Do Mavs stand a chance against Suns?

[dygaction]

Not here to get involved in this tit for tat conversation you all are having and Luka is great but I am pretty sure the Suns would be fine if Luka scores 45 a game and the outcome is like tonight was.

I just posted on the Suns forum that the annoying thing about this final score is that it will cover up what a whomping that was. The Suns pulled their punches at the end and the Mavs hit some 3s to make that look respectable.

i'm not necessarily happy with that fourth quarter. don't prefer the Mavs thinking they can actually beat us.

After #1 seed won a home game of a 7-game series?

[spanishninja]

I just posted on the Suns forum that the annoying thing about this final score is that it will cover up what a whomping that was. The Suns pulled their punches at the end and the Mavs hit some 3s to make that look respectable.

i'm not necessarily happy with that fourth quarter. don't prefer the Mavs thinking they can actually beat us.

After #1 seed won a home game of a 7-game series?

of course. seeds don't really matter. look at the warriors yesterday. they kind of ripped the heart out of the Grizzlies in the final minute or so, and that's a 2/3 matchup. Memphis played their best possible game and still lost, which must be demoralizing. For us I wish we would have won by 25 to drop your morale. These things are important no matter the series. And if we do end up with the 2-0 lead, you can bet we will do better this time than the finals last year.

[garrick]

Luka had a 40 percent usage rate this game which is not a winning recipe for success so the Mavs organization needs to make some changes next season or expect Luka to fade early in his career due to a super large workload.

Maybe they can swing for a trade for Gobert or Mitchell but not sure if they even have the assets to pull this off?

[dygaction]

i'm not necessarily happy with that fourth quarter. don't prefer the Mavs thinking they can actually beat us.

After #1 seed won a home game of a 7-game series?

of course. seeds don't really matter. look at the warriors yesterday. they kind of ripped the heart out of the Grizzlies in the final minute or so. Memphis played their best possible game and still lost. For us I wish we would have won by 25 to drop your morale. These things are important no matter the series. And if we do end up with the 2-0 lead, you can bet we will do better this time than the finals last year.

I would not read too much into it. Suns won a game they cannot afford to lose after Mavs dig themselves a big hole in the first quarter. Not much difference between a 1pt and 30 pt lose.

[spanishninja]

After #1 seed won a home game of a 7-game series?

of course. seeds don't really matter. look at the warriors yesterday. they kind of ripped the heart out of the Grizzlies in the final minute or so. Memphis played their best possible game and still lost. For us I wish we would have won by 25 to drop your morale. These things are important no matter the series. And if we do end up with the 2-0 lead, you can bet we will do better this time than the finals last year.

I would not read too much into it. Suns won a game they cannot afford to lose after Mavs dig themselves a big hole in the first quarter. Not much difference between a 1pt and 30 pt lose.

of course there's a difference. you can't tell me you didn't feel more positive about things with 30 seconds left in the game compared to 10:00 left in the game.

If you are not convinced, simply refer to round 1 when CP3 needed to score 19 in the fourth quarter just for the Suns to keep the win in game 1. based on that, the Pels probably felt good about their chances and you can see what happened there.

[alevirfe]

really surprised people are picking the Mavs (even before tonight). what else does Phoenix have to do to earn some respect?

the Suns made the Finals just last season with the same roster. their players have improved this season leading to a dominant 64 wins (which was 8 games ahead of any other team, with a league high 7.5 plus minus)

they have two MVP candidates in Paul & Booker, a DPOY/MIP contender in Bridges, a talented former #1 pick in Ayton, and tons of great role players who shoot well and play defense (Crowder, Cam Johnson, Mcgee, and Shamet)

look, I understand maybe giving the edge if they play the Warriors, but any other team the Suns play in the West they are absolute favorites to win the series handily

Suns in 5!

