NBA Basketball Playoffs Matchup
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Dallas Mavericks |
New Orleans Hornets |
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| Teams |
|
|
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| Dallas Mavericks |
193 |
193½ |
193 |
| New Orleans Hornets |
-3½ |
-3½ |
-3½ |
Odds subject to change |
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 Byron Scott found himself awake at 5 a.m. last week, wondering if he should make defensive changes to deal with a dynamic Dallas attack that gave the Hornets fits in both teams' regular season finale.
'Once I finally got up, I told myself, 'We're going to do what we do. We've been one of the top five teams in the league in the defensive end, so why change?'' Scott recalled on Monday. 'It's just a matter of us doing it better and doing it harder, and that's what we did in Game 1. So I don't scrap everything we've done all season long and try to come up with new gimmicks to try to beat certain teams.'
While Chris Paul's 35 points and 10 assists were a major factor in the Hornets' 104-92 victory in the opener of New Orleans' first-round playoff series with Dallas on Saturday, stifling defense allowed Scott's club to erase a 12-point halftime deficit and win going away.
The Mavericks shot 25 percent (9-of-36) in the second half, when New Orleans outscored Dallas 64-40. Dallas shot 33 percent for the game while hustling Hornets defenders limited Dallas to only four fast-break points during the last three quarters.
Scott said he trusts his players to provide a similar defensive effort in Game 2 on Tuesday night.
'I think they really do understand that defense does win championships,' said Scott, whose team finished the season ranked fifth in points allowed per game (95.57). 'Defense has been our staple all season long.'
Certainly, both teams will make tactical adjustments during this best-of-seven series, but Scott said he expects the focus of his tinkering to be on offense.
'I'm trying to think of what are they going to do to slow Chris down, not so much what we're going to do defensively,' Scott said.
Dallas coach Avery Johnson said the Mavericks need to keep the ball out of Paul's hands and make him run around more on defense. Paul, who prides himself on his defense and led the NBA in steals with 2.7 per game, seemed almost amused by the idea that Dallas would attempt to make him work harder on the defensive end.
'I played defense the other night,' said Paul, who had four steals in Game 1. 'It's going to be interesting. I'm just excited to see what happens.'
Johnson decided not to hold a practice on Monday, when the Mavs, who returned to Dallas after Game 1, traveled back to New Orleans.
Johnson said his team can shoot better with more patience, more ball movement and not relying too much on leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki, which sometimes results teammates getting him the ball when he's out of position.
'We need those guys to play as if Dirk's not on the floor, but at the same time, we know we need him on the floor,' Johnson said late Monday afternoon, after arriving at the team's hotel in downtown New Orleans.
'More than anything, whatever changes we need to make, we need the ball to go in the basket more than 33 percent of the time. If the ball can go in the basket more than 33 percent of the time and we can get back to our normal production, then we think that will help our defense.'
Johnson also called on center Erick Dampier to be more aggressive in everything from rebounding to sticking up for teammates during on-court confrontations, such as when Nowitzki was in a nose-to-nose standoff with Hornets forward David West, who tapped Nowitzki on the cheek as they spoke.
'We need players to not back down from anybody. That's what the playoffs are all about,' Johnson said. 'More than Dirk doing something about it, I would have liked for somebody else on the team, preferably in the center position, to do something about it.'
While the Mavs acknowledged some anguish over letting a double-digit lead slip away in Game 1, they still can salvage a split of their first two road games by winning Tuesday night. Then the Hornets would be forced to win in Dallas, something they haven't done since January 1998.
'Game 2 is the most important game of the series, because if you win that game you're still in the driver's seat. You've accomplished your goal, which is keep home-court advantage,' Scott said. 'But if you lose it, now all the pressure's on you, because they're going home with a split; they have two games at home, so the momentum shifts.'
Pick: New Orleans Hornets
Result: Won
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