RD 1 GAME #2: MAVS [0-1] @ LAC [1-0]—TUES 4/23 7 PM, TNT

[KL2]

I don't understand why Lue put Harden on Luka at the end. It compromised their defense.

Lue likes to do some very questionable stuff out of the blue to see how the other team reacts. Is it something he can use or not?

I’m more concerned about his insistence to use Plumlee. This is a series where Theis would be more valuable. Can rebound and defend along with switching but more importantly draw one of the bigs outside the paint. Father forgive me but I think Tucker would be miles better than Plumlee in this matchup.

[donemilio21]

I don't understand why Lue put Harden on Luka at the end. It compromised their defense.

Lue likes to do some very questionable stuff out of the blue to see how the other team reacts. Is it something he can use or not?

I’m more concerned about his insistence to use Plumlee. This is a series where Theis would be more valuable. Can rebound and defend along with switching but more importantly draw one of the bigs outside the paint. Father forgive me but I think Tucker would be miles better than Plumlee in this matchup.

Pick and roll offense. Plumlee is better at it than Tucker, but not better than Theis. I'd play Theis more especially when Zu is sturglling like he was in the first half yesterday.
There is also the issue that our offense is largely ISO ball and when the opponent is determined to play tough defense, we can score.
There was an ugly sequence yesterday when we just did 3 back to back ISO offense, and failed to score, Lue didn't bother call a timeout and draw a play.

[clipperlover]

I don't understand why Lue put Harden on Luka at the end. It compromised their defense.

Lue likes to do some very questionable stuff out of the blue to see how the other team reacts. Is it something he can use or not?

I’m more concerned about his insistence to use Plumlee. This is a series where Theis would be more valuable. Can rebound and defend along with switching but more importantly draw one of the bigs outside the paint. Father forgive me but I think Tucker would be miles better than Plumlee in this matchup.

Pick and roll offense. Plumlee is better at it than Tucker, but not better than Theis. I'd play Theis more especially when Zu is sturglling like he was in the first half yesterday.
There is also the issue that our offense is largely ISO ball and when the opponent is determined to play tough defense, we can score.
There was an ugly sequence yesterday when we just did 3 back to back ISO offense, and failed to score, Lue didn't bother call a timeout and draw a play.

Ty isn't coaching to win a game. He is coaching to win a series. You don't use all of the tools in your tool box each game. You don't break out tools unless you absolutely have to. Theis is one of those tools. Jason Kidd's bench is only so deep. I wouldn't be surprised if Ty brings in Theis later in the series to change things up, if needed. Mavs were more aggressive with Zubac last night and Zu was in early foul trouble. However, they are not strong enough to check him the entire series.

While the Mavs played better D and won last night, they still scored 1 less point than the prior game. We held them under 100 both games. This was our first loss all year holding an opponent to 99 or below. Unfortunately, we have only won 1 game where we scored below 100.

[clipperlover]

Saw something last night that Kawhi has been on the losing end of 9 straight Game 2s.

[NickP]

I don't understand why Lue put Harden on Luka at the end. It compromised their defense.

Lue likes to do some very questionable stuff out of the blue to see how the other team reacts. Is it something he can use or not?

I’m more concerned about his insistence to use Plumlee. This is a series where Theis would be more valuable. Can rebound and defend along with switching but more importantly draw one of the bigs outside the paint. Father forgive me but I think Tucker would be miles better than Plumlee in this matchup.

We really need to send Plumlee with a one way ticket somewhere. He makes one good play followed by multiple boneheaded plays.

[esqtvd]

You don't bring him in game 1 back and run multiple isolations for him when he hasn't done any contact. First game back he should be a decoy and taking open shots off others. Wasted too many possessions trying to set up Kawhi iso while he was moving as slow as possible and barely getting shots off.

It stagnated the offense which there's no value in doing so it you can't get high value possessions out of it.

I liked my plan better.

I missed that one, what was it?

Yes, I meant that was my plan too instead of throwing him into the deep end of the pool. Fewer minutes. Decoy. Save him for the 4th.

[Captain Ballmer]

Dallas offense will get better at their home. Especially the contributions they got from their role players will increase with each game confidence&familiarity.

We need better Kawhi-Pg13 and Norman games on the road. I still like our chances because i think Kawhi get only better from where he is now.

[Max Headrom]

Watching Lue in the post game interview, he was smiling, playful with the media and seemed not to be worried at all. I think he already figured something out...lol

[nickhx2]

Watching Lue in the post game interview, he was smiling, playful with the media and seemed not to be worried at all. I think he already figured something out...lol

maybe, i mean the playoffs is the time when lue makes his money, so to speak. or he could just be enjoying the moment, who knows. but i will say that if he doesn't seem worried it's genuine coming from someone who's seen it all as player and coach.

guess that should inspire some confidence in us as fans, so i'll take it!

[KL2]

Read on Twitter

[nickhx2]

maybe lue was smiling cause he was thinking about all the money he was saving by keeping his mouth shut about the TRASHCAN REFS last night

[clipperlover]

maybe lue was smiling cause he was thinking about all the money he was saving by keeping his mouth shut about the TRASHCAN REFS last night

FT disparity was 1. Surely we aren't complaining about officiating. Dallas could make the same argument.

[Clemenza]

Offense came to a crawl last night, super stagnate with iso ball not panning out. Kawhi will get better as I guess its good to get his rust filled game out of the way now. I'm scrapping the Plumlee minutes in favor of Theis if I was running the show. Loved Russ' energy. Zu finally started to show life in the 4th but Lue pulled the plug and went small which I didn't understand at all. Should've pulled away when we had that 6 point lead as the Mavs offense was pretty horrid as well, but shot a tad bit better than us overall. Kawhi and company should take this personal and go all out in Dallas.

-also of note, I think Luka and Kyrie could tire out by game 4 or so. Both over 40 minutes per game and have to do all the heavy lifting on offense is not ideal. Lets hope this is the case.

[clipperlover]

Dallas offense will get better at their home. Especially the contributions they got from their role players will increase with each game confidence&familiarity.

We need better Kawhi-Pg13 and Norman games on the road. I still like our chances because i think Kawhi get only better from where he is now.

I am not worried about our role players on the road:
Westbrook - Been there done that
Mann - Has several double digit scoring games on the road
Powell - Has Conference Finals and Finals experience and him not scoring double digits in the playoffs is an outlier
Plumlee - Been to through several Game 6 and Game 7 playoff series
Theis - Has played in several conference Finals and and NBA Finals ( 2 years ago)
Zu - Has several double doubles in road playoff games

Other than Gafford in 2021 and Kleber in 2022, none of the Dallas role players have a playoff history that says you need to watch out for them. P.J. Washington and Lively are new to all of this.

[NickP]

Watching Lue in the post game interview, he was smiling, playful with the media and seemed not to be worried at all. I think he already figured something out...lol

Hope he’s not smiling because he got a killer deal on a vacation package.

[TrueLAfan]

Offense came to a crawl last night, super stagnate with iso ball not panning out. Kawhi will get better as I guess its good to get his rust filled game out of the way now. I'm scrapping the Plumlee minutes in favor of Theis if I was running the show. Loved Russ' energy. Zu finally started to show life in the 4th but Lue pulled the plug and went small which I didn't understand at all. Should've pulled away when we had that 6 point lead as the Mavs offense was pretty horrid as well, but shot a tad bit better than us overall. Kawhi and company should take this personal and go all out in Dallas.

-also of note, I think Luka and Kyrie could tire out by game 4 or so. Both over 40 minutes per game and have to do all the heavy lifting on offense is not ideal. Lets hope this is the case.

Pretty much agree with all of this. For me, bottom line is this. We had two of our top scorers have seriously subpar games--I mean, going 9-27 and scoring 10 less than you did in the RS is pretty bad. But we were close the whole game.Even the two stars that had "good" games (Harden and PG) were a lot more OK than great--but we hung tough. Plumlee wasn'td so much the wrong player as a possible right player having a lousy game. He still should've gotten the hook earlier.

Kawhi looked okay on D--but you could see the rust, almost literally. Kawhi isn't a rhythm player; he's not a streaky guy like PG. He just is out of game rhythm. We need him to get that back quick.

[Jay555]

Kwahi was rusty but at least he's healthy to play.

Win G3 and problem solved. Even better, Win next two.

[madmaxmedia]

My number one concern about Game 2 was that Kawhi felt fine afterwards and is 100% going forward. Since we haven’t heard anything at all otherwise, feeling good about that. Winning would have been really nice too though LOL.

[Max Headrom]

My number one concern about Game 2 was that Kawhi felt fine afterwards and is 100% going forward. Since we haven’t heard anything at all otherwise, feeling good about that. Winning would have been really nice too though LOL.

Looks like they were throwing him in the deep in trying to let him get acclimated quickly instead of easing him back...lol

Like mentioned earlier, better to get that game out the way early in the series than game 4 or 5

[NickP]

Lue likes to do some very questionable stuff out of the blue to see how the other team reacts. Is it something he can use or not?

I’m more concerned about his insistence to use Plumlee. This is a series where Theis would be more valuable. Can rebound and defend along with switching but more importantly draw one of the bigs outside the paint. Father forgive me but I think Tucker would be miles better than Plumlee in this matchup.

Pick and roll offense. Plumlee is better at it than Tucker, but not better than Theis. I'd play Theis more especially when Zu is sturglling like he was in the first half yesterday.
There is also the issue that our offense is largely ISO ball and when the opponent is determined to play tough defense, we can score.
There was an ugly sequence yesterday when we just did 3 back to back ISO offense, and failed to score, Lue didn't bother call a timeout and draw a play.

Ty isn't coaching to win a game. He is coaching to win a series. You don't use all of the tools in your tool box each game. You don't break out tools unless you absolutely have to. Theis is one of those tools. Jason Kidd's bench is only so deep. I wouldn't be surprised if Ty brings in Theis later in the series to change things up, if needed. Mavs were more aggressive with Zubac last night and Zu was in early foul trouble. However, they are not strong enough to check him the entire series.

While the Mavs played better D and won last night, they still scored 1 less point than the prior game. We held them under 100 both games. This was our first loss all year holding an opponent to 99 or below. Unfortunately, we have only won 1 game where we scored below 100.

I mostly agree with your takes but not this one. Each game is crucial and important in a 7 game series. Out of an 82 game season I can understand to give up one game or a few more.
In a 7 game series? I don’t think so. Lue does not have the luxury of simply giving up home court to experiment with lineups. Had we won that game we’d be looking to win only 2 more to move on while Dallas would be looking for their first win. A loss throws the momentum on the side of Dallas with their home court.
Also Lue is not some coaching genius like Larry Brown to experiment. If he was half the coach, he’d staple Plumlee’s ass to the bench and play Theis over him.