Playoffs 2024 - R1 - G5 - Mavs vs Clippers (Wed., 10PMEST)

[ChipotleWest]

Need to win so 41Dirk41 will come back.

I know he's going to watch.

Why you miss him so much? lol

Just someone I get along with.

[ChipotleWest]

Gafford and Lively played all center minutes before garbage time. 0 floaters for Harden this time. I think they also had like 7 lobs between them. That's 14 easy points. Sometimes, basketball can be that simple.

Maxi played great and played 0 minutes at center. Probably not a coincidence. Kyrie impacted the game in a lot of ways. I was suprised he only had 14. Luka's midrange game was on point. Jones was incredible. Now let's get 1 more.

Thank you your post nailed it. I never said bench Maxi the entire game, just don't have him as your sole rim protector the entire 4th. He was great today, because he wasn't asked to do something he shouldn't be doing. I was angry at Kidd in Game 4 but not Maxi, he was just doing what he was told but he couldn't stop Harden. Hopefully that experiment is over.

[Maverick41]

The defense today was amazing. The Clips were struggling to even put up shots. Imo Kyrie deserves a lot of credit. He's really making Harden work to the point where Harden is having a hard time just being able to dribble against the pressure. DJJ too. PG barely had any daylight all game.

[Maverick41]

Also at this point it's clear that Lively is ready to be a 25-30 min guy. His impact on the game is so clearly better then Gafford who still is struggling out there. It looks like Kidd sees that since he's taking off Gafford for Lively really quickly in the 1st and 3rd. Lively came in at the 10 min mark in both quarters.

[ChipotleWest]

Lively 25 minutes

Gafford 19 minutes

Harden floaters 0 (I think)

So to me that backs up some of our opinions that Kidd cost us Game 4. But just hopefully he has learned from it and this team can play Game 6 like Game 5 and we win the series.

[joesha1698]

Take - aways:

I said we need more Kyrie at PG to take pressure off of Luka and I thought that did that in the 1st quarter. Not only that but the pace was also important to loosen that defense versus the clips and get into our offense faster. The TNT commentators also agreed with me that Luka had to make quicker decisions so the defense doesnt sit on him. I think a combination of those 3 things happened tonight + we had 1 guy hitting 3s at a high level. (Maxi).

I never want to hear Kyrie is not one of the better defensive player at 6'3 or smaller (among guys who score 20+...Lillard, Curry, etc). I've never seen Steph Curry be put on a James Harden etc and help slow him down to this degree. I told anyone who would listen on here that Kyrie has the ability to be play very good defense but people causally say he's a bad defender but they never apply the same standard to the Curry's and Lillard's of the world. And those guys are never asked to guard a Harden and slow him down. I bet you a million bucks Kyrie asked for that assignment.

Kyrie sacrificed offense but showed great leadership all night in this game. Starting with his defense on Harden. I also want to point out that the refs tried to put Kyrie on the bench multiple times with bad calls...including that dive for the ball that got him his 3rd foul.

The other take-away is our corner shooting is still a liability. If it not for Maxi hitting those 3's - it would have made Luka's job that much harder. The perimeter defense by DJJ was excellent. Glad to see how the subtle changes (taking the ball out of luka's hand to start the game, picking up pace, maxi hitting that corner 3, luka being a more patient in the lane ) all led to Luka finally putting it all together. I think we have found something going into this next game.

1. We got to keep one of Centers in the game with Maxi.
2. Kyrie does an excellent job of staying in front of Harden. (run that matchup back)
3. Maxi is probably our most consistent corner 3 point shooter.
4. Our lack of 3 point shooting is one of our biggest liabilities in this style of offense. Its going to take some real ingenuity to make sure we have guys in those corners who can be depended on next game and hopefully going for. Kidd is going to have to get creative. Ive seen guys turn down that shot and get into the paint and make passes and thats a good sign.
5.Against the clipper pushing the pace has made a big difference because it made it harder on them to set up a physical defense scheme. If the Mavs advance and win game 6 - they need to continue pushing the pace after rebounding and look to initial quicker offense so the defense doesn't get to settle in as much. Obviously, we have to do this intelligently but I cannot understate how important it is for us to get those easy basket and build the confidence of everyone. When everyone is involve and we're getting those easy points - it just makes Luka's job that much easier when the game does slow down.

