Playoffs 2024 - R1 - G1 - Mavs @ Clippers (Sunday 3:30PM)

[ozwizard8]

Surprising to see Lively and Gafford have only 2 fouls combined. They really need to be more physical on defense and make the refs call those fouls. They're not going to call them all.

Interestingly Gafford got two early on and subbed out due to foul problem.

More aggressiveness needed but also better offensive sets to use that lob threat. Of course blitz will happen, and LAC is going to flood the Luka offense side. He was really rusty today, and didn't wanted to take those turn around, high post shots nor stepback 3s early on. He should bounce back. Kyrie wasn't good at the start but played pretty good in the second half.

I still would like to have more defensive players and athletics then seeing THJ minutes.
At the 4th quarter, 6 min to go, our roster was like Luka-Kyrie-THJ. As a result Luka became our best perimeter defender in that situation. Its far from ideal. Having plus defender around KYrie-Luka helps all of the defense.
THJ doesn't worth it IMO....

PJ, Gafford, DJJ, even Exum... Not much playoff experience. Hard to expect them to shine from the first game. Give them some time they'll get better.
Clippers were the 2nd hardest matchup for us so I didn't fully surprise losing the first game. I am optimistic for the Game 2.
Kidd is not that bad in adjustments in general. However, he should also focus on rotation minutes. Dont go for full offensive lineups. Those should be last resort.

[ozwizard8]

This game was a good reality check on the difference between us and Denver Nuggets.
We feel good just to have some bodies at wing defense and rim protector centers. However, Denver is on another level.

They have much better defensive specialists then us.
- Aaron Gordon is like S.Marion. The way he defends Lebron...
- KPJ is an elite defender that can defend 1-3 positions.

On top of that they have reliable 3pt shooters. They trust KPJ, MPJ at the wing while Gordon is a lob, backdoor cut thread.
- We are hoping one of Exum, DJJ, Green can play as good as KPJ.
- Also hope for Maxi-PJ to replicate the defensive, rebounding and offensive production of MPJ-Gordon duo. Different level of athleticism, height-wingspan

[dirkules_41]

I am no longer faithful about this season as long as:

1. Kidd coaching
2. Maxi seeing floor with THJ together

Kidd should be fired. Whoever performing better, Kidd sends to the bench. I have to believe that Kidd takes bribes and bets against the Mavs. Kidd is not even better than Rivers who's really awful as a coach.

Clippers were up like 15 and then Harden flopped and got 3 free throws from a 3 point shot and he wasn't actually touched. No challenge. That's 3 free points when the opponent is already up big because he did nothing. There was never going to be a better time to use a challenge, what was he doing?

That and continuing to watch Timmy get abused on defense for extended periods were just horrific coaching.

[41Dirk41]

I hope in G2 we put DJJ mostly on Harden instead of PJ. Not an indictment at all on PJ who I think did a good job 1v1 but he's not slithery enough to get around screens which allowed Harden to get any switch he wanted, particularly in the 1st half. DJJ is known to be great at getting screens and being the POA defender, not PJ. PJ should be on Paul George.

DJJ guarded the opponent PG all season, all **** season and what did Kidd do in the first game of the PO???
PJ on Harden and DJJ on PG13.

What a stupid moron.

Harden is a streaky shooter just like Doncic, if he makes a couple of step back you are in trouble.

Oh well in 3rd and 4th quarter Kidd put Kleber ( a couple of 3s in his face + 3FTs) and Doncic (who was cooked) on him. Wow.
What a mastermind plan by our brillant coach.
Kidd is the new Doc Rivers. Book it.

This game was a shame for all Mavericks players and organization, we are in PO.
We have to be ready to play even Kidd is a stupid moron who can't coach or prepare the games

Doncic was awful, i don't care if he posted great numbers because his attitude was irritating as hell.
He maked a lot of dumb mistakes and left wide open in the corner ton of shooters (Mann, Coffey ans Westbrook).
It's an unaccetable performance for our leader... Kyrie single handed the team in the 3rd because Luka **** the bed all game.

We played soft and scared, Harden and Westbrook cooked us. Two of the worst chokers in the league.

EMBARASSING.

We need a strong come back in game2 to delete this performance but the weak mentality and coach inability still remains.

I overestimated this group probably.

[41Dirk41]

Kidd should be fired. Whoever performing better, Kidd sends to the bench. I have to believe that Kidd takes bribes and bets against the Mavs. Kidd is not even better than Rivers who's really awful as a coach.

Clippers were up like 15 and then Harden flopped and got 3 free throws from a 3 point shot and he wasn't actually touched. No challenge. That's 3 free points when the opponent is already up big because he did nothing. There was never going to be a better time to use a challenge, what was he doing?

That and continuing to watch Timmy get abused on defense for extended periods were just horrific coaching.

When i saw THJ guarding PG13 i could not believe in my eyes...

[MassimoPayne]

Few take aways:
---
Mavs obviously started really bad. Luka taking way too many early 3s.
Luka got too frustrated about Maxi, Gaff and Liv. Honestly I was frustrated as well but you can't show it as a leader. Maxi was already scareed to shoot. This will not help him
Paul George hit a lot of contested shots but you can't let Harden that open
Must have challenged the Harden 3 Maxi foul. Luka again got frustrated they didn't challenge.
Every time mavs had a run, Clips took a timeout and scored after the timeout with a scripted play. This is plain out coaching

+++
Kyrie fought like hell. Luka came somehow back from what firstly appeared to be a off night for him
They fought back and showed some energy instead of losing by 40
I am optimistic that they won't play like that again, but Clips get Kawhi back

This sucks. This was still a very winable game
You coul tell that a lot of players were scared of the big moment. First time playoffs. This will be better

[41Dirk41]

And i repeat you can't win a PO game in 2024 if Kleber plays 27 minutes (mostly at the C), it's the same situation with Powell in last years.

They are not good NBA players right now. (Probably they really never were, Powell for sure at least).

Lively and Gafford play bad? Try PJ at the C and O-Max at the 4. Try whatever you want. I don't care.

What Kleber gave you in the defensive end it doesn't compensate what we lost at rebounds, rim protection and offensive end.

I can't believe that Harden, Westbrook and Zubac joked us. OMG.

[Teffer10]

I like the strategy of giving the opponent a false sense of security.
It worked for them by not playing Leonard so hopefully our playing like crap in game 1 will have the same effect on them.

[MassimoPayne]

Lively, Gafford and Kleber combined for 7 reb. That tells it all

[Bob8]

We can talk about many things, but if front court won't play a lot better, Mavs have minimal chances to win series. Our 3 players that played on C had 9 points and 7 rebounds, Zubac had 20/15 in 33 minutes, easily posting Gafford. Gafford and Lively were disastrous and Kleber is useless at small 5, because they will just leave him wide open on 3 all the time, his shot looks awful/flat even when he shoots FTs. If Zubac continues to dominate Gafford and Lively, not much can be done.

Losing first game means nothing, problem is that Clippers looked much better and better coached team. Not exactly easy to change that with just few adjustments.

[41Dirk41]

Gafford was outplayed by Zubac, start Lively next game and play Gafford against Plumlee.

[41Dirk41]

We can talk about many things, but if front court won't play a lot better, Mavs have minimal chances to win series. Our 3 players that played on C had 9 points and 7 rebounds, Zubac had 20/15 in 33 minutes, easily posting Gafford. Gafford and Lively were disastrous and Kleber is useless at small 5, because they will just leave him wide open on 3 all the time, his shot looks awful/flat even when he shoots FTs. If Zubac continues to dominate Gafford and Lively, not much can be done.

Losing first game means nothing, problem is that Clippers looked much better and better coached team. Not exactly easy to change that with just few adjustments.

Yes you are right Bob but even washed Carlisle (who Lost by 20 from the Bucks without Giannis. OMG) understand how to figure out Zubac from the game... Kidd is just hopeless like a coach.

Just a famous poster here can support him

[daoneandonly]

We can talk about many things, but if front court won't play a lot better, Mavs have minimal chances to win series. Our 3 players that played on C had 9 points and 7 rebounds, Zubac had 20/15 in 33 minutes, easily posting Gafford. Gafford and Lively were disastrous and Kleber is useless at small 5, because they will just leave him wide open on 3 all the time, his shot looks awful/flat even when he shoots FTs. If Zubac continues to dominate Gafford and Lively, not much can be done.

Losing first game means nothing, problem is that Clippers looked much better and better coached team. Not exactly easy to change that with just few adjustments.

Yes you are right Bob but even washed Carlisle (who Lost by 20 from the Bucks without Giannis. OMG) understand how to figure out Zubac from the game... Kidd is just hopeless like a coach.

Just a famous poster here can support him

Oh man, who can support Jason Kidd as coach?

But yea, what a pathetic performance form this team. Zero excuse, they were well rested and the Clipps were missing their best player. I'm glad I had a worship concert I went to and missed most of this sorry game.

The only person that has an excuse for a bad game si Lively. He is mourning right now and going through a lot of pain, not to mention a rookie. The rest of the guys, come on now.

