Game Previews

Game 2 Preview: Spurs @ Mavs

By CapHill Updated Apr 21, 2010, 10:20am CDT

Game 2 in this series is upon us. Although the PtR "Staff" has already produced the epic Series Preview (which I highly recommend you revisit for the 'chops alone), I thought it would be a good idea to throw together a preview for Game 2 based upon what we saw in Game 1. First hackish preview of the playoffs after the jump.

San Antonio Spurs @ Dallas Mavericks [Game 2]
Where: American Airlines Arena - Dallas, TX
When: April 21, 2010; 8:30 PM Spurs time
Watch: TNT

How They Stack Up


29-12	Home	28-13
21-20	Road	27-14
101.4	Offense	102.0
96.3	Defense	99.3
47.3	FG%	46.5
35.8	3-pt%	37.2
74.0	FT%	81.6
42.8	Rebounds	41.7
13.6	TOs	12.9
6-4	Last 10	8-2
Lost 1	Streak	Won 5
2nd, Southwest	Position	1st, Southwest


Country/Time Zone	Game Time
Argentina	10:30 PM
West Coast	6:30 PM
Philippines	9:30 AM
Central Europe	3:30 AM
Palestine/Egypt	4:30 AM
East Coast	9:30 PM
Mountains	7:30 PM
Perth, AUS	9:30 AM
Tokyo, JP	9:30 AM
Sydney, AUS	11:30 AM

Spurs (0-1)	Matchups	Mavericks (1-0)
George Hill	Point Guard I'm going on the assumption that Hill will play. Let's hope his ankle (and confidence) have returned to health. At this point, I only want George to concentrate on locking down Kidd on defense. Any offense will be gravy, yet if he plays, he must be aggressive. We did miss his corner pockets on Monday. Although Kidd has slowed down, he can still run the offense and dish the rock. The Spurs need to guard him on the 3-pt line, while trying to exploit his oldness on the defensive end. Yes, this blurb on Kidd is a repeat from Sunday's preview. Can you tell me it's not still applicable? Advantage: Dallas	Jason Kidd

Manu Ginobili	Shooting Guard Butler has a good shooting night on Sunday. So far, he's been able to produce, but count me among the skeptical with his odds to hit some of those crazy shots consistently. Manu did not play like a dog on Sunday. Here's hoping he has sprinkled his magic Argentine dust on a few of his teammates. Is it too late to clone this man for the playoffs? Advantage: Spurs	Caron Butler

Richard Jefferson	Small Forward Marion played a great all-around game Sunday, showing hustle on both ends of the floor. Okay, RJ, I gave you the benefit of the doubt in my previous preview. That didn't work out so well, did it? You rebounded fairly well, but allowed foul trouble to take you out of the game mentally. Gotta bring back the RAGE for this game. Advantage: Dallas	Shawn Marion

Tim Duncan	Power Forward Dirk killed us with his patented fadeaway jumper. We won't stop it, but I do expect his shooting percentage to come down a bit. We do need to be more physical with the big German and make our fouls count. Yes, Dirk blistered us, but it wasn't Timmeh's fault. The big guy put together a great game, although he needs to stop with the bad turnovers. Personally, I'd like to see Duncan defend Nowitzki occasionally, as I think Timmeh would have success in this area. Advantage: Tied	Dirk Nowitzki

Antonio McDyess	Center Dice did exactly what we needed him to do - defend and grab boards. Plus, his sweet, sweet jumper was falling with regularity. He just needs to play more than 20 minutes, Pop. So Haywood played fine, Dampier not so much. Hack-a-Damp was quite ugly. Since I don't know which player is going to get the most minutes from game to game, I've created an amalgam in my head that I will now call "DampWood". Advantage: Tied	Brendan Haywood

Tony Parker	Bench & Role Players Tony did a pretty good impersonation of SMOTY Ginobili. Let's not talk about the rest of the bench. Except for Haywood, the Mavs bench also royally stunk in Game 1. I really don't understand why Beaubois doesn't get more playing time. Advantage: None	Jason Terry

Gregg Popovich	Coach Although Hack-a-Damp did disrupt the Mavs rhythm on offense, our perimeter defense didn't. I have a feeling Pop is discussing this flaw with the team. At least he's not happy with that performance. Carlisle was smart enough to let Kidd keep feeding the ball to Dirk and Caron. Advantage: Spurs	Rick Carlisle
	images via yahoo.com

	Other Factors
Intangibles
I don't know where our main intangible of good defense went, but I expect the team to come out firing (especially after the quiet talks by Pop). The Mavs have to be feeling pretty good right now, pulling out the Game 1 win. Advantage: Dallas
Mojo
Please SiMA, bring back the turtle! Advantage: None
Winner:
I sure hope the Spurs win Game 2, but this prediction is a wish more than a certainty. It should be a close one. (I almost predicted a tie).

Keys To The Game

Turnovers - The sloppy play (especially in the first half) is unacceptable in the playoffs, especially by the Big 3. Empty possessions and points off turnovers killed us in the first game.
3 Point Shooting - It's no secret that our 3-pt shooting has been hit and miss this season. One of our gunners needs to hit consistently to keep the lane open for Tim, Tony and Manu. It's imperative that we hit the corner pockets. Another repeat from Sunday's preview that's also still applicable.
Defense - Containing Dirk may be ~~difficult~~impossible, but that doesn't mean we have to leave Kidd wide open from the arc. We also need to prevent MLP from having success on the offensive boards.
Role Players - Somebody other than the Big 3 (and Dice) need to step up. Another collective turd will result in a very long ride home to San Antonio and the ingestion of massive amounts of alcohol, medicine, or cake by PtRockers.

Strength of Schedule

Second game of the series after two days of rest. Schedule doesn't really matter in the playoffs.

Last Time They Met

I don't really want to revisit Sunday's game, but if you're a masochist, here's the official Recap.

Some Other Reading

Mavericks

Mavs Moneyball - The SBNation home of the Mavericks. They played nice with us last year during the playoffs, so go say hi, but please don't be trollish.
The Two Man Game - The TrueHoop blog for Dallas. 48MoH quotes and links them pretty often, so it can't be all that bad. Some good analysis can be found here.

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell: The best TrueHoop team blog is still going strong, "pounding" out some of the best analysis there is on our beloved Spurs.
Project Spurs: Check out their regular podcasts. I think they love Manu as much as we do, if that's possible.

Where to Tune In

TV

This game will be aired nationwide on TNT. If you have cable or satellite, you'll have to look up your individual channel. And of course, there's always League Pass for the haves. For the have nots, read on.

Online

As always, NBA League Pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash. Most Spurs games will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area.

Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". You can also shoot an email to poundingtherockmail@yahoo.com for more assistance.

NBA League Pass audio is still free this year, so check it out.

Radio

If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM).