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Mavs' Christie to miss Kings game
Mavs want players to avoid injury, starting tonight in Sacramento
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Mavericks' preseason opener will provide some good vibes for Doug Christie, who returns to Arco Arena for the first time after four-plus productive seasons as a fan favorite with the Sacramento Kings.
One problem: he won't be playing.
Christie said Monday he expects to sit out tonight's game, then play Wednesday in Los Angeles against the Clippers. Coach Avery Johnson will monitor the minutes of all of his veterans closely in the preseason.
With Christie sitting, there will be precious few clues tonight about Johnson's playing rotation. That won't be decided until later in the preseason.
But that doesn't mean there aren't important issues on the table for the Mavericks.
"I need to find out who can guard their man," Johnson said. "Obviously, it's a team defense. But I need to find who can guard on the ball, who can stop penetration, because if you're scoring 20 and your man is scoring 20, even though it's team defense, we're not going to be satisfied with that."
Christie is the favorite to be the starter at shooting guard when the regular season opens Nov. 1 at Phoenix. But none of the regulars will get taxed during the preseason, meaning Marquis Daniels and Jerry Stackhouse will be rotated at the shooting-guard spot.
For Christie, tonight's visit will be a little warm and fuzzy. He said he's looking forward to seeing friends, but is glad he's getting his first return to Sacramento out of the way during the preseason.
"I'm sure it'll be different because now you're trying to beat them," he said. "It's probably a good thing to get it out of the way, say hi to everybody and see how everybody's doing, then move on."
Christie then said he wouldn't be playing.
"We made some progress and we don't want to injure anything," he said. "We'll look forward to the next night and see how we do there."
There are other obligations that certain players are expected to fulfill in the preseason, most notably Dirk Nowitzki. The power forward is being asked to become more of a post-up force this season. Johnson points to two reasons why it's critical for Nowitzki to be able to operate in the low post on both sides of the basket.
First, it will help Nowitzki's offensive rebounding, where he ranked dead last among power forwards last season. Second, it will open the floor for teammates to have easier offensive opportunities.
"We don't force as many double teams as we want to because we don't post up enough," Johnson said. "Does that mean Dirk won't shoot threes anymore? No. We want him to shoot wide-open threes in the rhythm of the game.
"But has that won a championship? It hasn't. We just want him to expand his game a little more. The game is penetrations and post-ups now."
