ROUND 1, GAME 1: Mavericks @ Clippers Saturday 1:30PM PDT

[MartinToVaught]

For the record: Morris and PG taunting Kleber after that Kawhi dunk sums this team up better than anything else. A team that's won nothing ever, that nobody is afraid of because they're so mentally weak, but they're still flexing like the defending champions anyway. They've been talking a good game to the media all season, but they've learned nothing from last year after all. Just a super unlikeable team.

[Max Headrom]

I know focusing on the negative is the hot thing round these parts but I'm gonna talk about the positives from this game.

1. Only 5 turnovers as that was a serious Achilles heel leading up to the playoffs

2. As bad as the Clippers shot and as great as the Mavs shot, still could've and should've won this game. That definitely wasn't an offensive foul on PG and he should've been at the free throw line.

3. Dallas other players beat the Clippers. They shut Luka down in the second half and when a guy like DFS hits 4 out of 5 for 3, you kinda have to live with that because you want him shooting the 3.

4. Lue will definitely make adjustments. We saw him make some in the second half. Just needed ANYTHING from Morris and Reggie. Kawhi and PG actually did enough if the role players that usually play well didn't all crap the bed today.

Still confident in the team and still believe they'll win in 5 or 6

[og15]

Lol @ PG being untradeable, did we start watching the NBA yesterday? There are few untradeable players in the league, and tradeability depends on what one wants back.

Kawhi did not have a monster game, if this is a monster game from Kawhi, this is going to be a BAD series. He's a 25 ppg scorer in 34 mpg who just scored 26 pts in 41 minutes on 22 FGA (9/22 FG) and 9 FTA (7/9 FT), but also had 10 rebs and 5 assists. He had a solid game. Monster game isn't a game where his scoring rate and efficiency are below his averages and he's off most of the 2nd half including 3/8 3rd quarter and 1/4 in the 4th and missing a clutch FT, you're not going to see Kawhi celebrating that as a monster game when he was 4/12 FG and 1/3 FT in the 2nd half.

Georgealso had a solid game despite the poor start. Not monster, nothing close to bad or horrible. He had 23/6/5, bad shooting first half, but got to the line and contributed in other areas to keep it from being worse. 2nd half he did well, carried the team through the 4th with 10 points, had a solid 3rd even with 6 pts, and solid overrall play.

The open shooting of Reggie and Morris would actually be the biggest offensive problems for the game. That was 10+ shots hit at a poor rate. Okay, checked, it was 9 three's, majority open
The team shot 35% 3PT minus their combined 0/9 3PT.

Team couldn't contain Dallas at all though. Like someone mention Finney Smith shooting 4/5 3PT will always hurt. A whole team shooting 50/47 when you shoot 44/28 will mean that you have to make up a lot in other areas (rebounding, turnover differential, etc) to win.

On one hand, the shooting outcome should not happen again in game 2. On the other hand, the Clippers past is going to keep Clippers fans on the edge of their seats until game 2 is officially a win.

[esqtvd]

Out of town, another miserable game thread I'm glad I missed. I said most of this stuff last off-season and figure now it can wait for next off-season. Plenty of time to spit on their grave but I'm gonna at least until at least they're in it.


Coach got them to winning time at 100-100. My least favorite Clipper entered the game down one at 96-95 and did NOTHING the rest of the way. Team-worst minus-23, 4 lousy points in THIRTY-THREE minutes. My blame game starts and ends there. It was 4 on 5.

Forget Luka and all the rest. WHERE ARE WE GONNA GET POINTS?? We scored a pathetic 103 points and KL and PG scored 49 of them. These guys score 112 points per game and they got 113 today. I said we need 15 ppg from our 3rd leading scorer and we got 4. We lost by 10.

[TheNewEra]

Reggie passed up on a couple of open 3's and ended up taking mostly bad shots. If he's not going to contribute with his biggest strengths, either hitting 3's, or driving in for layups, he needs to sit down and they need to put in Kennard or Mann. Shake this damn roster up. Don't wait until the last game to throw a hail mary. Luka is just too damn good to just do the same thing for game 2 and hope for a different result. The way he was nonchalantly hitting those step back 3s on Zubac made me wonder if someone put some invisible string on the ball and was pulling it through the hoop.