[spanishninja]

really surprised people are picking the Mavs (even before tonight). what else does Phoenix have to do to earn some respect?

the Suns made the Finals just last season with the same roster. their players have improved this season leading to a dominant 64 wins (which was 8 games ahead of any other team, with a league high 7.5 plus minus)

they have two MVP candidates in Paul & Booker, a DPOY/MIP contender in Bridges, a talented former #1 pick in Ayton, and tons of great role players who shoot well and play defense (Crowder, Cam Johnson, Mcgee, and Shamet)

look, I understand maybe giving the edge if they play the Warriors, but any other team the Suns play in the West they are absolute favorites to win the series handily

Suns in 5!

i think the last few minutes of the game justify some of the skepticism about the Suns even now, as you really do need to focused for the full 48 minutes in the playoffs. Of course, Golden State has lapses as well but as the team without championship pedigree, we have to be better

[dygaction]

of course. seeds don't really matter. look at the warriors yesterday. they kind of ripped the heart out of the Grizzlies in the final minute or so. Memphis played their best possible game and still lost. For us I wish we would have won by 25 to drop your morale. These things are important no matter the series. And if we do end up with the 2-0 lead, you can bet we will do better this time than the finals last year.

I would not read too much into it. Suns won a game they cannot afford to lose after Mavs dig themselves a big hole in the first quarter. Not much difference between a 1pt and 30 pt lose.

of course there's a difference. you can't tell me you didn't feel more positive about things with 30 seconds left in the game compared to 10:00 left in the game.

Not much. A blow out lose may just be a game of cold hands. A 1pt lose over 2OT may hurt the moral more. Professional players and coach should be able to adjust with a few days rest, unless the talent gap is just too big to overcome (unfortunately it looks like so). Luka's supporting cast has 1 late first round pick in Bullock and the Mavs highest paid player THJ cannot play. Brunson has to play a lot better to make the series interesting.

[alevirfe]

really surprised people are picking the Mavs (even before tonight). what else does Phoenix have to do to earn some respect?

the Suns made the Finals just last season with the same roster. their players have improved this season leading to a dominant 64 wins (which was 8 games ahead of any other team, with a league high 7.5 plus minus)

they have two MVP candidates in Paul & Booker, a DPOY/MIP contender in Bridges, a talented former #1 pick in Ayton, and tons of great role players who shoot well and play defense (Crowder, Cam Johnson, Mcgee, and Shamet)

look, I understand maybe giving the edge if they play the Warriors, but any other team the Suns play in the West they are absolute favorites to win the series handily

Suns in 5!

i think the last few minutes of the game justify some of the skepticism about the Suns even now, as you really do need to focused for the full 48 minutes in the playoffs. Of course, Golden State has lapses as well but as the team without championship pedigree, we have to be better

what? the Suns led wire to wire. they were up 21 in the third quarter. they took their foot of the gas and started playing up & down against a team that got hot from 3. the game was ALWAYS in hand for the Suns as they have literally the best closer/game manager in the league (and possibly ever)

I guarantee Dallas won't win more than one game in this series

[alevirfe]

the people voting yes are the same ones who thought New Orleans had a chance when Book was out last series. this is a seasoned 64 win team guys. it's just not going to happen...

by the way, what does Vegas think? the Suns before game 1 were -500 favorites to win the series (with the Mavs at +360). steep odds for a reason

[lilfishi22]

the people voting yes are the same ones who thought New Orleans had a chance when Book was out last series. this is a seasoned 64 win team guys. it's just not going to happen...

by the way, what does Vegas think? the Suns before game 1 were -500 favorites to win the series (with the Mavs at +360). steep odds for a reason

Suns fans are lying to you if they told you they didn't at least sweat a little during the Pels series

Also before the Pels/Suns series, I think the Suns were -650 favourites. Sure didn't feel like it after G1

[Duke4life831]

I think it goes 5, might go 6. I just think the Mavs really match up poorly with this Suns team.

CP3:
Mavs really have no answer for him. They dont have anyone they can throw on him. Brunson and Dinwiddie arent good defenders.