[joesha1698]

Kai is just playing winning ball right now

He's been playing this way all season. He's adjusting his game for what the team needs. Everyone should be playing winning ball in the playoffs.

[ozwizard8]

Gafford and Lively played all center minutes before garbage time. 0 floaters for Harden this time. I think they also had like 7 lobs between them. That's 14 easy points. Sometimes, basketball can be that simple.

Maxi played great and played 0 minutes at center. Probably not a coincidence. Kyrie impacted the game in a lot of ways. I was suprised he only had 14. Luka's midrange game was on point. Jones was incredible. Now let's get 1 more.

Playing Gafford-Lively did not result in easy lobs in G1 where Mavs struggle to score 30 in two quarters.
Adjustments take some stuff away from the other team, and some adjustments opens some plays. Luka being active, driving and finishing inside made tons of change today.

Harden defense, full-court pressure, and help coverage was much better. Harden wasn't able to walk to the floater zone while our center not knowing either stay on Zubac or get over. Good adjustments but also Harden stopped shooting 3s, finishing plays with such great percentage too.

Clippers shooting lights out in G4, Luka still feeling the injury was big for G4. Even for that game Mavs team came back from 30.
Now Luka is better, Clippers go back to normal shooting and it was an easy win. Rinse and repeat this for G6.

Paul George on his podcast thing was saying he told Harden to 'Take them back home'. I really don't know how pro athletes are still doing interviews, and podcasting **** during series.
PG really sounded like afraid from the moment, and also sounded like he had nothing more left in the bag to win the game. I bet both Harden and PG thinking like they lost the series already. They dont have much left in the tank. Kawhi is injured. Luka is warming up. They have Kawhi excuse and they can say they got beaten by Luka Mavs so, it can be actually an easier game this Friday.

[ozwizard8]

Take - aways:

I said we need more Kyrie at PG to take pressure off of Luka and I thought that did that in the 1st quarter. Not only that but the pace was also important to loosen that defense versus the clips and get into our offense faster. The TNT commentators also agreed with me that Luka had to make quicker decisions so the defense doesnt sit on him. I think a combination of those 3 things happened tonight + we had 1 guy hitting 3s at a high level. (Maxi).

I never want to hear Kyrie is not one of the better defensive player at 6'3 or smaller (among guys who score 20+...Lillard, Curry, etc). I've never seen Steph Curry be put on a James Harden etc and help slow him down to this degree. I told anyone who would listen on here that Kyrie has the ability to be play very good defense but people causally say he's a bad defender but they never apply the same standard to the Curry's and Lillard's of the world. And those guys are never asked to guard a Harden and slow him down. I bet you a million bucks Kyrie asked for that assignment.

Who said Lillard is a decent defender? or who said that for Curry.
Dont be kyrie delusional. Those players are also minus defenders. Sometimes its not the effort but simply not having the size, length. D.Powell is an excellent professional if you ask me. But he simply missing 3-4 inches height, 4-5 inches extra wingspan and 20 lbs more to be a good NBA center.

Lillard is defensive liability but he was able to so much on offense even brought his team to WCF couple years ago. As a result Portland got paid a lot of picks, Jrue Holiday, etc for trading him.

JJ Barea was good defender for his height but that doesn't mean he was improving team defense and rebounding. Carlisle was finding ways to hide him and he was making more on offense with Dirk to create advantage.

***

This was a Luka game all over. 35-7-10. Luka getting double-triple teams and the ball ends up for open 3s for Maxi 15, DJJ 12 and lobs for Lively 12, Gafford 8 pts. Kyrie scored 14 with 1/7 from 3pt lane. It wasn't his night but that's all right. The positive for him was on-ball pressure for first half. This wasn't PJ's night either in terms of offense 0/4 3pt shots. Thats okay. Everybody chipped in for effort and defense.

Luka is back and both Harden-PG is feeling it. BTW, f*** Westbrick for trying to injure Luka again.

[ozwizard8]

If Luka can shake of his injury going forward, Mavs would be much more threating. But I still dont like OKC matchup after the injuries and tireful series with Clippers. Lou Dort would foul the **** out of Doncic while SGA will get touch foul calls...