And I don't know if the Mavs usually shoot like this, but hopefully the team does a better job of contesting or they just miss more next game.

Kennard is equally as bad if not worse somehow defensively. Mann could not have played any better this season and yet still gets 0 minutes. Even TMAnn could give Luka a challenge.

Luka did the EXACT same thing last season to the Clippers w the deep 3's, shouldn't be a surprise.

The Mavs didn't even play that good - like us they were consistently on and off from 3, the only bright spot was Brunson throughout (and Luka of course). Porzingis played horrible. With Carlisle at the helm this series and "dynasty" is DONE with a game 2 loss.

I don't know if I would agree with the Mavs not playing that good... They shot 50% overall, 47% from 3, and were slightly behind the Clips in all other categories. I agree that Porzingis played badly, but if he didn't bring their averages down slightly, they would've played almost flawlessly...

Kennard would help with the offense, Mann would help with defense. In this game, the 3's were not falling for us. Mavs shot 47% from deep, we shot 28%. Morris played 32 minutes, had only 8 fga's, and was 0-6 from 3. Again, this goes back to FG distribution. Where are the multiple passes leading to open 3's?

Someone better be kicking someone's asses in the locker room. If the Clips don't win convincingly in game 2, the team is ****ed.

Ty needs to get way more creative with rotations next game. Reggie was the first guy in

[UnFadeable21]

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[RingColluder]

Lol @ PG being untradeable, did we start watching the NBA yesterday? There are few untradeable players in the league, and tradeability depends on what one wants back.

Kawhi did not have a monster game, if this is a monster game from Kawhi, this is going to be a BAD series. He's a 25 ppg scorer in 34 mpg who just scored 26 pts in 41 minutes on 22 FGA (9/22 FG) and 9 FTA (7/9 FT), but also had 10 rebs and 5 assists. He had a solid game. Monster game isn't a game where his scoring rate and efficiency are below his averages and he's off most of the 2nd half including 3/8 3rd quarter and 1/4 in the 4th and missing a clutch FT, you're not going to see Kawhi celebrating that as a monster game when he was 4/12 FG and 1/3 FT in the 2nd half.

Georgealso had a solid game despite the poor start. Not monster, nothing close to bad or horrible. He had 23/6/5, bad shooting first half, but got to the line and contributed in other areas to keep it from being worse. 2nd half he did well, carried the team through the 4th with 10 points, had a solid 3rd even with 6 pts, and solid overrall play.

The open shooting of Reggie and Morris would actually be the biggest offensive problems for the game. That was 10+ shots hit at a poor rate. Okay, checked, it was 9 three's, majority open
The team shot 35% 3PT minus their combined 0/9 3PT.

Team couldn't contain Dallas at all though. Like someone mention Finney Smith shooting 4/5 3PT will always hurt. A whole team shooting 50/47 when you shoot 44/28 will mean that you have to make up a lot in other areas (rebounding, turnover differential, etc) to win.

On one hand, the shooting outcome should not happen again in game 2. On the other hand, the Clippers past is going to keep Clippers fans on the edge of their seats until game 2 is officially a win.

LOL @ calling Paul George's game solid. The game was nearly over because of his 1st quarter without Kawhi stepping up.

If we miraculously are able to trade PG it'd be a deal on par if not worse than the Blake trade. Nothing for anything of legitimate value. Didn't know the literal word of "untradable" was being LOLed without having to spell it out.

[RingColluder]

Yeah, but that's just not good enough for the $190 million he's making. Look at how Middleton played earlier today - that's what we should be getting from PG. Instead we're getting a glorified role player who can't shoot, but "at least he contributes."

Like it or not, he has to be traded this offseason while he still has name-brand value.

Could not agree more (again, surprising heh). Glorified role player is being generous. And good luck getting absolutely ANYTHING in return for Paul George this offseason given his bloated contract if we plays like how he did today. Not even the Knicks would take him.

PG has fooled a lot of sucker front offices in his career, including ours. I don't think he's untradeable.

He's fooled a lot more people than just that..

