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wrong, they didn't have the personnel to play the running game with phoenix. you slow the pace, like the mavs are doing this year, developing more of a half-court game but still with some explosiveness and the suns are vulnerable.

there is a reason donny nelson couldn't ever win anything big no matter how good his team was, i loved watching his teams, they were exciting but you can't win the way he played. avery is molding the mavs into a team that can play a well balanced game and the suns simply can't do anything with that. it wasn't personnel that beat the mavs last year it was the fact that the suns could expose anyone in a fast court game and that was all the mavs knew how to do(b/c of don nelson's style), so of course they were exposed.

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Its not that simple man. You cant just slow them down. The only way to is to shoot a very high percentage, or getting to the free throw line constantly. Those would be the things that take the suns out of their game. The mavs dont have that post player that can constantly get to the line, and your not always gonna shoot that high a percentage. In fact, the Spurs didnt beat the Suns by slowing them down, on 3-4 of the games they actually got caught up in the same pace. The thing is they had like 6 players constantly draining 3 after 3 when the Suns tried to double Duncan, this will change this year though.

And about the half court. The mavs couldnt defend Nash in the pick and roll, and none of the mavs can handle Stoudemire off the dribble in the low block. Thats how the suns closed out those games in last years series, since usually in the playoffs it becomes a half court game late.