Minnesota Timberwolves @ LA CLippers - 23rd December 2013

Wat a match i witnessed today. LA Clippers looking like a top 4 team this season with Doc Rivers at the helm playing against a much improved Timberwolves team with Kevin Love playing like a MVP. Him and Pekovic are like an Offensive front court nightmare. I Beleive that Timberwolves are the only team in the nba where their top 2 scorers are a 5 and a 4. This is a throwback to Old school basketball and Pekovic especially looked unstoppable at the post.

Kevin Love and Pekovic
These two looked absolutely unstoppable.Both Blake griffin and De Andre were abused time and again and a premier blocker like DJ couldnt find any type of defense against the fast hook shots of Pekovic. Kevin Love seemed to hit more hook shots than jump shots in this game which is kind of surprising as Jump shooting is his game.They struggled in jump shots though. Kevin Martin was good though going 7-12 but for some reason he played only 32 minutes.He played similar minutes in OKC but he should be playing more in a team like the Wolves as they have a very thin bench and with rubio becoming worse everyday his minutes should and eventually will increase. They finished with a combined 79 points in this Overtime game.
Clippers defense
I remember watching the Celtics Clips game and was amazed how good the Clips defense was. They clearly played better defense than the Wolves. Darren Collison was amazing in this category and even scored the same points as Chris Paul.Even CP3 has become more of a facilitator under Doc and would be grateful for not expounding excessive energy like he used to under Del Negro.The Clips look like a bonafide Payoffs team and the tenacity and will power showed today against wat looked like an unstoppable duo in Love and Pekovic. I liked how they went for the steal and not fouling K.Martin who made the mistake of going to his own half to get the ball and was immediately double teamed by Collison and Paul which enabled them to get a quick basket.I like how Jared Dudley was still in the game even after going 0-6 before in the final minutes.
The reason for the Wolves loss
The minutes of K Martin and Corey Brewer has to increase. Brewer is a top rated defender and is almost unstoppable transition offensive option.With the two bigs doing the bulk of the scoring and Rubio becoming a dud I believe that Corey brewer can be made into a ball handler and a viable third option along with K Martin. T.Wolves can still make the Playoff if they could find more defense and it might also help K Love in his MVP bid as his stats are just PURE GOLD !!! and being a losing team would take a lot of sheen out of it.

The fall of Dallas Mavericks

It was really sad to watch the Dallas Mavericks fall to a 1-4 start to a truncated season of NBA.At this rate the Dallas might have to struggle just to make the playoffs with Clippers,Timberwolves and Warriors looking like a far better side than the one that played in the previous season.The main factors that could contribute to the downfall are the following......
Insane deal to let go Tyson Chandler and JJ Barea
How in the world the Mavs thought that the only focal point of their defense of a championship team is not worthy of an extended.Come on Mark Cuban cant you offer more than a year for Tyson Chandler,thats ridiculous the guy helps you get your first ring and then you treat him like a disposable commodity,thats not fair.Looking at the Knicks this year Tyson might be the missing puzzle that the knicks are waiting for.

What does JJ Barea have to do to get an extended deal.He was the only reason why Mavs won that crucial game in the Finals when Dirk fell sick and JJ Barea scored a valuable 20 odd points running circles around the Miami defense.The very fact his current side Timberwolves defeated the Mavs yesterday is sweet justice for him.

Not to mention the trade of Caron Butler who is one their consistent performers.
 
The Replacements

What has the Dallas Mavericks got in return. Lets see that they did receive two All Stars in the form of Vince Carter and Lamar Odom. But both of them are in the fag end of their careers and are probably not starter material but still effective.Vince Carter - the most entertaining player to have ever played the game but rarely has a side ever won a playoff series because of him.He cannot carry sides to victory, the best he can do is to play a support cast to Dirk and score some points and looking at the way he is playing he simply cant dunk anymore either.Lamar Odom looks disoriented in the Dallas team.He probably needs more time to fine tune his setup plays with his team members.It takes time even for veterans to gel like a team and this Nba Lockout has ensured that they have no time whatsoever. With the hectic schedule it is more likely Dallas goes from bad to worse.

The Hopefuls

There might be a chance that Dallas can come back and thats through their marquee player Dirk Nowitzki. He usually heats up at the fag end of the season and lets accept it ...there is absolutely no defense against the Dirk fade away. The veterans Lamar,Kidd and Carter might bring in their experience in crunch games and they can very well cause problems for any defense in the playoff games.But Vince and Dirk has no defensive skills at all.There is also the fact that Beaubois is back and healthy. He is probably their only hope now...

He is probably the smoothest player in the NBA and the only player other than Dirk to have ever scored more than 50 points in a game for the Mavericks.How come he is not a starter is beyond me.......

As of now it looks like Dallas is not even trying for a repeat.


 

Dirk Nowitzki homecoming in Wurzburg Germany

Me Watching Game 6 NBA Finals Final Minutes

Nice win for Dirk Nowitzki