Playoffs 2024 - R2 - G4 - Mavs vs Thunder (Mond., 9:30PMEST)

[kacey ring]

This series should be 3-1.

Going to see what this team is really made of in G5. We’ve yet to lose two in a row in the PO and have 3 road wins.

Shame to lose a game because of FTs.

Bruh that's not why you lost.

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Whatever dude. GG and good luck rest of series.

[Darren]

Gaff ,DLive PJ , DJJ came to play this game ...the Center duo 17 pts/14 rebs/7 blocks ....DJJ 17 pts / 4 blocks ....... PJ 21 pts/12 rebs/ 5 made 3's

I said it earlier ,Luka lost this game .... 7 To's /OKC team 7 TO's . Luka lost focus and most of his TO's WEREN'T FORCED

Also Luka crying to the the refs and not getting back on D.

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Luka is exhausted and playing through a lot of pain. Luka's still very young. Luka may play like rookie at times. Let see if this series can get Luka mature. It takes circumstance for growth. Luka has taken a step as a leader and defender. But the body and age still betrays him big time under serious pressure. This Mavs team needs a Nick Van Exel.

[joesha1698]

Reasons we lost:

1.If we hit 70-80% of our free throws we win this game. (main reason)
2.Luka was pressing too much and indecisive which led to 6-20 shooting and 7 turnovers.
3.Kyrie could have been a bit more aggressive in the 4th. He also needs to stop taking fouls when its not needed. He has to know that getting your 4th foul in the 3rd up 10 is not a good move. Someone needs to bring that to his attention.
4.The defensive game plan on SGA was giving him the lane to basket ala James Harden. Are we trying to force him into the lane in traffic to avoid him picking up fouls? I'm not sure. But i thought some of his baskets were way too easy. We have to defend him harder at the point of attack even if we shade him. We cannot sag off that much.


Anyways, we missed 11 freethrows and lost by 4 pts. There's the game right there. We make 6 more free throws and we probably win this game. I'm going to sum up some of those miss freethrows to fatigue. Even guys who typically dont miss were missing some. Kidd probably should extend his bench if we build a lead in game 5. Bring in Hardy and maybe a young guy here and there. We have to find a way to get our guys more rest. We also need exum in the game longer than 5 minutes. This should greatly help Luka cut down on some of those turnovers. Luka should let Exum handle the ball a little bit more to give him a break. I actually think Luka should focus on getting the ball off high post corners and moving off ball...and then to can use more of the pick and roll in the 4th. He needs to conserve more energy until the 4th.

[Darren]

Does anyone know why Lively was played over Gafford down the stretch today?? Gafford looked sad sitting on the bench.

Lively has played over Gafford down the stretch on almost every game this post-season. That's not out of the ordinary.

Lively is one of few players who gets positive plus-minus every game. Both Clippers and OKC teams are afraid of Lively instead of Gafford or Maxi. I can understand the statistics may not look as good but Lively is impactful on the floor.

[arkuo]

Luka hunts for fouls. That's his game. Where do you think Jalen Brunson learned from? Brunson looks like a Luka cosplayer now.

[Bob8]

I'm normally optimistic, but this looks like decisive loss. They had bad Q4 but they should have run away long before.

Luka is off for whatever reason and Kyrie has big problems against Thunder D to even get a normal shot. These 2 things will difficult change. We can't win series with those 2 scoring that little.

[Forbes]

Luka hunts for fouls. That's his game. Where do you think Jalen Brunson learned from? Brunson looks like a Luka cosplayer now.

lol I been saying this since he was on Dallas. A Luka clone for sure. No one ever says. He learned the game from Luka

[Bob8]

Luka foul hunts and pouts all game, STFU and go score at the rim, he's letting a scrub get into his head in a crucial PO series.
Refs had nothing to do with this loss, SGA delivered when Luka choked and Kyrie disappeared.

Nobody is scoring against OKC at the rim, unless it's a dunk, fast break or tip in. That's why Kyrie is scoring so little. He's not averaging 15 points only because he's not aggressive enough, but because they are playing incredible D on him, allowing him only difficult midrange shots. Kyrie said himself after the game, that they force him to make passes, because he sees 3 defenders after the screen. Luka said that they return all in the paint, when Luka and Kyrie drive.

Luka looks done and Kyrie unable to get a shot against OKC D. Only extremely good shooting night from 3 from everyone can safe them in game 5.