Ayton: The Mavs have zero size for Ayton. Powell is completely useless in this series. He gets destroyed on the defensive end, cant compete on the boards and offensively he brings zero spacing.

When you have those two massive holes, it makes guarding Booker a lot more difficult. You now got CP3 breaking down the defense and the defense over compensating for that, then they have to over help when Ayton gets the ball. Which means when Booker gets the ball he is attacking an already broken defense. Then really outside of DFS, they have no perimeter size who are good defenders. So you got smaller guards who are helping then having to rotate back to wide open shooters.

I think the Pels were a much tougher match up for this Suns team than the Mavs. They had a guy like Alavardo to annoying CP3. They had a freak wing defender in Herb. BI has crazy length and outside of 1 game, he played with intensity on the defensive end. You also had a guy with great size in Murphy as well out on the perimeter. Then you had an actual big who was a bruiser who could out bang Ayton down low and dominate the offensive boards.

I honestly think the Mavs best chance for this series is give up trying to match up with Ayton and just go small all game long. The only big that plays is Maxi because he is a sharpshooter so far in these playoffs. So all game long you play 5 out and just let Luka attack an empty paint and let him do his magic. They're going to get killed on the boards and Ayton will eat them alive. But I think it will be their best bet.

[dygaction]

the people voting yes are the same ones who thought New Orleans had a chance when Book was out last series. this is a seasoned 64 win team guys. it's just not going to happen...

by the way, what does Vegas think? the Suns before game 1 were -500 favorites to win the series (with the Mavs at +360). steep odds for a reason

Then look at how many times cp3 was able to find one way or the other to lose the upper hand before. Granted some with Doc or Harden.

[alevirfe]

the people voting yes are the same ones who thought New Orleans had a chance when Book was out last series. this is a seasoned 64 win team guys. it's just not going to happen...

by the way, what does Vegas think? the Suns before game 1 were -500 favorites to win the series (with the Mavs at +360). steep odds for a reason

Suns fans are lying to you if they told you they didn't at least sweat a little during the Pels series

Also before the Pels/Suns series, I think the Suns were -650 favourites. Sure didn't feel like it after G1

it didn't feel like it, but what ended up happening in that series? the Suns never trailed in the series and won two games in a row when they really mattered

sure, maybe Suns fans were sweating it, but I GUARANTEE you Chris Paul and the Suns were not

[lilfishi22]

the people voting yes are the same ones who thought New Orleans had a chance when Book was out last series. this is a seasoned 64 win team guys. it's just not going to happen...

by the way, what does Vegas think? the Suns before game 1 were -500 favorites to win the series (with the Mavs at +360). steep odds for a reason

Suns fans are lying to you if they told you they didn't at least sweat a little during the Pels series

Also before the Pels/Suns series, I think the Suns were -650 favourites. Sure didn't feel like it after G1

it didn't feel like it, but what ended up happening in that series? the Suns never trailed in the series and won two games in a row when they really mattered

sure, maybe Suns fans were sweating it, but I GUARANTEE you Chris Paul and the Suns were not

That series was FAR from a guarantee. Nobody would tell you otherwise, CP3 nor Monty included

[ThumbsUpBaby]

I understand why some people think Mavs can win the series. They have Luka, Brunson, and a lot of good role players. Maybe they will win the series. Who knows? But at the end of the day, the Mavs don't have an answer for Ayton. I don't see how the Mavs can win this.

