Game Previews

Game 3 Preview: Spurs @ Mavs

By CapHill Updated Apr 23, 2010, 4:24pm CDT

I love TIMMEH! Preview after the jump.

I've got nothing witty or funny tonight. Just loads of anticipation and excitement.

Dallas Mavericks @ San Antonio Spurs [Game 3]
Where: AT&T Center - San Antonio, TX
When: April 23, 2010; 8:30 PM Spurs time
Watch: ESPN

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 (1-1)	Matchups	Mavericks (1-1)
George Hill	Point Guard I'm predicting a break out game for Hill. He looked better on Wednesday, especially on the defensive end. Cubits came up with some big shots in the 4th, so I think his offense will improve on home court tonight. Plus, he's had a few more days for the ankle to get better. Kidd did not look near as good in Game 2. Is he capable of picking up the offensive slack if Dirk falters again? Advantage: Dallas	Jason Kidd

Manu Ginobili	Shooting Guard Color me shocked that Butler did not repeat his Game 1 offensive game. Manu is a basketball god. Any questions? Advantage: Spurs	Caron Butler

Richard Jefferson	Small Forward Marion, like the rest of the Mavs, disappeared for long stretches and did not display his usual hustle. Well, RAGE, you brought it in the first half. Let's not repeat your bad game, good game, bad game pattern tonight. Advantage: Tied	Shawn Marion

Tim Duncan	Power Forward Sorry, Dirk, you came down to earth and crawled back into your mentally fragile shell. I'm taking away your white box. Timmeh is the Man! The sooner the rest of the world recognizes his GOATPUFFness, the sooner they'll stop being surprised when he ratchets up the game in the Playoffs. Advantage: Spurs	Dirk Nowitzki

Antonio McDyess	Center Dice gets this year's Robert Horry Award for knowing how to coast in the regular season, yet flip the switch in the playoffs. "DampWood" was not good. And that's all I have to say about that. Advantage: Tied	Brendan Haywood

Tony Parker	Bench & Role Players Tony was brillian. The Wee Frenchman is back! Terry broke out of his funk, but still missed the shots when they mattered in the 4th quarter. And I still don't understand why Beaubois doesn't get ANY playing time. Advantage: None	Jason Terry

Gregg Popovich	Coach You're in fine form, Pop. Motivating players with your barbs and providing quotes that greatly amuse us PtRockers. Carlisle got Popped. It was not pretty (for the MLPs). Advantage: Spurs	Rick Carlisle
	images via yahoo.com

	Other Factors
Intangibles
The Spurs still have it mentally. I'm not sure about the Mavs. Advantage: Spurs
Mojo
SiMA brought back the turtle. Bella contributed Viggo (yet again). This thing may not actually be dead. Advantage: Spurs?
Winner:
It's on our home court, and we should capitalize on our big win from Wednesday. I still envision a rather close game, though.

Keys To The Game

Execution - No, not of Mark Cuban. The offensive execution in Game 2 was old-school Spurs, especially with regards to turnovers. Keep this up, and let the Mavs try to figure out how to guard the paint..
Rebounding - This was much improved over Game 1. We had 16 offensive rebounds (grate!), but the Mavs had 14 (meh). We need to box out better on the defensive boards and minimize their second chance points.
Defense - Dirk mostly contained himself in Game 2, but our perimeter defense was much better. That needs to continue for the rest of the series.
Role Players - All of our role players stepped up in Game 2. Let's repeat the effort guys, mkay?

Strength of Schedule

Third game of the series after one day of rest. Again, schedule doesn't really matter in the playoffs, as there are no back-to-backs.

Last Time They Met

Unlike Game 1, watching the highlights and reading the Recap of our 102-88 victory Wednesday night is really, really fun!

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 ESPN. 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).