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Ughh, brutal loss and now a must win game before back to back @Clippers.

Portland smoked the Hawks last night... We won in some way tonight. OMG.

Nice 2 plays from AD to end the game. Go ahead basket on the offensive side, and defended Trae Young to avoid the buzzer beater on the other side.

Im impressed by that last defensive play. 6'10 guy guarding all star point guard. Could've sworn he would have been cross overed for a wide open 3. Or we're just used to watching Luka before.

arkuo wrote:Im impressed by that last defensive play. 6'10 guy guarding all star point guard. Could've sworn he would have been cross overed for a wide open 3. Or we're just used to watching Luka before.

This game, like the Rockets, showed the potential, but there are no guards on this team, Dinwiddie almost threw the game away, any guard will do, hell, just Williams and Exum can give me hope.

I don't know if i should be excited or expect them to lose and tank. Feels like no one can give a 100% answer to this. SOOOO many fans left even in reddit and twitter and are confused what to think about this team. Funny thing is, they'll slip into playoffs and will get smoked by either HOU or OKC in the 1st round. It's just pointless...

Archx wrote:I don't know if i should be excited or expect them to lose and tank. Feels like no one can give a 100% answer to this. SOOOO many fans left even in reddit and twitter and are confused what to think about this team. Funny thing is, they'll slip into playoffs and will get smoked by either HOU or OKC in the 1st round. It's just pointless...

They can't be better than 8th seed, so it can only be OKC.

Archx wrote:I don't know if i should be excited or expect them to lose and tank. Feels like no one can give a 100% answer to this. SOOOO many fans left even in reddit and twitter and are confused what to think about this team. Funny thing is, they'll slip into playoffs and will get smoked by either HOU or OKC in the 1st round. It's just pointless...

Getting smoked by the teams positioned 1 and 2 is almost a lock every year of the playoffs. #7 and 8 rarely beat # 1 and 2.

The clear answer is the players are obviously not tanking and AD wants to play. I can wish they would tank but they wouldn't do it anyway.

The silver lining to me is they get enough reps and playing time together so they can figure out a good system in the summer. They're getting real NBA competition to see where they are at (sans Kyrie). So instead of playing 5v5 in a practice facility, they can see where they are at with AD, Lively, Gaff, Klay and the rest.

Mavs will have the best record among lottery teams regardless, so they better try and make the PO.
I'd be extremely worried about prtecting the ball, Thunder will have a field day making Mavs guard look ridiculous, especially Hardy, he'll have some of the funniest clips being stripped by Cason Wallace, OTOH, what the Mavs can do to OKC in the paint no team can dream of doing, it'll be interesting.

Mavrelous wrote:Mavs will have the best record among lottery teams regardless, so they better try and make the PO.
I'd be extremely worried about prtecting the ball, Thunder will have a field day making Mavs guard look ridiculous, especially Hardy, he'll have some of the funniest clips being stripped by Cason Wallace, OTOH, what the Mavs can do to OKC in the paint no team can dream of doing, it'll be interesting.

They would need Kyrie to break down the defenses and get AD more freedom but OKC has strength, length on all positions and Mavs have no one to make life easier for AD. One of the keys will be Klay's shooting and whoever is primary playmaker to be able to put pressure on OKC's perimeter defenders.

Last year Luka/Kyrie were killing OKC with dribble penetration and opening up shooting spots for PJ and DJJ. This year, OKC can just spread around and cover ground individually since there is no threat.

Archx wrote:

Mavrelous wrote:Mavs will have the best record among lottery teams regardless, so they better try and make the PO.
I'd be extremely worried about prtecting the ball, Thunder will have a field day making Mavs guard look ridiculous, especially Hardy, he'll have some of the funniest clips being stripped by Cason Wallace, OTOH, what the Mavs can do to OKC in the paint no team can dream of doing, it'll be interesting.

They would need Kyrie to break down the defenses and get AD more freedom but OKC has strength, length on all positions and Mavs have no one to make life easier for AD. One of the keys will be Klay's shooting and whoever is primary playmaker to be able to put pressure on OKC's perimeter defenders.

Last year Luka/Kyrie were killing OKC with dribble penetration and opening up shooting spots for PJ and DJJ. This year, OKC can just spread around and cover ground individually since there is no threat.

Yeah, it will be much ugglier series than last year, Mavs will not be able to score a lot, they will need to defend their asses off and pray for shooting luck, they will also struggle to close.

Mavrelous wrote:

Archx wrote:

Mavrelous wrote:Mavs will have the best record among lottery teams regardless, so they better try and make the PO.
I'd be extremely worried about prtecting the ball, Thunder will have a field day making Mavs guard look ridiculous, especially Hardy, he'll have some of the funniest clips being stripped by Cason Wallace, OTOH, what the Mavs can do to OKC in the paint no team can dream of doing, it'll be interesting.

They would need Kyrie to break down the defenses and get AD more freedom but OKC has strength, length on all positions and Mavs have no one to make life easier for AD. One of the keys will be Klay's shooting and whoever is primary playmaker to be able to put pressure on OKC's perimeter defenders.

Last year Luka/Kyrie were killing OKC with dribble penetration and opening up shooting spots for PJ and DJJ. This year, OKC can just spread around and cover ground individually since there is no threat.

Yeah, it will be much ugglier series than last year, Mavs will not be able to score a lot, they will need to defend their asses off and pray for shooting luck, they will also struggle to close.

Well.. just ask Nico, it's all about defense. But hey, if they manage to pull it off somehow, we'll look really stupid

arkuo wrote:

Archx wrote:I don't know if i should be excited or expect them to lose and tank. Feels like no one can give a 100% answer to this. SOOOO many fans left even in reddit and twitter and are confused what to think about this team. Funny thing is, they'll slip into playoffs and will get smoked by either HOU or OKC in the 1st round. It's just pointless...

The clear answer is the players are obviously not tanking and AD wants to play. I can wish they would tank but they wouldn't do it anyway.

The silver lining to me is they get enough reps and playing time together so they can figure out a good system in the summer. They're getting real NBA competition to see where they are at (sans Kyrie). So instead of playing 5v5 in a practice facility, they can see where they are at with AD, Lively, Gaff, Klay and the rest.

AD wants to play because this summer he will sign the biggest contract of his life... After that good luck. No a lot of faith in someone called day-to-Davis and Street clothes honestly.