2024 NBA Playoffs - West 1st Round: #4 Los Angeles Clippers vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (DAL leads 3-2)

[maverick_41]

There was no hope yesterday.

But hey, NBA is a very funny thing, next game might be completely different with no obvious reasons Mavs in 6.

[B-easy]

Didn't realise how good (even now) Harden is in ISO.

[Sofia]

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What is this, nicotine withdrawals?

(He still smokes, right?)

[Yuri36]

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What is this, nicotine withdrawals?

(He still smokes, right?)

Tbf with Luka, I don't think he was upset with Kleber only because of that play.
Him and THJ are like bonus for the opponents at this rate, sadly.

[hagredionis]

Luka scored 33/13/6 and his plus-minus was +3. It's not his fault that Zubac had 20 points and 15 rebounds and completely outplayed the Mavs' bigs. You can't win a play-off game if your bigs each score just 3 points. Also people criticizing Luka defense when it was him that finally slowed down Harden in the second half. Sth.

[Doranku]

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What is this, nicotine withdrawals?

(He still smokes, right?)

Long-term side effect from playing with a bum like Maxi his entire career.

[Statlanta]

The Mavericks will obviously play better but that C matchup is cooked. Say what you want about players going above their averages but Zubac should dominate both Gafford(East Center) and Lively(rookie). I hope Lue notices and doesn't commit to 5 out tendencies

[QPR]

Luka scored 33/13/6 and his plus-minus was +3. It's not his fault that Zubac had 20 points and 15 rebounds and completely outplayed the Mavs' bigs. You can't win a play-off game if your bigs each score just 3 points. Also people criticizing Luka defense when it was him that finally slowed down Harden in the second half. Sth.

Back to Luka's team mates being inadequate again!

[og15]

Didn't realise how good (even now) Harden is in ISO.

He's still effective in isolation, yes, but frequency is down as he will pick and choose spots more based on more ideal matchups than in the past.

[Doranku]

Luka scored 33/13/6 and his plus-minus was +3. It's not his fault that Zubac had 20 points and 15 rebounds and completely outplayed the Mavs' bigs. You can't win a play-off game if your bigs each score just 3 points. Also people criticizing Luka defense when it was him that finally slowed down Harden in the second half. Sth.

Back to Luka's team mates being inadequate again!

Nah, this one is on the whole team, Luka & Kyrie included. This is why you can't just look at box scores to tell the story of a game. Their numbers look way better than they actually played. They were both (along with the whole team) horrific in the first half and allowed the Clippers to build a 26 point lead. Yeah they played much better in the second half but who cares when the game was lost in the first half?

[PeteyPablo]

Luka scored 33/13/6 and his plus-minus was +3. It's not his fault that Zubac had 20 points and 15 rebounds and completely outplayed the Mavs' bigs. You can't win a play-off game if your bigs each score just 3 points. Also people criticizing Luka defense when it was him that finally slowed down Harden in the second half. Sth.

Back to Luka's team mates being inadequate again!

Nah, this one is on the whole team, Luka & Kyrie included. This is why you can't just look at box scores to tell the story of a game. Their numbers look way better than they actually played. They were both (along with the whole team) horrific in the first half and allowed the Clippers to build a 26 point lead. Yeah they played much better in the second half but who cares when the game was lost in the first half?

Clippers played with intention. Their defense is smothering and that is the driver behind going 26-5 earlier in the year. They made it to #1 in the west for a day.

After the All Star break , their defense was non existent. They kinda coasted the rest of the way. They turned it up about the last 2 weeks of season to secure the 4th spot in the West.

They had that awful 0-6 start when the Harden trade went down. They could have ended up 1st in the west if not for that adjustment period.

[Marrrcuss]

Soooooo, the Dallas fans obsessed with the lakers now have other worries? LOL

[Yuri36]

Luka is definitely chubby again. It’s odd because Jokic is now going on like 2-3 years in a row of staying lean. Luka is barely 25. Why is he having trouble staying in shape?

I really can't understand it, especially during the curse of the season (being unfit just after coming back from holidays, I could understand it but not this). Playing such an amount of games in such sort time, I just can't understand how he can be that unfit even eating fast food every week (which I obviously highly doubt he does).

Does he really have such bad genetics?
If so then that's a crying shame as the guy obviously has GOAT potential basketball wise.

[Yuri36]

The Mavericks will obviously play better but that C matchup is cooked. Say what you want about players going above their averages but Zubac should dominate both Gafford(East Center) and Lively(rookie). I hope Lue notices and doesn't commit to 5 out tendencies

In your world perhaps.
Other than some die hard Clippers/Zubac fans, absolutely no one expected him to dominate like that one of the most intimidating and impressive centers of the last few months (i'm talking about Gafford of course).
Zubac is a good player but if he was consistently that good, he would be picked in all NBA teams which is obviously not the case.
And I expect normal service to return in the next few games of that serie, at least in that centers matchup.

[Ambrose]

Luka didn't play well, Kyrie did. The supporting cast was horrendous though.

Luka/Kyrie combined for 64 and 10 assists. Factoring in some of those being 3's or leading to FT's, that means Dallas had less than 10 points not created by those two. Can't win like that.

[Sgt Major]

Luka scored 33/13/6 and his plus-minus was +3. It's not his fault that Zubac had 20 points and 15 rebounds and completely outplayed the Mavs' bigs. You can't win a play-off game if your bigs each score just 3 points. Also people criticizing Luka defense when it was him that finally slowed down Harden in the second half. Sth.

We all watched the game and we saw he put empty stats up.

[ChipotleWest]

Zubac improved tremendously. He might actually be the Clippers 3rd best player.

He averaged 11 on the season, he scored 20 today.

Harden was 12 over his average, Zubac 9 over his average, Mann 5 over his average, Westbrook 2 over his average. Add those together that's 28 extra points probably makes up for not having Kawhi. I do not believe they can do that at least 4 times. They'll still need Kawhi to win the series.

As stated already with more minutes + Kawhi 's shots available should mean more than reg season averages.

Also PG isn't going 8-20 again. Norm isn't going to only put up 5 on 2-6 again

Harden and Zubac are not going to give you 48 points a game, period. And more importantly, the Mavs are not going to only get 30 points in a half, it was most Mavs players first playoff game and the second half we got 67. It was a fluke, good luck in game 2.

Yall are acting like that no matter the NBA player if they just get more shots they'll average 20 a game, that clearly isn't true. It's like you're trying to say Kawhi doesn't matter because the other players can just make up his shots for him, ridiculous it happened this one game it was a fluke. There's a reason that it takes a top 5 player almost every year to win an NBA Championship, because some players are better than others not sure why this needs to be explained to anyone.

[sunsbg]

Mavs kinda look flawed, with big ups and downs just like one other team. Regular season record in 30 games is not the best way to judge teams. A series with other good teams is a lot better. Now I don't expect them to score only 30 in a half again, but so far my expectation that good teams can expose a defensively challenged backcourt and offensively challenged frontcourt doesn't look off.

[ChipotleWest]

If Mavs lose Game 2 they'll be in trouble, but as of right now it's 1 game in L.A. and not one team won on the road this weekend. They can steal Homecourt in Game 2.

Right now it's just the typical overreaction on realgm to 1 game. You'd think Harden is the GOAT and Luka is a bust reading some of these comments.

[KHRICH]

33 on 11/26 from the field isn't impressive as some people like to say that's a Westbrook stat line. Luka was garage he can't get a pass when other players would get flamed for this type of game