[RingColluder]

Reggie passed up on a couple of open 3's and ended up taking mostly bad shots. If he's not going to contribute with his biggest strengths, either hitting 3's, or driving in for layups, he needs to sit down and they need to put in Kennard or Mann. Shake this damn roster up. Don't wait until the last game to throw a hail mary. Luka is just too damn good to just do the same thing for game 2 and hope for a different result. The way he was nonchalantly hitting those step back 3s on Zubac made me wonder if someone put some invisible string on the ball and was pulling it through the hoop.

And I don't know if the Mavs usually shoot like this, but hopefully the team does a better job of contesting or they just miss more next game.

Kennard is equally as bad if not worse somehow defensively. Mann could not have played any better this season and yet still gets 0 minutes. Even TMAnn could give Luka a challenge.

Luka did the EXACT same thing last season to the Clippers w the deep 3's, shouldn't be a surprise.

The Mavs didn't even play that good - like us they were consistently on and off from 3, the only bright spot was Brunson throughout (and Luka of course). Porzingis played horrible. With Carlisle at the helm this series and "dynasty" is DONE with a game 2 loss.

I don't know if I would agree with the Mavs not playing that good... They shot 50% overall, 47% from 3, and were slightly behind the Clips in all other categories. I agree that Porzingis played badly, but if he didn't bring their averages down slightly, they would've played almost flawlessly...

Kennard would help with the offense, Mann would help with defense. In this game, the 3's were not falling for us. Mavs shot 47% from deep, we shot 28%. Morris played 32 minutes, had only 8 fga's, and was 0-6 from 3. Again, this goes back to FG distribution. Where are the multiple passes leading to open 3's?

Someone better be kicking someone's asses in the locker room. If the Clips don't win convincingly in game 2, the team is ****ed.

I think our balances of the bench (Rondo, Batum, Bev) to the Mavs was similar in that we both had players who did well and those who didn't. I also expect at home games they will play even better obviously..

No Kennard please. Same issue as defense for our guards. TMann can do both.

[TheNewEra]

Think Lue should of went back to Zu when we had the lead and Ibaka was coming out. Doesn’t matter now but small ball is a major gamble and if guys don’t hit shots it’s only going to open up the paint even more like it did

[TrueLAfan]

The game sucked. We had a plan—not a bad one—and we didn’t execute it well. The plan is to play Luka straight up, single coverage and let him get his—and make the other guys on the team beat us. Like I said, not a bad idea … if we’re playing good D on those other players. And we just, absolutely, totally, did not.

Surprised/not surprised by the vitriol at Paul George. Perhaps people missed the second half. The only reason we pulled into the lead and were competitive in the second half was Paul George. Lousy first half. Really good second half (16-5-4). All in all, a good to very good game. I wish he’d been better from behind the arc, but he was rusty—and, come on. 23 points on 18 shots, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, highest +/- of any starter, played great in the second half … PG was not the problem.

Marcus was not the problem either, but he was a hell of a lot closer. Four points and two rebounds in 32 minutes. -23 for the game. Come on. He was the weakest link.

PatBev scored and shot well—but we don’t have him for his scoring and shooting. We have him for D, and he failed miserably there. That’s bad.

We did look pretty healthy—but flip side of that is we looked rusty as hell for the first 20 minutes of the game. PG and Kawhi couldn’t hit anything. I was amazed we were as close as we were. But the fact is that nobody stepped up. Kawhi had a good to very good game too—but shot his looked worse than PGs and for longer, and he was a non-factor in the fourth. Kawhi kept us in it in the first half, but we came back and took the lead midway through the fourth riding on PGs back.

Our problem really isn’t our offense. We played a pretty meh game offensively and were competitive. The big problems are/were on D; we can’t allow the Mavs to shoot 50/47 and definitely can’t allow the players not named Luke Doncic to score 82 points on 52 shots. That’s beyond unacceptable, and if it continues, we’ve got no chance. I’m curious to see what Lue comes up with, whether it’s TMann playing more and playing on Doncic or Hardaway (why not?), or PatBev and Rondo stepping up and doing something so that Hardaway, Jalen Brunson, and Josh Richardson don’t get 44 points on 60% shooting. But we’ve got to contain the backcourt scoring and shooting by players other than Doncic. That’s what we didn’t do—it’s what we didn’t do last season too—and it will kill us if it keeps up.

