Bob8 wrote:
They just crowded the paint with bodies against Orlando, because they couldn't hit anything from outside in second half. Orlando is making only 10 3s per game anyway. SAS is a young inexperienced team and were clueless how to close the game. Problem is, how you defend good teams, who can score in the paint and from the 3 points range?
You lose...
DEN showed very clearly, DAL isn't a top tier team, they lack size, length and athleticism, anytime DEN tightened their defense and focused on offense, they got the stops and scored, but how many teams like that are there really? DEN, BOS, Bucks theoretically, but Dame isn't hitting anything.
Mavs couldn't defend anyone last year, any time, they couldn't get any stops in the clutch, and gave up leads like crazy.
The goal isn't to win all right now, but develop Lively as a drop coverage big paired with good POA defender (now DJJ, hopefully Green learns not to bite on pump fakes and navigate screens), so that you can defend the P&R well, develop respectable switch defense, something close to what the Mavs had in the WCF run, in the non Lively minutes, and develop offensive cohesion where Luka doesn't pound the ball for 18 seconds in 90% of the possessions, and other players get into rhythm and be more involved,and Luke will be fresh at the end of games and can focus on the ISO when Mavs need buckets desperately.
Giving up ~70 points halves to SAS and ORL is bad, giving up 36 1st qtr to offensively inept Grizzlies was also bad, but in all 3 games, they recovered later, Brooklyn had insane shooting night, and against the Bulls, they won despite bad game by Luka.
Are they the 1st quarter team or the 4th? We'll see, Raptors (good rim pressure team, streaky shooters), Clippers (supposedly good team, but inconsistent) and Pelicans (score both inside and out) are coming up, we'll know more then.