Playoffs 2024 - R2 - G1 - Mavs @ Thunder (Tuesd., 9:30PMEST)

[Bob8]

Doncic gets the glory when he has a good game during regular season but he's sucking for most of these playoffs.

We all agree that he was bad, but what exactly do you want with saying that 10x? Maybe you should write directly to Luka and demand apology? I'm sure that Luka is the most disappointed person about his performance. Not exactly easy times for him.

This series won't be only about effort like it was against Clippers, Mavs will need to play their best basketball to win it and it starts with Luka of course. Watching him, I'm kinda sceptical, if he can turn things completely around. Something is bothering him, physical or psychological, and with every game gone, it's less likely that he can start shooting with normal %.

On the other hand it's only game 1, so anything can happen still. Being angry about your players is kinda stupid.

[MassimoPayne]

I am a little bit afraid that they kind of already think about losing the series. Some good feeling is missing.
This feels different than the 1st loss vs the clippers, where it felt just like a off night.

This loss feels not like a off night it somehow feels like that this is our actual status right now

[Bob8]

I am a little bit afraid that they kind of already think about losing the series. Some good feeling is missing.
This feels different than the 1st loss vs the clippers, where it felt just like a off night.

This loss feels not like a off night it somehow feels like that this is our actual status right now

You're right, OKC is much better team at the moment. The only Mavs hope is MVP Luka. The question is, how realistic that is? Hopefully we're not giving up after only 1 away game. Mavs for some reason are playing better, when they're in more difficult situation.

[tleikheen]

Bob8 » 46 minutes ago

{tleikheen wrote:}
Doncic gets the glory when he has a good game during regular season but he's sucking for most of these playoffs.


{We all agree that he was bad, but what exactly do you want with saying that 10x? Maybe you should write directly to Luka and demand apology? I'm sure that Luka is the most disappointed person about his performance. Not exactly easy times for him.

This series won't be only about effort like it was against Clippers, Mavs will need to play their best basketball to win it and it starts with Luka of course. Watching him, I'm kinda sceptical, if he can turn things completely around. Something is bothering him, physical or psychological, and with every game gone, it's less likely that he can start shooting with normal %.

On the other hand it's only game 1, so anything can happen still. Being angry about your players is kinda stupid.}

What kind of dumb sh*t talk is this ....no one is angry at Luka IN ANY COMMENT...they and me are commenting on what they watched ,facts are facts on every statistic of the game .Luka bricked alot of shots and saying something we all saw is not being "angry". And from after game interviews from Luka , he agreed he and his team have to play better ,thats his apology why do I or anyone else have to apologize to him for having a suck a$$ game in front of all of us.

[Bob8]

Bob8 » 46 minutes ago

{tleikheen wrote:}
Doncic gets the glory when he has a good game during regular season but he's sucking for most of these playoffs.


{We all agree that he was bad, but what exactly do you want with saying that 10x? Maybe you should write directly to Luka and demand apology? I'm sure that Luka is the most disappointed person about his performance. Not exactly easy times for him.

This series won't be only about effort like it was against Clippers, Mavs will need to play their best basketball to win it and it starts with Luka of course. Watching him, I'm kinda sceptical, if he can turn things completely around. Something is bothering him, physical or psychological, and with every game gone, it's less likely that he can start shooting with normal %.

On the other hand it's only game 1, so anything can happen still. Being angry about your players is kinda stupid.}

What kind of dumb sh*t talk is this ....no one is angry at Luka IN ANY COMMENT...they and me are commenting on what they watched ,facts are facts on every statistic of the game .Luka bricked alot of shots and saying something we all saw is not being "angry". And from after game interviews from Luka , he agreed he and his team have to play better ,thats his apology why do I or anyone else have to apologize to him for having a suck a$$ game in front of all of us.

Firstly, is it really that difficult to quote a post? Just hit the " button on far right and then write an answer.

Secondly, it's normal to criticise a player after a bad game, but you're comments are for sure very angry/aggressive and numerous. But hey, it's your right to express your feelings, like is my right to make observations. I hope that we both believe that he will be better in game 2.