[alevirfe]

Suns fans are lying to you if they told you they didn't at least sweat a little during the Pels series

Also before the Pels/Suns series, I think the Suns were -650 favourites. Sure didn't feel like it after G1

it didn't feel like it, but what ended up happening in that series? the Suns never trailed in the series and won two games in a row when they really mattered

sure, maybe Suns fans were sweating it, but I GUARANTEE you Chris Paul and the Suns were not

That series was FAR from a guarantee. Nobody would tell you otherwise, CP3 nor Monty included

it was #1 vs. #8. what are the circumstances under which the Pelicans win the series? Booker stays injured?

watching that series it was clear to me when the games really mattered the Suns weren't going to lose

it happens almost every playoffs where a young, low seeded team overperforms and "arrives", winning one or two early games in a series, but it's never REALLY in question. this to me was an example of that

anyways it's a moot point since it's over but that's just my opinion. if the Suns were really in trouble against NO they should be worried about their chances the rest of the way

[dygaction]

I think it goes 5, might go 6. I just think the Mavs really match up poorly with this Suns team.

CP3:
Mavs really have no answer for him. They dont have anyone they can throw on him. Brunson and Dinwiddie arent good defenders.

Ayton: The Mavs have zero size for Ayton. Powell is completely useless in this series. He gets destroyed on the defensive end, cant compete on the boards and offensively he brings zero spacing.

When you have those two massive holes, it makes guarding Booker a lot more difficult. You now got CP3 breaking down the defense and the defense over compensating for that, then they have to over help when Ayton gets the ball. Which means when Booker gets the ball he is attacking an already broken defense. Then really outside of DFS, they have no perimeter size who are good defenders. So you got smaller guards who are helping then having to rotate back to wide open shooters.

I think the Pels were a much tougher match up for this Suns team than the Mavs. They had a guy like Alavardo to annoying CP3. They had a freak wing defender in Herb. BI has crazy length and outside of 1 game, he played with intensity on the defensive end. You also had a guy with great size in Murphy as well out on the perimeter. Then you had an actual big who was a bruiser who could out bang Ayton down low and dominate the offensive boards.

I honestly think the Mavs best chance for this series is give up trying to match up with Ayton and just go small all game long. The only big that plays is Maxi because he is a sharpshooter so far in these playoffs. So all game long you play 5 out and just let Luka attack an empty paint and let him do his magic. They're going to get killed on the boards and Ayton will eat them alive. But I think it will be their best bet.

At some point, I would like to see Kidd to give Ntilikina a chance on CP3 instead of Josh Green.
Powell is the most experienced playoff player (4 years for Mavs) but career average is 4.2p/3.7r/0.5a. Not really playable in most matchups.

[Slim Charless]

I think it goes 5, might go 6. I just think the Mavs really match up poorly with this Suns team.

CP3:
Mavs really have no answer for him. They dont have anyone they can throw on him. Brunson and Dinwiddie arent good defenders.

Ayton: The Mavs have zero size for Ayton. Powell is completely useless in this series. He gets destroyed on the defensive end, cant compete on the boards and offensively he brings zero spacing.

When you have those two massive holes, it makes guarding Booker a lot more difficult. You now got CP3 breaking down the defense and the defense over compensating for that, then they have to over help when Ayton gets the ball. Which means when Booker gets the ball he is attacking an already broken defense. Then really outside of DFS, they have no perimeter size who are good defenders. So you got smaller guards who are helping then having to rotate back to wide open shooters.

I think the Pels were a much tougher match up for this Suns team than the Mavs. They had a guy like Alavardo to annoying CP3. They had a freak wing defender in Herb. BI has crazy length and outside of 1 game, he played with intensity on the defensive end. You also had a guy with great size in Murphy as well out on the perimeter. Then you had an actual big who was a bruiser who could out bang Ayton down low and dominate the offensive boards.

I honestly think the Mavs best chance for this series is give up trying to match up with Ayton and just go small all game long. The only big that plays is Maxi because he is a sharpshooter so far in these playoffs. So all game long you play 5 out and just let Luka attack an empty paint and let him do his magic. They're going to get killed on the boards and Ayton will eat them alive. But I think it will be their best bet.

The Mavs have nothing for Ayton. Nothing.

Mavs fans can chime in here if they think I'm wrong. But Ayton could average 40 a game if the Suns felt like doing it.

[darmani]

Why is this a separate thread?