[leolozon]

20FGA and 7 TOs. If you are hurt, stop trying to be a hero. That was a dumb game from him.

The FT shooting was laughable. Losing because of FTs. They should be ashamed of themselves.

[Bob8]

This loss is mostly on Luka. 20FGA and 7 TOs. If you are hurt, stop trying to be a hero. That was a dumb game from him.

Yes, he was incredibly bad, but the problem is much bigger, with OKC cancelling Kyrie, there's no one to take that burden. I'm sure OKC will continue to cut off Kyrie in next games and with how Luka plays, god help us.

Mavs are dead last in FT% in playoffs, 69%.

[Mavrelous]

Luka foul hunts and pouts all game, STFU and go score at the rim, he's letting a scrub get into his head in a crucial PO series.
Refs had nothing to do with this loss, SGA delivered when Luka choked and Kyrie disappeared.

Nobody is scoring against OKC at the rim, unless it's a dunk, fast break or tip in. That's why Kyrie is scoring so little. He's not averaging 15 points only because he's not aggressive enough, but because they are playing incredible D on him, allowing him only difficult midrange shots. Kyrie said himself after the game, that they force him to make passes, because he sees 3 defenders after the screen. Luka said that they return all in the paint, when Luka and Kyrie drive.

Luka looks done and Kyrie unable to get a shot against OKC D. Only extremely good shooting night from 3 from everyone can safe them in game 5.

I don't buy that, and Luka absolutely sold the foul call to put him on the line down 2, I've been watching him for 6 years, he can finish that.

[41Dirk41]

Another terrible performance from our 60M MVP guy in this PO, if Kyrie has a night off we can't win a game with this stats padder version of Luka.

And another great coached game by that slow version of Ralph Winchester on the bench.
Exum played decent finally but he preferred an horrible Josh tonight. He was too sloooooooow to make adjustments. Again. And we lost a pivotal game.

It was hard to lose this game, OKC was done after G3. Well done. Now we are done.
Kidd extension will be devastating just like the Dwight Powell one. And just like that nobody is too worried at the beginning of the day. I told ya.

Jason Kidd is not my coach.

[Teffer10]

Blown opportunity.

This game was extremely critical because we had a golden opportunity to demolish any confidence and spirit this young OKC team had going forward.

Now we have to go back to OKC to fight for our PO life against a confident young team that looks to be more talented.

We gave up both HCA and the experience edge by blowing this game.

Hate to sound so pessimistic, but I think this series is over for the Mavs.

[Bob8]

Luka foul hunts and pouts all game, STFU and go score at the rim, he's letting a scrub get into his head in a crucial PO series.
Refs had nothing to do with this loss, SGA delivered when Luka choked and Kyrie disappeared.

Nobody is scoring against OKC at the rim, unless it's a dunk, fast break or tip in. That's why Kyrie is scoring so little. He's not averaging 15 points only because he's not aggressive enough, but because they are playing incredible D on him, allowing him only difficult midrange shots. Kyrie said himself after the game, that they force him to make passes, because he sees 3 defenders after the screen. Luka said that they return all in the paint, when Luka and Kyrie drive.

Luka looks done and Kyrie unable to get a shot against OKC D. Only extremely good shooting night from 3 from everyone can safe them in game 5.

I don't buy that, and Luka absolutely sold the foul call to put him on the line down 2, I've been watching him for 6 years, he can finish that.

Why do you think Kyrie has scored only 9 points 2x in last 3 games? Do you really buy in fairytales that he is just totally unselfish? He can't even get in position to shoot. He said himself that they force him to pass instead of shoot.

Why nobody is able do anything with driving? There's just no room out there, great rim protection and help D. Sure Luka is the only one, who could theoretically do something there, but not with his current shooting touch. It really doesn't matter, if it's because of his physical problems or it's just in his head, he can't hit anything. The funny thing is they could win even with Luka and Kyrie scoring 27 points together, both with disastrous FG%, if they could hit FTs normally. Even Kyrie missed 1.

[Mavrelous]

Nobody is scoring against OKC at the rim, unless it's a dunk, fast break or tip in. That's why Kyrie is scoring so little. He's not averaging 15 points only because he's not aggressive enough, but because they are playing incredible D on him, allowing him only difficult midrange shots. Kyrie said himself after the game, that they force him to make passes, because he sees 3 defenders after the screen. Luka said that they return all in the paint, when Luka and Kyrie drive.