[41Dirk41]

We can talk about many things, but if front court won't play a lot better, Mavs have minimal chances to win series. Our 3 players that played on C had 9 points and 7 rebounds, Zubac had 20/15 in 33 minutes, easily posting Gafford. Gafford and Lively were disastrous and Kleber is useless at small 5, because they will just leave him wide open on 3 all the time, his shot looks awful/flat even when he shoots FTs. If Zubac continues to dominate Gafford and Lively, not much can be done.

Losing first game means nothing, problem is that Clippers looked much better and better coached team. Not exactly easy to change that with just few adjustments.

Yes you are right Bob but even washed Carlisle (who Lost by 20 from the Bucks without Giannis. OMG) understand how to figure out Zubac from the game... Kidd is just hopeless like a coach.

Just a famous poster here can support him

Oh man, who can support Jason Kidd as coach?

But yea, what a pathetic performance form this team. Zero excuse, they were well rested and the Clipps were missing their best player. I'm glad I had a worship concert I went to and missed most of this sorry game.

The only person that has an excuse for a bad game si Lively. He is mourning right now and going through a lot of pain, not to mention a rookie. The rest of the guys, come on now.

You can immagine who he is, i don't want to be banned...

Luka looked like a wet puppy for the entire game and at the press conference after the game, i've never seen him like this.

I hope he will find his balls before game 2 otherwise this series is over.

[Mavrelous]

We can talk about many things, but if front court won't play a lot better, Mavs have minimal chances to win series. Our 3 players that played on C had 9 points and 7 rebounds, Zubac had 20/15 in 33 minutes, easily posting Gafford. Gafford and Lively were disastrous and Kleber is useless at small 5, because they will just leave him wide open on 3 all the time, his shot looks awful/flat even when he shoots FTs. If Zubac continues to dominate Gafford and Lively, not much can be done.

Losing first game means nothing, problem is that Clippers looked much better and better coached team. Not exactly easy to change that with just few adjustments.

Yes you are right Bob but even washed Carlisle (who Lost by 20 from the Bucks without Giannis. OMG) understand how to figure out Zubac from the game... Kidd is just hopeless like a coach.

Just a famous poster here can support him

Oh man, who can support Jason Kidd as coach?

But yea, what a pathetic performance form this team. Zero excuse, they were well rested and the Clipps were missing their best player. I'm glad I had a worship concert I went to and missed most of this sorry game.

The only person that has an excuse for a bad game si Lively. He is mourning right now and going through a lot of pain, not to mention a rookie. The rest of the guys, come on now.

PJW was good.
Coaching was abysmal, I want Kidd gone, but they don't need Kidd to tell them to give effort in a PO game.
I hope this was the rust from the long recess, we'll see how they respond, if Mavs lose a non-competitive series, Kidd is gone.

[Bob8]

Yes you are right Bob but even washed Carlisle (who Lost by 20 from the Bucks without Giannis. OMG) understand how to figure out Zubac from the game... Kidd is just hopeless like a coach.

Just a famous poster here can support him

Oh man, who can support Jason Kidd as coach?

But yea, what a pathetic performance form this team. Zero excuse, they were well rested and the Clipps were missing their best player. I'm glad I had a worship concert I went to and missed most of this sorry game.

The only person that has an excuse for a bad game si Lively. He is mourning right now and going through a lot of pain, not to mention a rookie. The rest of the guys, come on now.

PJW was good.
Coaching was abysmal, I want Kidd gone, but they don't need Kidd to tell them to give effort in a PO game.
I hope this was the rust from the long recess, we'll see how they respond, if Mavs lose a non-competitive series, Kidd is gone.

Having 10 days time and being totally unprepared for the game is really baffling, even more seeing Zubac and Harden singlehanded beating them.

[Swish77]

We were really rusty. I wouldn't say we were unprepared. We just sucked. Mavs in 5. We will come back in game 2 and show everyone the team we really are.

[ChipotleWest]

I think we'll win Game 2 and then Game 1 means nothing. If however we have a repeat performance and they beat us in Game 2 we're in trouble. I just saw a fluke in the first half and then we won the second half by 13.

[Mavrelous]

I think we'll win Game 2 and then Game 1 means nothing. If however we have a repeat performance and they beat us in Game 2 we're in trouble. I just saw a fluke in the first half and then we won the second half by 14.

The game was over by the 20 minutes mark, nothing should be taken seriously after that.

[ChipotleWest]

I think we'll win Game 2 and then Game 1 means nothing. If however we have a repeat performance and they beat us in Game 2 we're in trouble. I just saw a fluke in the first half and then we won the second half by 14.

The game was over by the 20 minutes mark, nothing should be taken seriously after that.

Agreed, but we will not score 30 points in a half again. That was the worst half of Dallas Mavs basketball I've seen in years.

I'm not sweating it at all unless we lose Game 2. If we win Game 2 we're fine. You don't typically win the first two games on the road in a playoff series.