[BliscoSantos]

We all know Luka isn't 100%,the injury is clearly bothering him(we can see it when he jumps,shoots,rebounds), but do you really think the Mavs would let him Play if he could make it worse(especialy over 40 minutes a game)...what bothers me is that he is forcing the 3 Pointer... his midrange is good,why doesn't he post up more? What bothers me is the fact that when things don't go his way he seems to get frustrated and it affects him and the entire team... that's not a good leader...you can't let the refs or your bad performance make you lose focus...fight thru the struggles (though the paint),give your all or go take a breather on the bench till you clear your Head...Kyrie doesn't get frustrated by his bad play and the refs and he can show up even if he's had a bad half or even first three quarters...Luka on the other hand gets irritated and it's affecting his Play and that's where he can learn a lot from Kyrie and improve...he admited at the press conference he needs to do better, Hopefully he stays calmer,more focused...you're banged up? adapt,try playing closer to the basket,get some easier shots

[Bob8]

We all know Luka isn't 100%,the injury is clearly bothering him(we can see it when he jumps,shoots,rebounds), but do you really think the Mavs would let him Play if he could make it worse(especialy over 40 minutes a game)...what bothers me is that he is forcing the 3 Pointer... his midrange is good,why doesn't he post up more? What bothers me is the fact that when things don't go his way he seems to get frustrated and it affects him and the entire team... that's not a good leader...you can't let the refs or your bad performance make you lose focus...fight thru the struggles (though the paint),give your all or go take a breather on the bench till you clear your Head...Kyrie doesn't get frustrated by his bad play and the refs and he can show up even if he's had a bad half or even first three quarters...Luka on the other hand gets irritated and it's affecting his Play and that's where he can learn a lot from Kyrie and improve...he admited at the press conference he needs to do better, Hopefully he stays calmer,more focused...you're banged up? adapt,try playing closer to the basket,get some easier shots

Did you see Thunder D? Even Kyrie couldn't do much with his superior handles, drives and midrange jumper. Like it or not, Luka will need to hit his 3s to open the game for himself and others.

I agree about injury, until he stops playing, it's useless to talk about it.

[leolozon]

If Luka is hurt and can’t shoot 3s, why is he averaging over 11 threes a game (the most in his career RS and playoffs).

At some point, it’s just him not getting it. Shoot less, pass more. Go inside, try more post ups and bully ball. Try something, anything.

No adjustments at all.

The idea that he needs to shoot more 3s than ever in his career to open his game makes no sense. Post him up.

[BliscoSantos]

We all know Luka isn't 100%,the injury is clearly bothering him(we can see it when he jumps,shoots,rebounds), but do you really think the Mavs would let him Play if he could make it worse(especialy over 40 minutes a game)...what bothers me is that he is forcing the 3 Pointer... his midrange is good,why doesn't he post up more? What bothers me is the fact that when things don't go his way he seems to get frustrated and it affects him and the entire team... that's not a good leader...you can't let the refs or your bad performance make you lose focus...fight thru the struggles (though the paint),give your all or go take a breather on the bench till you clear your Head...Kyrie doesn't get frustrated by his bad play and the refs and he can show up even if he's had a bad half or even first three quarters...Luka on the other hand gets irritated and it's affecting his Play and that's where he can learn a lot from Kyrie and improve...he admited at the press conference he needs to do better, Hopefully he stays calmer,more focused...you're banged up? adapt,try playing closer to the basket,get some easier shots

Did you see Thunder D? Even Kyrie couldn't do much with his superior handles, drives and midrange jumper. Like it or not, Luka will need to hit his 3s to open the game for himself and others.

I agree about injury, until he plays, it's useless to talk about it.

Kyrie is always too pasive at the start...he needs to start taking more shots,ball handling..
The thunder D was good but it's not like they didn't get some easy shots,they Just didn't make them....and even the refs didn't favor thunder that much in the second half,Mavs got within a Point, but than OKC hit a couple of threes in a row and Mavs Just made one mistake after another...bad passes,lazy turnovers...they need to Play better in second game,try to steal it and than at home they should take both of them ... Hopefully the series is at least tied after the Mavs home games

[Bob8]

If Luka is hurt and can’t shoot 3s, why is he averaging over 11 threes a game (the most in his career RS and playoffs).

At some point, it’s just him not getting it. Shoot less, pass more. Go inside, try more post ups and bully ball. Try something, anything.

No adjustments at all.

The idea that he needs to shoot more 3s than ever in his career to open his game makes no sense. Post him up.

I don't know if Luka can't move well or is defended well, but he doesn't get easy shots in the paint or in midrange. He was shooting 10.5 3s in RS too, against much more forgiving D. Sure he can stop shooting 3s, better than shooting them 20%, I just doubt Mavs can win series in that case.

