A Quick Observation: Bowen’s Minutes

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On Saturday Bruce Bowen played 24 minutes, 5 more than he averaged during the regular season. He covered Jason Terry primarily. Terry scored 12 points on only 8 attempts. Will Bowen be able to slow Terry for the duration of the series? Despite the limited minutes he was during the regular season, will Bruce play significant minutes now that the playoffs have arrived?

Update: Commenter “Will” questioned why I used the language “Terry scored 12 points on only 8 attempts.” I specifically referenced his attempts to highlight the manner in which Bowen defends (although I didn’t make that explicit). Although Bowen does a good job altering shots and lowering field goal percentages, he is at his best when he makes it difficult for his man to touch the ball in the first place.

A classic example was his coverage of Peja Stojakovic in games 3-7 of last year’s Western Conference Semi-Finals. Peja didn’t shoot poorly; he didn’t have any opportunities to shoot at all. Terry averages 15.6 field goal attempts per game. The fact that he took only 8 has a lot to do with Bowen’s ability to lock in and deny the pass.

  • ThatBigGuy

    Bruce’s D always makes it difficult to score, but seeing as Terry only had 8 shot attempts, I think it was due more to Barea and Howard taking some attempts away from Terry.

    I think Bruce’s minutes will stay above his season’s average for the rest of the playoffs, especially this series where he can and probably will guard Dirk, Terry, and Howard (but not at the same time, the man is only human). Besides, he shot that corner three ball with such confidence that I think in a 24-28ish minutes per night will be the norm.

  • Will

    Not sure why this post is filed under “Tony Parker”.

    I don’t like “12 points in 8 shots” because it’s not a usual way to state it and therefore hard to compare. Actually it could be 1 out of 8 with 10 FTs. Basically he shot 50% @ 2pt and 40% @ 3pt, which is certainly too much.

  • Chris

    What disturbed me was how easy it was for the Mavs to get to the front of the rim. As a result, Dampier was able to slide in from the baseline and put-back any miss. Duncan is more effective at altering shots when drivers are forced baseline by the perimeter defenders.

    I miss the front line of Robinson, Duncan and Elliott; back then, nobody got an easy basket.

  • Nico

    Place Hill on Terry because he’s more athletic… and more similar size. If Bowen has anything left in him, feed him to Howard.

  • SpurredOn

    Your point about Bowen is why I still think over the long haul, the best strategy is to try and shut down one star, contain one and live with a third possibly having a big night. If the latter is Howard I can live with it because he’s still a space cadet and can go mentally cold. If he’s going to take jumpers and stay out of the paint I say live with it. I also wonder if he was guarding Finley when Fin kept getting wide open shots? It’s more important to slow Terry and Dirk; Terry feeds that team’s energy (and crowd once we get to Dallas) and Dirk is their leader. Bowen allows us to shut down one by reducing shot attempts and he certainly frustrates Dirk. I like seeing him guard both but would also like to see Hill spend time on Terry. This was accomplished Saturday. Cut down the second chance points and finishing our own shots at the rim will swing the game in our favor.

    How ironic about game 1; after all the talk about age, TD goes for 27 (would’ve been 30+ with decent officiating), Finley for 19 and Bowen with great D and his trademark 3. The guys who really did not perform up to standard seemed to be the under 30 year olds.

  • Daniel

    Peja didn’t shoot poorly;

    Not true, right? In Game 7 he put up a real stinker I think…1/7 or something like that, maybe worse.

  • Will

    Graydon, thanks for the explanation - maybe I was expecting something like “Bowen held Terry to only 8 shots” but now the intent is clear! Indeed cutting the opportunities to shoot by half can be seen as trademark Bowen defense.