It was on Around the Horn. Basically, he stated that other players took a lot of shots to put up those numbers. He said in his 40 years of covering basketball, it was the best he's ever seen.

Thoughts?

If it was in a closeout game in the WCF or an NBA Finals game maybe, but I don't think so. I can think of a couple games where one person put on a Herculean performance and the gravity/implications of the game were much greater.

From an efficiency standpoint, yeah, probably the best offensive playoff performance.

I respect his opinion. 39 shots and 36 makes looks staggering on paper. This game goes on his Hall of Fame ledger and could be part of a future montage like they had pregame on ESPN if they win the title. Joey Crawford and Scotty Brooks get a big assist. I think Dirk would have imposed his will regardless of the refs and coaches but that's where the FTAs came from

how did he shoot 36 of 39? he shot on the plays he was fouled and pretty much those are misses

Dirk's playoff performance was one of the best, but that being said Woody Paige tends to mouth off many idiotic things!

The 36/39 is including the 24 FTs.


It was such a strange game that no one attained a double-double.

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MookieBlaylock6:45p
how did he shoot 36 of 39? he shot on the plays he was fouled and pretty much those are misses

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pretty much they're not

statistics are bs- yes he had a great game but look at the score- who didn't score?

the i was fouled misses make the stats skewed and impossible to believe- he basically missed 12 shots out of which he wasn't really fouled on any of them(it is the NBA)

That's a pretty big reach right there.

not really

36 of 39 is impossible

I guess I saw the impossible last night.

I understand what you're saying. Fouls that occur on attempts don't count as attempts for obvious reasons. You can say what you want about the severity of each foul and how much it really impacted the shot, but it's not like there's a separate statistic ruleset for just Dirk.

I seriously doubt it was the best ever. I mean, if you look at it from an overall standpoint and factor in defense, intangibles, the impact each player had on the game, I seriously doubt Dirk had more of an impact on that game than Jordan ever did.

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statistics are bs- yes he had a great game but look at the score- who didn't score?

the i was fouled misses make the stats skewed and impossible to believe- he basically missed 12 shots out of which he wasn't really fouled on any of them(it is the NBA)

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Making 36 of 39 shots is nothing special because everyone else was scoring (they weren't). And his 12 fouls called were not really fouls and he should have made those shots anyway.

Keep going.

How many of the 12 fouls were in the act of shooting and where he wasn't shoved or hacked to the point of not getting arm extension for a decent look?

It's apparent that some of yall don't know the rules.

He didn't miss twelve shots while being fouled. Mavs were in the bonus in the 3rd period or maybe other periods. Thunder were fouling him before he even got a shot off. The result is same, two free throws.

Refs were calling everything. Kidd was smart enough to keep giving ball to the guy with hot hand. And that guy happens to be one of greatest free throw shooters in NBA history. Why the Thunder kept fouling him before he shot was beyond me.

Wait, is the new spin from Mavs haters "Dirk missed way more than 3, they just didn't count the ones where a phantom foul was called"?

Yeah, you idiots are ridiculous. Sure, woody paige probably exaggerated. But to discount Dirk just because he got to the line a bunch makes you seem infantile.

I'll say what I said last night...it was the best playoff performance of a player since 07 when LeBron scored 29 of the last 30 for the Cavs in a highly contested ECF game against the Pistons.

That is up there with the best playoff performances of all time.

Dirk's shooting last night was unreal. The difference between the two was down the stretch. Dirk had JJ go off and some help until late, and then he went dagger all over OKC...but LBJ clawed his team back in regluation, in OT, and then daggered the Pistons in the final possession in 20T IIRC. That was unreal.

Last night was insane by Dirk. I love watching that guy play, and I am not a Mavs fan...just fan of basketball and select players really(no Pittsburgh franchise for me to root for).

I'd put the 2 I mentioned as the top 2 in the last decade. Someone help me if I'm forgetting an obvious performance.

Duncan's 20/20/10/8 to close out the Finals is among the most dominant performances on both sides of the ball.

DWade's 42/13 against the Mavs in the Finals including 13 points in the last 6 minutes.

Dirk's 50 points on like 25 shots against Phoenix in 06.

Shaq's 44/20.

Michael Jordan would probably have something to say about this.

I love Dirk, but I think it's a bit of a stretch. A GREAT performance, yes, but best ever? Scotty Brooks should get a few assists in the box score.

Colin Cowherd said the same thing on sportsnation yesterday also. It was the best playoff performance I had ever seen.

Let's split them up then into two categories:

Best performance statistically.

Best performance by situation.

I think in the first category, it was the best I'd ever seen..and it was even more impressive in person. In the second category, I can see the argument that it isn't the best...it wasn't a Finals clinching game, etc. But it is still up there.

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I mean, if you look at it from an overall standpoint and factor in defense, intangibles, the impact each player had on the game, I seriously doubt Dirk had more of an impact on that game than Jordan ever did.

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Just looking at the stat sheet, he had a good game in all the other facets... He had 4 blocks.

Also, there were a lot of opens shots that he did not get assist on but made the first pass that allowed the assist. He makes great decisions when double teamed.

In my 20 years of watching basketball (33 years old), that was the most efficient by a mile and maybe the best overall. I did not watch the Kobe 81 point game but I think he was around 60% from the field and made 18Ft... and it was regular season....



KD had an amazing game also but no one is talking about it. That was probably a top 10 performance in the playoffs.


[This message has been edited by BBDP (edited 5/19/2011 12:59p).]

Dirk's man also had like 15 points on backdoors and otherwise open dunks. He's a guy that isn't much of an offensive threat and was in solely for his defensive abilities (how'd that work out for ya, okies?)

Dirk didn't play the best defensive game, but did have some nice dunks. I think he gave up two and-1s on stupid fouls.


All that not-with-standing, Dirk played one of the best games ever.

LeBron's game 5 in the ECF against detroit was the best game i've seen over the last decade

Lebron, Kobe, Shaq, Wade, Duncan, Jordan, Barkley, West, Russell, Hakeem, Worthy, Baylor, etc., have all had better games.