Methods To The Madness

With about five minutes left in Sunday's game at US Airways Center in Phoenix, the Dallas Mavericks went to a matchup zone, their dozenth defense of the afternoon. The Suns appeared confused, but eventually forward Shawn Marion darted to his left across the lane and put up a righthanded floater that was nearly blocked. It was an awful-looking shot. It also went in, giving Phoenix a 109--96 lead that all but sealed its 126--104 victory.

To some, the shot said it all about NBA basketball, 48 minutes of seemingly spontaneous, even chaotic action packed into 24-second intervals. While football coaches plan with the precision of generals and baseball managers rely on cold, hard percentages (not to mention countless bromides), basketball coaches can apparently do nothing to affect the outcome. They're left to pace the sideline, scream at referees and add a sweat-ring pattern to their Armani suits as their players ad lib.

Not the case. When the league's two best teams took the court, they did so with meticulously calibrated game plans in place. In fact, every NBA team goes into a game with a plan, even the Memphis Grizzlies, who appear to have no plan at all except to lose as often as possible and add Greg Oden or Kevin Durant to their roster. The schemes of the Mavs and the Suns were more hastily constructed than ones in the NFL (both teams had played last Friday night) and were extremely fluid. But they had been formulated--just as those in the NFL are--only after hours of film watching and with an attention to detail that would amaze even an aficionado, never mind the guy who thinks the NBA stands for No Brainpower Allowed.

With the win Phoenix tied the season series at 2--2, took a 12--11 edge (playoff games included) in meetings over the last three years and added further intrigue to the MVP race. Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki probably had a slight edge going in but had a subpar game (21 points on 6-of-18 shooting), while Suns point guard Steve Nash had 23 on seven fewer shots to go with 11 assists.

But those stats are only numbers. Before the teams took the court, they gave SI a glimpse into their pregame strategies. It's possible they will meet in the playoffs for the third straight year, so as Phoenix assistant Marc Iavaroni said, "We're not going to throw everything out there, and neither are they."

The Mavericks' Plan

Assistant coach Joe Prunty is in charge of the initial game plan because the Suns have been "his team" throughout the season. Most NBA teams do it that way, divvying up responsibility for all opponents among the assistants. If Nash starts tying his sneakers a different way, Prunty will know about it. He began studying the Suns--"not that I ever really forget about them"--a few hours after the Mavs beat New York 105--103 last Friday in Dallas. (The Knicks are Prunty's team, too, so he had been busy with them to that point.) Prunty went home and watched parts of Phoenix's last three games, including that night's 125--108 win over the Denver Nuggets, looking for anything new the Suns had been doing since their memorable 129--127, double-overtime win over the Mavericks on March 14. He came away wondering about two things:

?Is Marion injured, coasting or just less involved in the offense? His quickness had hurt Dallas in recent seasons, but over the last month his play had been subpar.

?Should he include much about the Suns' reserves in the game plan? In their 124--119 loss at Golden State last Thursday, the bench players had staged a fourth-quarter rally.

Marion's inspired play in the win over the Nuggets persuades Prunty to emphasize him heavily in the game plan and not to worry too much about the reserves.

The Mavs get a chance to work on the Suns' tendencies twice: at a light practice on Saturday before they leave Dallas, and on a Sunday-morning run-through in a ballroom at the team hotel before the 12:30 p.m. tipoff. At practice, little-used rookie guard Jos� Barea is excited because he gets to impersonate Nash. "Especially what I do is keep my dribble longer, go through and around the basket," says Barea. "I don't usually play like that. No one does except Steve Nash." Prunty presents the rudiments of the Phoenix pick-and-roll, and coach Avery Johnson frequently stops the action to talk about specifics.