[TheNewEra]

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That’s going to be a issue for Beverly and Reggie. Maybe Rondo can get into him more

[playaloc916]

Kennard is equally as bad if not worse somehow defensively. Mann could not have played any better this season and yet still gets 0 minutes. Even TMAnn could give Luka a challenge.

Luka did the EXACT same thing last season to the Clippers w the deep 3's, shouldn't be a surprise.

The Mavs didn't even play that good - like us they were consistently on and off from 3, the only bright spot was Brunson throughout (and Luka of course). Porzingis played horrible. With Carlisle at the helm this series and "dynasty" is DONE with a game 2 loss.

I don't know if I would agree with the Mavs not playing that good... They shot 50% overall, 47% from 3, and were slightly behind the Clips in all other categories. I agree that Porzingis played badly, but if he didn't bring their averages down slightly, they would've played almost flawlessly...

Kennard would help with the offense, Mann would help with defense. In this game, the 3's were not falling for us. Mavs shot 47% from deep, we shot 28%. Morris played 32 minutes, had only 8 fga's, and was 0-6 from 3. Again, this goes back to FG distribution. Where are the multiple passes leading to open 3's?

Someone better be kicking someone's asses in the locker room. If the Clips don't win convincingly in game 2, the team is ****ed.

I think our balances of the bench (Rondo, Batum, Bev) to the Mavs was similar in that we both had players who did well and those who didn't. I also expect at home games they will play even better obviously..

No Kennard please. Same issue as defense for our guards. TMann can do both.

I actually have a feeling we'll see Mann in game 2. Lue knows he's probably under Ballmer's eyes right now, so he'll probably be more open to switching things up, and as you said, with Kennard you sacrifice defense for offense, but with Mann, you're not necessarily sacrificing anything, but just getting less of an offensive threat. Let's see what happens...

[playaloc916]

Think Lue should of went back to Zu when we had the lead and Ibaka was coming out. Doesn’t matter now but small ball is a major gamble and if guys don’t hit shots it’s only going to open up the paint even more like it did

Yes, and if Luka gets a switch so Zu is on him, immediately double so he can't do his goddamn step back 3. Then Zu can help in the post.

[playaloc916]

Now that things have settled down a bit, I think with a bit of tinkering to the guard rotations, a better strategy to deal with Luka, and 3pt shooting normalizing for both teams, I think things should play out better in game 2.

The encouraging thing with PG is that he ended the game well, so hopefully he can carry that positivity over into the next game.

[NickP]

Out of town, another miserable game thread I'm glad I missed. I said most of this stuff last off-season and figure now it can wait for next off-season. Plenty of time to spit on their grave but I'm gonna at least until at least they're in it.


Coach got them to winning time at 100-100. My least favorite Clipper entered the game down one at 96-95 and did NOTHING the rest of the way. Team-worst minus-23, 4 lousy points in THIRTY-THREE minutes. My blame game starts and ends there. It was 4 on 5.

Forget Luka and all the rest. WHERE ARE WE GONNA GET POINTS?? We scored a pathetic 103 points and KL and PG scored 49 of them. These guys score 112 points per game and they got 113 today. I said we need 15 ppg from our 3rd leading scorer and we got 4. We lost by 10.

Well said bro. But this will not stop the vultures circling. On to the next game. We need to start Rondo and Ibaka. We need Rondo's ball handling ability and his passing to benefit the starters from the get go. Ibaka adds another threat and helps spread the defense.
There are more games to be played. Obituaries can wait!

[Quake Griffin]

Nah, aint nothing encouraging.

This team is mentally weak. Teams know it and nobody is afraid to play them. In fact, teams lick their chops at the opportunity to play the "underdog" to the Clippers. The Mavs are playing with no pressure, no hesitation. It is bombs away. Confidence. It's really an annoying spot to be in.

