It's the second half of the shortened NBA season and after the all star break is when teams start to pick it up to try and make their runs to make the playoffs. I'm going to make straight up picks as opposed to spread picks for a couple of days to see how teams play and how the all star break effects momentum and determination of the teams. Tonight the New Jersey Nets start off the second half in Dallas against Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks. The Nets are 2-3 in their last 5 with wins over Chicago and New York. Chicago was without Derrick Rose and Deron Williams had redeemed himself scoring 38 points going 8/14 from three after the first battle with Jeremy Lin. In Deron Williams' last 10 he is averaging 27.1 PPG, 6.7 APG and 2.9 RPG playing the best basketball all season. The Mavericks on the other hand is 3-2 in their last 5 with wins over Boston, Philly and Denver and have lost at the hands of the Lakers and the Knicks. Dirk in his last 10 is averaging 24.9 PPG, 8.5 RPG and 2.4 APG. Dirk didn't play as big of a factor in the all star game as Deron Williams did, and I expect Dirk to have a strong game here. None of the other Mavericks had made the all star team or participated in any of the events during the all star weekend so I expect the Mavericks to be well rested and motivated from the rest. New Jersey has talented players including Anthony Morrow, Marshon Brooks and Kris Humphries but the Dallas Mavericks' consist of veterans. Veterans who know that the second half of the season is important to place themselves in a comfortable position for the post season and to show people that they are not complacent with 1 championship. Mavericks come out with the win here over the Nets.
Result: The Mavericks started off slow, and the Nets came out strong. Instinctively, as a basketball fan one would assume that Deron Williams got the run going. Actually, it wasn't. Deron Williams for the game shot 3/15 and scored 12 points with 12 assists. By the end of the 1st half, the Mavs found themselves down 56-45. Dirk had a decent game, shooting 7/19 from the field scoring 24. The Nets' success came from their center Brook Lopez who had a field day scoring 38 points and grabbing 6 boards. Brendan Haywood did what he could for the Mavs scoring 18 points and getting 10 boards. The Mavs are the former champs. And as the former champs there's a certain standard that they have to perform, and they fought back finding themselves only down by 1 thanks to a three pointer by Jason Kidd with 48 seconds left. Brook Lopez was fouled on the other side by Brendan Haywood and knocked down two free throws to put the Nets up by 1, where Jason Kidd was forced to take a difficult 3 (which I wondered why, considering they were only down by 1.) The Nets came out with the victory led by Brook Lopez with a fantastic game to end it 93-92.
5-2
No comments:
Post a Comment