Maverics (56-11) at Celtics (20-48) 3/23

FLCeltsFan

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Dallas Mavericks (56-11) at Boston Celtics (20-48)
Friday, March 23, 2007 • 7:30 PM ET
Regular Season Game #69 • Home Game #34
TD Banknorth Garden • Boston, MA

Probable Starters
PG

#13 Delonte West PPG 11.7 | APG 4.6 | RPG 3.0
SG

#34 Paul Pierce PPG 24.7 | RPG 6 | APG 4.1
SF

#44 Brian Scalabrine PPG 4 | RPG 1.9 | BPG 0.3
PF

#7 Al Jefferson PPG 15.6 | RPG 11 | BPG 1.5
C

#43 Kendrick Perkins PPG 4.3 | RPG 4.8 | BPG 1.4

Off the Bench

Green/Rondo/Gomes/Powe/Ray/Telfair/Kandi

Injuries
Ratliff - back
Szczerbiak - ankle
Allen - knee

Notes: Doc seems to have gone back to his starting lineup with Scal as SF and West starting at PG. I really liked the lineup with West and Rondo in the back court and Pierce at SF and Perk and Jefferson in the front court. That group seemed to be playing great together. If Doc is indeed working toward next season, he should be starting Rondo at the point and Scal should be coming off the bench. Perk played one of his best games this season, garnering a double double in 3 quarters before he was sent to the bench. I look for more of the same the rest of the season.

Probable Starters
PG

#31 Jason Terry PPG 16.4 | APG 5.3 | 3P% .433
SG

#34 Devin Harris PPG 9.9 | APG 3.6 | SPG 1.2
SF

#5 Josh Howard PPG 18.9 | RPG 7 | APG 1.8
PF

#41 Dirk Nowitzki PPG 25.2 | RPG 9.6 | BPG 0.9
C.

#25 Erick Dampier PPG 7.5 | RPG 7.7 | BPG 1.1

Off the Bench

Stackhouse/Croshere/Diop/Barea/Mensa-Bonsu

Injuries
Buckner - knee
George - knee
Mbenga - ACL

Notes The Mavs are the best team in the league and are playing hard to finish strong down the stretch. They are coming off a win in Cleveland and are going to be very hard to beat. We almost beat them in Dallas but I expect them to come in and try to put us away early. We will have to play a perfect game to beat them.

Key Matchup

vs

Keys to the Win
Defense We need to improve our defense. Defense is what wins games and championships and more often than not, we play very weak defense. We still haven't learned how to defend the pick and roll effectively. We need to play good team defense and get stops, especially down the stretch.

Share the Ball When players try to do too much themselves, the offense breaks down. When we pass the ball and find the open man, we can score on anybody.

Rebound We need to be aggressive on the boards. When we hustle and get rebounds, it transfers to all areas of the game as well. When we give up second chance points, it is hard for us to win.
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MikeDead · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:53 am Post subject:

We played these guys real tough last time and almost come out of it with a win. Leon Powe was great covering Dirk and lierally shut him down for the first half. Pierce will most likely play limited minutes and if last nights tanking was an indication of anything, were gonna see alot of Allan Ray, Leon Powe, Sebastan Telfair & Gerald Green.
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