I truly WOULD NOT GIVE A **** about that at all if I knew this team was mentally tough and emotionally intelligent enough to meet the moment. They're not. They're a nervous wreck....an emotional basket case. Aren't we a good shooting team? We just so happened to randomly have an off night in the playoffs eh? We just so happened to perform lower than we usually do at FTs right?

In 14 Playoff games in the Kawhi era, I see no toughness. I see no poise. I see no emotional intelligence. I see no grit. All I see is timidness and hoping not to lose/ choke.

This IS NOT fun and hasn't been fun at all since Covid/ the Bubble/ last playoffs. So, I'm not encouraged by nothing. Defend Luka. Hit your shots when you're open. Control Game 2 from start to finish. Control the series and then we can talk.

[nickhx2]

i'm fine with a "let luka do whatever, everyone else score" strategy. but not if you fail at the actual part that matters.

just don't let DFS/THJ go off again. we'll be fine.

[TrueLAfan]

Out of town, another miserable game thread I'm glad I missed. I said most of this stuff last off-season and figure now it can wait for next off-season. Plenty of time to spit on their grave but I'm gonna at least until at least they're in it.


Coach got them to winning time at 100-100. My least favorite Clipper entered the game down one at 96-95 and did NOTHING the rest of the way. Team-worst minus-23, 4 lousy points in THIRTY-THREE minutes. My blame game starts and ends there. It was 4 on 5.

Forget Luka and all the rest. WHERE ARE WE GONNA GET POINTS?? We scored a pathetic 103 points and KL and PG scored 49 of them. These guys score 112 points per game and they got 113 today. I said we need 15 ppg from our 3rd leading scorer and we got 4. We lost by 10.

Well, you obviously didn't miss a fu#@#! thing.

I kind of agree about the scoring, but I think a big part of that was rustiness from too much time off. This is the flip side of taking extra games to get healthy. We were 11 for 40 from deep. Hit three more of those and its anyone's ball game.

The bigger problem is that the Mavs got 113 points on 76 shots. Luka had 31-10-11 in 41 minutes but, hell, that's what he averages in those court minutes. No, the problem was allowing the rest of the Mavs to shoot and score. Yeah, we should have been able to score more than 103--but we really should be able to win with that output too. Gotta step up the backcourt D.

[RingColluder]

Nah, aint nothing encouraging.

This team is mentally weak. Teams know it and nobody is afraid to play them. In fact, teams lick their chops at the opportunity to play the "underdog" to the Clippers. The Mavs are playing with no pressure, no hesitation. It is bombs away. Confidence. It's really an annoying spot to be in.

I truly WOULD NOT GIVE A **** about that at all if I knew this team was mentally tough and emotionally intelligent enough to meet the moment. They're not. They're a nervous wreck....an emotional basket case. Aren't we a good shooting team? We just so happened to randomly have an off night in the playoffs eh? We just so happened to perform lower than we usually do at FTs right?

In 14 Playoff games in the Kawhi era, I see no toughness. I see no poise. I see no emotional intelligence. I see no grit. All I see is timidness and hoping not to lose/ choke.

This IS NOT fun and hasn't been fun at all since Covid/ the Bubble/ last playoffs. So, I'm not encouraged by nothing. Defend Luka. Hit your shots when you're open. Control Game 2 from start to finish. Control the series and then we can talk.

Exactly. This is a board about stats and reality not fantasies of grandeur. The Mavs from second ONE could not have seemed any more confident to play us. We look absolutely befuddled.

You can tell off a lot of players histories and background just how mentally weak and arrogant they are. Only THREE players (and one coach) have done anything of importance in the league from a team perspective in their careers. It's no surprise given literally these players past histories IN THE PLAYOFFS who will perform and who continues to get exposed when it matters most.

Kawhi was able to join an already "tough mentally strong" team w the Raptors and brought them to another level. The "leadership" on this team is an absolute joke. I've never seen such a lack of camaraderie and failure to communicate (other than certain specific players screaming after they lost their man on a play) .. since last year's team.


Everyone can read TheAthletic's Clippers long form story to get a sense of why things continue to fall apart. It relates just as much to this year as last looking at how we play TOGETHER compared to the Mavericks, a team with far less talent.