[Bob8]

We all know Luka isn't 100%,the injury is clearly bothering him(we can see it when he jumps,shoots,rebounds), but do you really think the Mavs would let him Play if he could make it worse(especialy over 40 minutes a game)...what bothers me is that he is forcing the 3 Pointer... his midrange is good,why doesn't he post up more? What bothers me is the fact that when things don't go his way he seems to get frustrated and it affects him and the entire team... that's not a good leader...you can't let the refs or your bad performance make you lose focus...fight thru the struggles (though the paint),give your all or go take a breather on the bench till you clear your Head...Kyrie doesn't get frustrated by his bad play and the refs and he can show up even if he's had a bad half or even first three quarters...Luka on the other hand gets irritated and it's affecting his Play and that's where he can learn a lot from Kyrie and improve...he admited at the press conference he needs to do better, Hopefully he stays calmer,more focused...you're banged up? adapt,try playing closer to the basket,get some easier shots

Did you see Thunder D? Even Kyrie couldn't do much with his superior handles, drives and midrange jumper. Like it or not, Luka will need to hit his 3s to open the game for himself and others.

I agree about injury, until he plays, it's useless to talk about it.

Kyrie is always too pasive at the start...he needs to start taking more shots,ball handling..
The thunder D was good but it's not like they didn't get some easy shots,they Just didn't make them....and even the refs didn't favor thunder that much in the second half,Mavs got within a Point, but than OKC hit a couple of threes in a row and Mavs Just made one mistake after another...bad passes,lazy turnovers...they need to Play better in second game,try to steal it and than at home they should take both of them ... Hopefully the series is at least tied after the Mavs home games

D was great on Luka and Kyrie, Thunder just gambled on others. Pretty reasonable approach.

[Dirk]

Absolutely brutal first half. A total farce. It really did look deliberate how the refs (or a particular one) was calling the game. Insane.

With all that said... the Mavs stayed close and came back from that. So ultimately, refs weren't a deciding factor.

Let me vent about Luka...

He just looks way too lackadaisical overall. And how can 'we' ever win a title if literally every season we have periods where we wonder if he's fat or not... or how hurt he is or isn't... it's quite draining. But literally every single season... that pattern manifested.

The paradox is that this year's team is better than the team's he was on where he excelled in the playoffs. So it's a really unlucky coincidence that he is injured? at this time of the year.

He had a sequence of 3-4 plays that were really bad. Missed 2 Fts, distracted on defense, missed wide open, bad pass. He needs to understand that injured or not... his body language and behaviour has to be different.

Random plays. Chilling on defense being a cone, etc.

It's also hard to understand how his form/body language changes so much. The last time we saw him, he looked much better. A few days of 'rest' pass and he looked awful.

Here's a cool play, where the burek diet pays off.

[Dirk]

Did you see Thunder D? Even Kyrie couldn't do much with his superior handles, drives and midrange jumper. Like it or not, Luka will need to hit his 3s to open the game for himself and others.

I agree about injury, until he plays, it's useless to talk about it.

Kyrie is always too pasive at the start...he needs to start taking more shots,ball handling..
The thunder D was good but it's not like they didn't get some easy shots,they Just didn't make them....and even the refs didn't favor thunder that much in the second half,Mavs got within a Point, but than OKC hit a couple of threes in a row and Mavs Just made one mistake after another...bad passes,lazy turnovers...they need to Play better in second game,try to steal it and than at home they should take both of them ... Hopefully the series is at least tied after the Mavs home games

D was great on Luka and Kyrie, Thunder just gambled on others. Pretty reasonable approach.

It's possible that you may have been overrating how "good" defense may have been on Luka or how the refs have allowed "defense to be good". Essentially, I believe it's possible that you may be overstating how much the defense has actually affected Luka.

If the above is true, and the defense is what has mostly lead to Luka underproducing, then we should be really concerned, because it'd mean Luka is actually much worse than in the past.

This feels much more like a Luka individual issue --- "hopefully" because he truly is handicapped physically --- than whatever defense/refs are calling.

But besides the "physical" thing, it is just odd how one game everyone lauds him for his defense, then the next he is super distracted and a liability. "Mentally" he needs a lot of work... it just feels like he drains some energy out of the team due to some unnecessary things/mistakes.

[Dirk]

No clue if right or wrong calls on the screens. But it was hilarious how it felt like it was just meant to be: no rythmn, no real game.

With funniest being this one

Pedantic refs who don't call this kick ball

Wake up Luka. Be engaged. Play a full focused game. Be a leader.

