Outside Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, there isn’t really anyone on the Dallas Mavericks who can create their own shot, and this is what makes defending Dirk Nowitzki so important, because if you can stop him, you have a good chance of stopping the Mavericks’ offense and beating them. Nowitzki is such an incredibly difficult cover because he is a seven footer who can shoot over you while fading away. This means that you have to put a big man on Dirk, who can play on the outside in addition to playing on the post.
The Lakers tried to defend Nowitzki with two different players, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, and while one had some success, the other failed miserably when trying his hands at defending Dirk:
Pau Gasol – 6 possessions, 5-5 (100% FG), 13 points, 2.17 PPP
With Lamar Odom as the Lakers’ sixth man, Phil Jackson needs to find someone to defend Dirk Nowitzki until he enters the game. In game one, Jackson went with the size of Pau Gasol to try and stop Nowitzki, however, he didn’t have much success:
Here, you see Gasol’s discomfort on the outside. When Dirk Nowitzki makes the catch on the outside, Gasol is on him, but instead of getting a hand in Nowitzki’s face, he keeps both hands low, looking to steal any crossover dribble. With his hands down, Nowitzki is able to rise and fire, knocking the shot down over Gasol.
On this possession, Nowitzki makes the catch out by the three point line, and Pau Gasol is forced to follow him out there. Gasol is at a disadvantage when trying to defend Dirk on the outside and after a pump faked pass, Nowitzki drives, gets to his spot, and knocks down the jumper.
Finally here, you see Pau Gasol trying to chase Dirk Nowitzki off of pindown screens off of the basketball. Gasol is at a complete disadvantage here and Nowtizki is able to create enough space, using the screen to get his shot off.
Lamar Odom – 15 possessions, 6-14 (42.9% FG), 15 points, 1.0 PPP
With Pau Gasol struggling to defend Dirk Nowitzki, Phil Jackson went straight to Lamar Odom defending Dirk Nowitzki the second they were on the court at the same time. Odom had much more success, though he still had his struggles:
The advantage that Lamar Odom has over Pau Gasol is that he has the quickness to stay in front of Dirk Nowitzki. This allows him to be able to press up on him when he makes the catch on the outside and still be able to get in between Nowitzki on the rim, which is exactly what happens during the play above.
In addition, Odom’s quickness allows him to close out easier on Nowitzki. Here, Odom sinks into the middle on dribble penetration, forcing the ball to get kicked out to Nowitzki. Once the pass is made, Odom is able to get out on Nowitzki and contest successfully.
However, despite the success that he had during game one, Dirk Nowitzki was still able to get some really good looks when Odom was defending him:
The problem that Odom has when covering Dirk is that Dirk can back him down to get to his spot. Nowitzki is unique as a big because he doesn’t need to back down his man all of the way to the paint. In the play above, Nowitzki only needs to get a few steps in, and he is able to get to that space because he is a little bit stronger than Odom.
Assuming that Phil Jackson doesn’t switch his starting lineup around, he needs to find a better option for defending Dirk Nowitzki than Pau Gasol. There is one other option in the Lakers’ starting lineup, and that option is Ron Artest. With Artest, there is definitely a size mismatch, but I think Artest could be an option that Jackson turns to in game two. Will it work? If you look at the two possessions that Artest played Nowitzki during the regular season, the answer seems to be no:
On both of these plays, Nowitzki is able to use his significant size advantage to get to his spot and simply shoot it over the smaller Artest. However, I notice the physicality that Artest uses on Nowitzki.
At Nowitzki’s size, he is able to shoot over anyone on the outside, so you want to defend him with someone who can be physical on the outside and yet stay in front of him when he tries to attack the basket.
Now, I am not saying that Artest on Nowitzki should be the match-up all game/series long, but if you want to use Odom as the sixth man, you need to find someone other that Odom to defend him at the start of the game. In my opinion Artest could be a better option than Gasol.
Go At Him On Offense
Another way to negate Nowitzki on the offensive end is to make him work on the defensive end. Nowitzki isn’t a good defender and both Gasol and Odom are strong offensively, so if you use the advantages you have on the offensive end to exploit Noiwtzki’s weaknesses on defense. The Lakers only really attacked Dirk twice during game one.
On both of these plays, they go right at Nowitzki (with Gasol on the block and with Odom attacking on the outside). The Lakers need to keep doing this if they want to be able to try and neutralize Dirk Nowitzki.
