(the gentleman on the left, shown doing something besides shooting a basketball. the gentleman on the right is having a wonderful time but Game Stop isn’t gonna open itself tomorrow morning)
While major chunks of the sporting sphere hail Thunder head coach Scott Brooks for having the intestinal fortitude to go down the stretch last night against Dallas with 4 reserves —plus an obscure talent named Kevin Durant — (presumably sending a message to the wildly erratic Russell Westbrook), full credit to the Fort Worth Star-Ledger’s Jennifer Floyd Engel for identifying the other major factor in Oklahoma City’s Game 2 triumph. “No acceptable explanation exists for why Dirk Nowitzki only took two shots in the third quarter,” scolds Floyd Engel, “It was not as if OKC was doing a great job on Dirk, or even a good one…
They just were not forced to do any job at all on him for 12 minutes”.
“Yeah, I thought he (Nowitzki) got enough touches” a testy Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said before reversing direction and launching into a tirade against his defense.
I beg to differ, Rick. Seventeen shots is not enough for Dirk, not in a loss, not when Kevin Durant has 23, especially not coming off of his 48-point dominance in Game 1.
There is no excuse for what was really a game-long lack of Dirk. He obviously did not get enough shots in the first half, no matter what the Mavs spin.
This very informed basketball opinion came when I noticed he and Eric Maynor, whoever that is, had the same number of attempts.
Dirk is unselfish almost to a fault, and I kind of blame us mediots.
He spent Wednesday being peppered with “When Thunder coach Scott Brooks finally yanks his basketball brain from his you know where and doubles you, what then?” He answered responsibly, about finding the open man and being inclusive.
What I kind of wanted to whisper in his ear was “Uhm, you scored 48. Make them stop you with two. I am not sure they can. And when in doubt feed Dirk.”