#Venting over. On to game 2.

[daoneandonly]

Maybe dont extend a coach while the playoffs are going on to see if the end result actually warrants it?

[Bob8]

Kyrie is always too pasive at the start...he needs to start taking more shots,ball handling..
The thunder D was good but it's not like they didn't get some easy shots,they Just didn't make them....and even the refs didn't favor thunder that much in the second half,Mavs got within a Point, but than OKC hit a couple of threes in a row and Mavs Just made one mistake after another...bad passes,lazy turnovers...they need to Play better in second game,try to steal it and than at home they should take both of them ... Hopefully the series is at least tied after the Mavs home games

D was great on Luka and Kyrie, Thunder just gambled on others. Pretty reasonable approach.

It's possible that you may have been overrating how "good" defense may have been on Luka or how the refs have allowed "defense to be good". Essentially, I believe it's possible that you may be overstating how much the defense has actually affected Luka.

If the above is true, and the defense is what has mostly lead to Luka underproducing, then we should be really concerned, because it'd mean Luka is actually much worse than in the past.

This feels much more like a Luka individual issue --- "hopefully" because he truly is handicapped physically --- than whatever defense/refs are calling.

But besides the "physical" thing, it is just odd how one game everyone lauds him for his defense, then the next he is super distracted and a liability. "Mentally" he needs a lot of work... it just feels like he drains some energy out of the team due to some unnecessary things/mistakes.

D was for sure good. I didn't see anyone going through screens this season or previous seasons like Dort was yesterday. Normally Luka haunts matchups he likes, not this time. And it was even more visual how Kyrie struggled to get good shot. His great handles total non factor. It really doesn't matter, if referees were factor or not, I doubt Mavs will get friendly whistle in this series. Games will be officiated similar like yesterday.

Saying that, I have said multiple times, struggling with step backs is clearly mostly on Luka and that struggling represents in his whole game. 3 pointer is essential for him, the only shot he has always on disposal no matter how D on him looks. But he needs to made them with far better %. I'm not sure that even he doesn't understand, why he's missing them.

Sure Luka is worse, he can't hit a 3. Give him his normal % and he and Mavs would have looked a lot different. Or maybe you believe that he forgot how to shoot overnight? It's mental or physical it doesn't matter, for some reason he can't hit anything. We all know that Luka needs good shooting, to be good in other areas of the game too. Now he's just frustrated.

About D. He might have chance defending Harden, PG3 and Kawhi. He has no chance defending much more agile and fast players like Shai and J-Will. What Dort is doing on Luka someone should have done on Shai. When have you seen any Mavs players fighting through screens?

[Swish77]

Maybe dont extend a coach while the playoffs are going on to see if the end result actually warrants it?

He's 0-5 in game 1's. There's not an ounce of me that's worried about this series. Mavs in 6.

[Swish77]

The Mavs win and lose as a team. Last night's game isnt on THJ or Luka. The entire team played bad. There's zero reason to overreact to 1 game. We will win game 2 book it!

[41Dirk41]

Luka is playing embarassing PO (just 1 good game out of 7... And counting). No excuses please.
He is an MVP caliber player.

He needs to step his fat ass up and stop talking about effort every post game. It's ridicolous. Even the stones know that now, play good basketball and don't take **** 3s.

I would have loved to read comments from brilliant minds (like ozwizard8) if Irving and Doncic's performances in PO were reversed.

No excuses. Everybody play hurt in the PO.
If you are on the court so you can play... The rest are just bulls*it.

Okc is the better team probably but we can make this series close. But we need Luka. Badly.

Silver wants Ant and SGA like NBA faces, that's clear. Last Minny and Okc games spoken.

But

Wiggins, Joe and Wallace


29points
7/11 from 3
11 rebounds
7assists

Lively -THJ-Exum-

15 points
3/13 from the floor
6 rebounds
1 assists

Out role players were bad (unless Green).
The Aussies fanboy wrote all year about Exum who can be the X-Factor but the only fact is that he can't play in PO games. He is our no factor. What a bum.


Jason Kidd is not my coach.

[ChipotleWest]

Why I'm at peace with it:

Let's say Luka was 100% healthy and so was the team, could we run the gauntlet of OKC, Minnesota and Boston? Possibly, maybe or maybe not. We'd have a shot.

Can we run that gauntlet without a healthy Luka? Impossible.

So if don't lose this series it'll just be Minnesota.