Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE
—–LAST YEAR RESULTS—– —–UPCOMING MEETINGS—–
MAR 10 @ GOLDEN STATE: L 111-87 NOV 19 @ DALLAS
APR 12 @ GOLDEN STATE: W 112-103 JAN 31 @ GOLDEN STATE
APR 20 @ DALLAS: W 104-94 FEB 9 @ DALLAS
MAVS WON SEREIS 3-1
The Golden State Warriors may be hard to beat for the Dallas Mavericks as they have history with them, but being in a rebuilding stage the Mavericks should be able to come out with the series win since two of the three games are in Dallas. The Mavs took two of the three games during the lockout season last year. With a full schedule and a full training camp the warriors should be able to win 30 or more games this coming season.
For the Warriors to take down the Mavs first they are going to need to stay healthy. Their first meeting with the Mavericks is November 19th in Dallas which may be problem for the Warriors. They have built up a nice roster last season when they traded for Andrew Bogut from the Milwaukee Bucks and trading for Richard Jefferson from the San Antonio Spurs. They still have Stephen Curry, David Lee and young Brandon Rush.
The Warriors will need to build up Rush to become a passing guard if the Warriors want to stay young and compete in the near future. However, they do have Curry who is also a young guard who averaged a career low 14.7 points a game last year. For the Warriors to be successful against Dallas they are going to need to use the Don Nelson’s “run and gun” game. Make the Mavericks run in transition and ware them out especially for that first game. With the old legs of the Mavs it may be hard for them to keep up. Nevertheless, the next two meetings are in January and February which means the run and gun system may not work for those two games since they are later in the season. That means the young guys on the team may have figured out by then how to keep up with the big boys in the NBA.
In that case the Warriors will need to use David Lee in the paint who, by the way, averaged little over 20 points a game as well as 9.6 rebounds a game last season. Make the Mavs defend the paint which will most likely put Chris Kaman, Shawn Marion and Elton Brand into foul trouble. If the Warriors do that then they may be able to beat Dallas down in the paint rather than taking tons of jump shots.
For the Mavericks to beat the Warriors they will need to slow down Stephen Curry which he will use his young legs to out run this Dallas team. Of course Dirk Nowitzki will need to be on a shooting rampage like he does every now and then. In the last two meetings against the Warriors the Mavs will need to use Kaman, Marion and Brand to stop Lee in the paint. As like the Warriors putting the Mavs in foul trouble the same way will work the other way around. If Dallas can put Lee in foul trouble then the Warriors will need to depend on their jump shots and with Delonte West, O.J. Mayo, Darren Collison and Marion on the Mavs side the Warriors may have a hard time putting up shots with either of these three defending their shots.
With that said I believe that the Mavericks can take all three games of the season series match up, but I will not be surprise if the Warriors take at least one. The main key for the Warriors this year will be to stay healthy and keep building. They are a young team with a coach only in his second year as a head coach the Golden State Warriors have a bright future and could possibly compete in the West in the near future.
Paul Abell-US PRESSWIRE
—–LAST YEAR RESULTS—– —–UPCOMING MEETINGS—–
APR 26 @ ATLANTA: L 106-89 FEB 11 @ DALLAS
MAVS LOST SERIES 1-0 MAR 18 @ ATLANTA
With Joe Johnson long gone and the Hawks no longer have to worry about his horrible contract that they gave him in the first place Atlanta can finally put key players together to bring the Hawks into a top playoff contender in the Eastern Conference. They will still be able to compete in the East with players like Kyle Korver, Al Horford, Devin Harris, DeShawn Stevenson and Josh Smith on the team and being the East the Hawks can still compete to get a playoff spot.
To compete against the Mavericks in their two meetings late in the year they are going to have to use Josh Smith to win the games. I believe that this will be Smith’s career making season. Last year he had a career best with 18.8 points a game as well as a career best 9.6 rebounds a game. With no longer Joe Johnson in the picture Smith can finally put the team on his back and we will have to wait and see if he can carry this young Hawks team into the promise land.
They do have to add one key player I believe to ever get to that promise land, but they have a great start to work with. Devin Harris will be another guy that needs to step up if they want to beat the Mavericks. Harris has never really lived up to his potential ever since entering the league in 2004 when he was drafted 5th overall by the Washington Wizards (draft rights to the Mavericks). He has not been able to be that passing guard that the Hawks will need and he has not really been a great shooter that he can be. The Hawks will need to control that ball as the Mavericks will look to force this Atlanta team to pass the ball. The Hawks aren’t a good passing team and the Mavs will take advantage of that.
With that said the Mavericks will need to use Delonte West, Shawn Marion and Darren Collison to force the Hawks to pass and then they will be able to intercept those passes and run the fast break for an easy break using Brand, Kaman or Nowitzki. This should be an easy win for the Mavericks, but being late in the season the Hawks could have a different look than they have right now. If they do not add any more key guys to this team before the trade deadline then the Hawks may have a hard time competing against the Mavericks and the rest of the Western Conference teams for that matter.
I believe the Mavericks will take both games and I will be quite surprise if the Hawks end up winning at least one of these two meetings. The Hawks are on the right path, however, and I believe in a few years from now the Hawks could become a threat and compete with the big boys in the Eastern Conference.
