At the start of Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against Dallas, one might have wondered if the Nuggets had a plan to combat Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki. Using his peculiar array of bumper-car jump shots and herky-jerky drives to the basket, the 7-footer made his first six shots Sunday afternoon and added a free throw as the Mavericks took a 19-11 lead.
"We were kind of letting him do whatever he wanted to out there," Denver forward Carmelo Anthony said. That soon changed, due to an approach that, while indeed somewhat helter-skelter, proved oddly effective.
While Nowitzki finished with a game-high 28 points, he was only 6-of-16 after his torrid start; and, in the Nuggets' 15-2 fourth-quarter run that broke the contest open, the all-star failed to score, a major factor in the Nuggets' 14-point blowout.
While Kenyon Martin drew the starting defensive assignment on Nowitzki, at one time or another it seemed like Denver threw everybody but inactive players Steven Hunter and Sonny Weems at him. Nuggets coach George Karl said the idea was to create a sense of doubt not only for Nowitzki, but all the Mavericks, thus converting them from a team that comfortably sinks jumper after jumper into a squad that wonders where the defense will attack from next.
That hesitancy showed up in the 20 Dallas turnovers, a number that Nowitzki admitted seemed about 50 percent too low.
"It felt like 30," he said. "It seemed like every time we were in position to make a play, we turned the ball over."
Only two of the miscues were attributed to Nowitzki, but there are physical errors and there are mental miscues that may not show up on a stat sheet, and the Mavericks committed both in bunches. For Nowitzki, the miscues could be found in his uncertainty about how to continue his early magic.
"They have a lot of big bodies they can throw at me, and they did a good job of being physical," Nowitzki said of Martin, Nene and Chris Andersen, in particular. "All three of those guys are athletic, strong and long, so there's no particular way to attack any of them.
"Sometimes I wanted to quick- drive them, and sometimes I wanted to use spin moves. Sometimes, maybe I think I over-faked with the ball and got caught up in the air. I'll have to take a look at that and maybe make stronger moves."
What Nowitzki saw Sunday, however, might not be what the Nuggets throw at him Tuesday night in Game 2.
"There were three, four or five disruptive things that we thought we could do, and they added a few more on their own," Karl said of his defense. "Being aggressive defensively is a desire of ours, and I don't think we'll stop, either physically or conceptually.
"I don't know exactly what our concepts are except to say that I don't think staying too much with one thing is the right formula. I think the best thing is to mix it up with jumps and switches and double teams."
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com ---------------- Breaking down Dirk
How Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki fared in Game 1 against the Nuggets :
....FG....FT....Reb.....Ast.....Turnovers/points ratio
First quarter....6-of-8....1-1....2....1....0 TO/13 pts.
Second quarter....1-of-5....1-2....1....0....1 TO/3 pts.
Third quarter....4-of-6....2-2 ....2....1....0 TO/10 pts.
Fourth quarter....1-of-3....0-0....5....2....1 TO/2 pts.