Luka looks done and Kyrie unable to get a shot against OKC D. Only extremely good shooting night from 3 from everyone can safe them in game 5.

I don't buy that, and Luka absolutely sold the foul call to put him on the line down 2, I've been watching him for 6 years, he can finish that.

Why do you think Kyrie has scored only 9 points 2x in last 3 games? Do you really buy in fairytales that he is just totally unselfish? He said himself that they force him to pass instead of shoot.

Why nobody is able do anything with driving? There's just no room out there, great rim protection and help D. Sure Luka is the only one, who could theoretically do something there, but not with his current shooting touch. It really doesn't matter, if it's because of his physical problems or it's just in his head, he can't hit anything.

Kyrie disappeared, none of the 2 superstars pulled their weight, SGA on the other end went nuclear.
I'm watching the opposite of what you're watching, Mavs have been the better team in all but 3 quarters this series, they lost today because they shrunk mentally and choked.

[41Dirk41]

You can't expect that the role players or Kyrie will win every game for you, but who cares.
Luka is a top 500 in a videogame world ranking.

[Bob8]

I don't buy that, and Luka absolutely sold the foul call to put him on the line down 2, I've been watching him for 6 years, he can finish that.

Why do you think Kyrie has scored only 9 points 2x in last 3 games? Do you really buy in fairytales that he is just totally unselfish? He said himself that they force him to pass instead of shoot.

Why nobody is able do anything with driving? There's just no room out there, great rim protection and help D. Sure Luka is the only one, who could theoretically do something there, but not with his current shooting touch. It really doesn't matter, if it's because of his physical problems or it's just in his head, he can't hit anything.

Kyrie disappeared, none of the 2 superstars pulled their weight, SGA on the other end went nuclear.
I'm watching the opposite of what you're watching, Mavs have been the better team in all but 3 quarters this series, they lost today because they shrunk mentally and choked.

I'm watching the same thing, I just gave explanation, why Kyrie disappeared. We all agree that Luka is unrecognisable. I said before the game, we need better Luka and Kyrie to win the game and series. Luka is totally off and Kyrie extremely well defended.

Kyrie didn't disappeared the first time in this series. He had really good Q4 in game 3 and that's it. He had multiple Qs with 0 or just few points. If you watch Kyrie closely you can see that he is totally ineffective with his superior handles most of the time, he just can't get enough separation for the shot and he can't drive because the paint is crowded or is met at the rim by Chet. They are doing incredible job on him.

Sga is playing great, but wtf aren't we doubling him? Others don't exactly play great.

Can we win game 5? Sure. But Luka will need to be as efficient as in game 2. How realistic is that? I'm afraid not very, but you never know. Other option is Kyrie going nuclear, but I don't believe OKC will let him.

[Apz]

You can't expect that the role players or Kyrie will win every game for you, but who cares.
Luka is a top 500 in a videogame world ranking.

Dont know what that supposed to mean, dwight?

Imo its the playoff. Refs allows rape 1 way but takes tickytack fouls the other. If u know sga will get the foul if u touch him or not, make sure he fking feels every foul. If dort gets away kneeing players, it should come back tenfold. Get this feeling that the team plays too nice atm. If sga elbows u once he should look like margarito after making pacman mad after the game.

[ChipotleWest]

This series should be 3-1.

Going to see what this team is really made of in G5. We’ve yet to lose two in a row in the PO and have 3 road wins.

Shame to lose a game because of FTs.

Bruh that's not why you lost.

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Lost by 4 points, missed 11 free throws. If we had missed only 6 free throws we win. No way around that fact.

Luka/Kyrie combined for under 30 for the game, in the regular season they combined for 60 ppg. Amazing it was a close game. Denver/Minnesota/Boston probably blow us out in this game unless we're just the best defense in the League by far, which is debatable.

[Archx]

Fat Luka strikes again... 6/20 lmao

It's such a drastic difference between 1st Q's and when the game goes on. He played insane DPOY defense then he just started slowly melting down due to poor stamina and injuries. Then gets frustrated and just argues with refs for no reason at all.

I can't believe i defended him when he was 19yo. I said wait 4 or 5 years and he'll have an athletic body and will be able to go distances. But it's the complete opposite. He just breaks down after every season now... literally happens every year. So much talent but so little drive to get better.

Would probably be better if they just shut him down for the next 2 games would probably do less harm than expecting PJ to carry all the load on offense every game.