try to throw it over the top, make sure you have one guy, durant, sefolosha, perkins whoever, come and high low trap Dirk and try to strip him.

With the pick and rolls, I'm still amazed that westbrook and maynor are going over the screens. Barea is way way too quick to allow him any type of driving lanes. He's like a pinball.. Dallas either gets an open three or a layup every time he breaks loose. They need to let that guy shoot because he really isn't a good shooter. Plus when they try to fight over the screen they leave the guy who set the pick wide open and that man usually happens to be dirk. Just terrible defensive gameplanning. That needs to change.

[creepingdeath]

If Dirk wins a title and obvious finals MVP, he's easily top 20 for me....The Facts would be there...A Ring, Finals MVP, 10+ 50 win season's, top 3 most skilled Big of his era...Yeah.

Every player plays this game for one reason, one goal, a championship, he get's that...I will never bash him again, he would have proved me wrong and I would accept him along with other champions. It takes the heart of a champion to win one...So again, If he wins one, he will never be called soft again IMO...

Nice to see you actually posting something rational. Unlike your buddy Hogan..

[Lebron23]

Great game from Dirk Nowitzki. He's always been underrated in this forum.

[stephanieg]

Last night was a travesty of basketball. Fire these dumbass refs calling 80 phantom fts on 2 jumpshooters.

[Sroek]

Credit goes to refs.

[Smoke117]

When half your points from a 48 point game are from ft's...it's going to take away from the majesty.

[Eat Like A Bosh]

Dirk is not better than Wade/Bron/Kobe. It's easy to look at one game and say someone's better.
Get real.

[ace23]

This. People need to stop overreacting. LeBron is undoubtedly the best player in the NBA and has been for the past 5 years.

I guess he was the best player in the NBA at the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2PSWHyrtHk

[keepinitreal]

I still think he should've won MVP.

Lose Caron, team goes 2-7 without Dirk, ends up with the same record as the defending champs. 23/7/2.6/.5/.6 on 51.7/39.3/89.2

[creepingdeath]

Dirk is not better than Wade/Bron. It's easy to look at one game and say someone's better.
Get real.

Fixed this for you.