Mario last night

[Dragitoff]

Does anyone know exactly what Mario did last night as the Hawks went into halftime? I know he was pumped about the defense and did something as he walked off the court. I saw DWade kinda' smirk as he walked into the locker room. I was just wondering what happened exactly as he was walking away because the camera kinda' cut it off.

[plskeepbibby]

He was going absolutely nuts because he played about 15 seconds of incredible D on Wade. He could tell wade was uncomfortable, and he started screaming and beating his chest. IT WAS AWESOME and he should get more PT. Especially against Queen James.

[LOL_Hawks]

That was pretty much it. Mario played Mario defense on Wade at the end of the half and did everything but do the Duke "Slap the floor." thing.

Wade owned West for the rest of the game, but eh. I love West simply because he will D-up the best player on the other team and get in their heads. It's just awesome. Once again, the Heat are in a bad way when they are letting Mario West get to them.

[crimedog]

Yeah, he was rugged as hell there and Wade was pissed about it. Wade wanted to make his move earlier but Mario kept him back towards half court a little longer than he wanted and when Wade tried to get into the lane Mario was a step ahead and Wade had to pull back for a heavily contested fadeaway that bricked pretty hard. Rio was pumped, I was pumped, Smith was pumped, and the arena was pumped.

Rio is a better match against Wade than against Lebron because Lebron is 6'8 (might be taller now, he's been in the league for a while and came in as a teen) stronger than the vast majority of NBA PFs.

[DrReality]

I'm surprised they let Rio get away with that against Wade. But he definately harassed him. Need to do that more often to get him off his game. Sure pumped up the Hawks.

[crimedog]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content...e_wade_sou.html

Wade was then asked about the simmering battles in this series: Wade vs. Mario West; Jamaal Magloire vs. Josh Smith; Jermaine O’Neal vs. Zaza Pachulia.

“First of all, Mario, I have nothing simmering with him,” Wade said dismissively. “He has not been a factor in this series. It’s irrelevant to me. I have nothing brewing with him at all.”

In other words, "I was really embarassed when their 10th man locked me down at the end of the quarter."

[LOL_Hawks]

Well, there's some bulletin board material for the Hawks right there, or at least West.

[dig]

Remember Rio was a walk on at Tech who managed to find his way onto an NBA roster... he's the type of guy who would take the assignment seriously, and likely has been an underdog his whole basketball career and would love to show D-Wade up.

This is the type of brilliant move that the games better coaches (ie. Phil sticking Tyron Lue on Iverson) are capable of -- sadly, I don't think Woody has the foresight or confidence in himself to do this. I think it could work great in stretches but I'd be reluctant to keep Flip/Bibby off the court for too long give our "creative offensive" deficiencies... but why not let Rio hound Wade for a few minutes when he starts to go on a tear...

Edited May 1, 2009 by dig

[MaceCase]

Mario seems effective against Wade but I just wish he'd try to just stay in front of him rather than do to much and reach for the steal, that's where he was beat by Wade the other night. The Heat also seemed to neutralize the strategy in the second half because they know the Hawks switch on everything so they'd run a pick at Mario to shed him. If only Mario could ball handle like Lue i wouldn't mind using a Phil strategy and leaving him in the game longer in place of Bibby to bring the ball up and give it up to Joe or Flip to set up the offense.

[Diesel]

Mario seems effective against Wade but I just wish he'd try to just stay in front of him rather than do to much and reach for the steal, that's where he was beat by Wade the other night. The Heat also seemed to neutralize the strategy in the second half because they know the Hawks switch on everything so they'd run a pick at Mario to shed him. If only Mario could ball handle like Lue i wouldn't mind using a Phil strategy and leaving him in the game longer in place of Bibby to bring the ball up and give it up to Joe or Flip to set up the offense.

Wade didn't start beating Rio until they did the screen and we were forced to switch and Wade matched up with our slower bigs.

There's got to be a way that Wade comes off a screen into a double team!

[bronnt]

Wade didn't start beating Rio until they did the screen and we were forced to switch and Wade matched up with our slower bigs.

There's got to be a way that Wade comes off a screen into a double team!

I think the plan is usually to double Wade when he rolls off a screen, but Miami has been doing a really good job setting their screens, and the Miami bigs are just too big for Mario to fight though.

Of course, Miami has gotten away with some crazy moving screens at times. There was a moment in game four where Wade hit a shot over Zaza and I was like "Well that was a really bad time to switch off the screen." Then I saw the replay and in the background you can clearly see Jermaine O'Neal shoving Mario off the perimeter all the way into the paint. I think Mario isn't going to get any calls, though, because he's Mario. He needed to fall down or something. At any rate, there's a lot type of stuff going on.

It's on Mario, too, a little-I'm just assuming that his teammates are calling out those screens for him, but he keeps trying to go over the top, and Wade uses his screens way too well for that to work. He needs to start cutting underneath the screens and just giving up the jumpshot to prevent Wade cutting to the basket. If the plan is to double off the screen, you really need to take the path of least resistance in order to get into position.