Mavs Full Court Press

Fouls for everyone

Remember those foul troubles? With Chris Paul fouling Jason Terry on the fast break, that gives him three fouls, which means every Hornets starter has three fouls except Peja Stojakovic, who has two.

-Scooter Hendon

Foul troubles for New Orleans

Morris Peterson just picked up his third foul, but he isn't the only one in trouble. Tyson Chandler, David West and Bonzi Wells have two and Hilton Armstrong has three. By contrast, the Mavs have only two players with two fouls in Dirk and Damp. The Hornets just went over the limit on team fouls at just over three minutes gone in the quarter. This should be a big storyline for the second half.

-Scooter Hendon

Pargo cashing in

Who were the Mavs worried about coming into this game? Chris Paul? David West? Peja Stojakovic?

Maybe it should have been Jannero Pargo. The eighth-year player is lighting the Mavs up so far and has 10 points on 4-4 shooting, two of which were from three-point range. He also has two assists and a steal and is being rather disruptive on the defensive end as well. Add his list to the already long list of guys the Mavs need to keep track of.

-Scooter Hendon

Looking decent

The Mavs are looking similar to their first half in Game 1. They're pushing the pace and rotating properly. Chris Paul has two points and three assists, but is 0-3 from the floor as the Mavs are denying him penetration. His bread-and-butter involves getting inside, so as long as the Mavs can keep a body on him on the perimeter and being physical and collapsing properly on him when he does get in the lane, they should continue to do well against him.

They just have to be mindful that when they collapse on him, they have to keep an eye on the perimeter players like Peja and Mo Pete. One other note on why the Mavs have played well: Tyson Chandler had two early fouls and is out right now because of it. Keep an eye on how things go when he returns.

-Scooter Hendon

Peja: bombs

Peja Stojakovic is dropping bombs from the outside, and the Mavs continue to leave him open. He's 5-6 from three with 22 points. Oh well, they haven't defended anyone else, why start with Peja?

-Scooter Hendon

Bad, bad business

This is some clown-ball business. The Mavs don't look like they've made any half-time adjustments and are essentially gifting the Hornets whatever they want. When they pay attention to Paul and the big guys, New Orleans is burning them from the outside. It's 80-58 and it's starting to look like the Mavs are already folding it up.

-Scooter Hendon

Outgamed+Poor game plan=Down by 16

It's very troubling to see the Mavs listlessly make run after run at Chris Paul and throw poor "double teams" at him. They continue to try and pay him extra defensive attention, but they're going about it the wrong way. Their game plan against Paul seems to be done halfway and it obviously isn't working. If they want to have a snowball's chance in this game, they are going to have to understand that Paul's deadliness lies in his teammates. With  Tyson Chandler and David West running around virtually unguarded when the Mavs double team Paul, they're just asking to have a nasty dunk following Paul's inevitable split of the double team.

Either way, the Mavs look poorly equipped to deal with the Hornets and are being outgamed in most every aspect. Their gameplan needs some adjustment, or they need to come up with one in the first place.

-Scooter Hendon

Doubling Paul

The Mavs keep double-teaming Chris Paul, and they finally figured out that they need to do it with the two athletic guys who can move laterally. Earlier in the quarter, they were were doubling him with Damp and Kidd, or Dirk and Kidd, to which Paul split with ease and set up easy buckets.

Then, Josh and Bass went out to glove him up and forced Paul into a difficult pass. The Hornets ended up with a jumper anyway, but the point is that they weren't getting dunks and layups, which was the result of doubling him with two slow guys.

If the Mavs are going to double Paul, they also have to keep a solid eye and man up on Tyson Chandler on the weak side or they're going to get burnt every time.

-Scooter Hendon

He ain't an MVP candidate for nothing

All year long, Chris Paul has been the most important cog for one of the best teams in the league, and that talent is finally showing through. In the third quarter, he had 15 points and 8 assists on 7-11 shooting, and so far in the fourth, he has two points and an assist already, and has accounted for all four point for the Hornets so far. If the Mavs don't start bottling him up at least a little bit, it's going to be a really ugly finish.

-Scooter Hendon

That didn't go so well

That third quarter was simply disaterous. Everything the Mavs did right in the first half went wrong in the third quarter. They did nothing to contain Chris Paul, they didn't push the pace and they let their offense stagnate and become predictable. In addition, every time the Hornets started getting momentum, the Mavs made dumb plays that did nothing to change that momentum. Long jumpers, dumb passes and an overall lack of flow from the offensive end put the Hornets ahead after such a great start. If they can recapture the things they did in the first half, they'll make this close. Otherwise, it will end in collapse.

-Scooter Hendon