Kyrie staying healthy is important for playoffs because he had injuries in the postseason for the last few years. This year he is more focused on basketball. He is no longer getting votes or selection for all-star or national team. I think he got an awakening, that his star status will be fading too fast unless he performs good again. Even occasional 30-35pts games in playoffs, making WCF would make Kyrie allstar again.

Mavs need to close this series in G6. IF they didn't shoot crazy it would be 4-1 now.

[Bob8]

Fatigue/bad conditioned/sick/injured Luka looked pretty solid.

[MassimoPayne]

Fatigue/bad conditioned/sick/injured Luka looked pretty solid.

He still struggled. You could tell by his body language at the beginning of the game. But he managed to find other ways to keep him going.

I am proud we found ways to score and defend even though we had some serious foul trouble in the beginning.

On the other hand I am surprised how less involved harden und PG were. Like they were not existing. It was all about Mann, Powell and Zubac

[Maverick41]

Our size made a difference today. Maxi played exclusively at the 4. All C except garbage time went to either Lively or Gafford. PJ played SF at times with Maxi and Lively. I think at one point DJJ was at SG. It made it very difficult for Harden to take advantage of a PnR since all these guys had size to switch and can block the lobs he loved to do to Zubac.

Of course this only works because Maxi made a ton of 3s. If he or the other guys don't, this kind of lineup becomes significantly harder to utilize.

[Teffer10]

Gafford and Lively played all center minutes before garbage time. 0 floaters for Harden this time. I think they also had like 7 lobs between them. That's 14 easy points. Sometimes, basketball can be that simple.

Maxi played great and played 0 minutes at center. Probably not a coincidence. Kyrie impacted the game in a lot of ways. I was suprised he only had 14. Luka's midrange game was on point. Jones was incredible. Now let's get 1 more.

Agree....Mavs have their own identity now and have no business trying to match up to other teams.
We have the best PG/Center situation in the league so play to those strengths.

Lively and Gaff's time collectively should never equal less than 48mins unless there is a blowout.

[Bob8]

Fatigue/bad conditioned/sick/injured Luka looked pretty solid.

He still struggled. You could tell by his body language at the beginning of the game. But he managed to find other ways to keep him going.

I am proud we found ways to score and defend even though we had some serious foul trouble in the beginning.

On the other hand I am surprised how less involved harden und PG were. Like they were not existing. It was all about Mann, Powell and Zubac

He's in shooting slump, that's it. He was visually afraid of shooting 3s after missing couple of them early. Luka just needs 1 good shooting game and we will have old confident Luka back. Game 6 would be perfect for that. Going against OKC with confidence.

[Mavrelous]

DJJ was amazing on defense, great defensive game by everyone.
Kyrie was great, pushed all the right buttons.
Maxi caught fire.
Luka still way off from 3, but had some jaw dropping drives, just slow motion drives through a very congested lane, mainly went with what Clippers allowed, mid rangers.

[Archx]

Fatigue/bad conditioned/sick/injured Luka looked pretty solid.

Did you see the "meme" that's going around in Mavs reddit?

Questionable Luka = Best Luka

[Dirk]

DJJr is making peanuts

How on earth is this guy a journeyman. Makes no sense.

Perpetual reminder that Kyrie is a Mav

Finally, some Luka Zubac classic action

Luka end of 2nd/start of 3rd

Spoiler:

We can only wish to have Gafford's superhero like abilities

Spoiler:

Extremely rare footage - Exum makes shot. Maybe the start of something.

Spoiler:

Refs stuff

Spoiler:

Do you feel like my perception is correct on these plays (audio out of sync).

Felt like refs were giving the Clips cheap fouls and kind of gave them free points. But maybe just bias.

[daoneandonly]

Great W, wodnerful to see the team play so well. I was so annoyed after Sunday's lost I couldnt watch basketball for a couple of days, missed KD and Lebron being sent home which I would have enjoyed.

Here's hoping we can wrap it up Game 6 since all the other West teams are resting. Just want to see us get past this and hopefully make it a fun series with OKC, and for Denver to take out the baby killer Anthony Edwards.

[ChipotleWest]

I hope we can keep DJJ with the MLE. That would suck to lose him.