Playoffs 2024 - WCF - G1 - Mavs @ Wolves (Wed., 8:30PMEST)

[Darren]

I think the Mavs needs to study the blind spot of Minny's defenders. Off ball moments can generate space and easy buckets.

[ChipotleWest]

SGA had inferior stats than Luka and Jokic but had tons of support from the media overall. In hot-take type of shows, there might have been a few debates where one side was bashing SGA, but from what I see, the overall narrative was always pro SGA.

What inferior stats? Basic box numbers?

OKC finished 7 wins ahead of Mavs and SGA averaged 30/7/6 on 49/43/79 splits. His advance stats were for the most part also better than Doncic's.

Luka has a problem of sometimes coasting through the season playing horrible defense and that also reflects in his advance numbers. A very huge part of the debate was exactly that. If Luka was more serious about the award and didn't get injured or tired every year, he would have played same defense as he's played in the playoffs.

We all know or at least should know if we had PJ and Gaff the entire season we would have been the #1 seed. The numbers justify that if you take our win/loss record since the trade deadline and average them over the season we're the #1 seed with 60 wins, also Kyrie missed 24 games Lively missed time etc.. Let the media fawn over SGA and OKC being the #1 seed but Mavs fans should know better. Has nothing to do with Luka coasting this was a bad team before the trade deadline. We were headed for play in or even worse miss the playoffs. We had to fight and crawl our way up from I can't remember 8th or 9th seed to 5th because we just kept winning. Just think if we never were in that hole to begin with.

[Darren]

A full shutdown lineup is needed when Minny desperately needs a bucket. Is it okay playing Lively and Gafford together?

[ChipotleWest]

I believe he has the same injury as Porzingis.

Read on Twitter

[Archx]

SGA had inferior stats than Luka and Jokic but had tons of support from the media overall. In hot-take type of shows, there might have been a few debates where one side was bashing SGA, but from what I see, the overall narrative was always pro SGA.

What inferior stats? Basic box numbers?

OKC finished 7 wins ahead of Mavs and SGA averaged 30/7/6 on 49/43/79 splits. His advance stats were for the most part also better than Doncic's.

Luka has a problem of sometimes coasting through the season playing horrible defense and that also reflects in his advance numbers. A very huge part of the debate was exactly that. If Luka was more serious about the award and didn't get injured or tired every year, he would have played same defense as he's played in the playoffs.

We all know or at least should know if we had PJ and Gaff the entire season we would have been the #1 seed. The numbers justify that if you take our win/loss record since the trade deadline and average them over the season we're the #1 seed with 60 wins, also Kyrie missed 24 games Lively missed time etc.. Let the media fawn over SGA and OKC being the #1 seed but Mavs fans should know better. Has nothing to do with Luka coasting this was a bad team before the trade deadline. We were headed for play in or even worse miss the playoffs. We had to fight and crawl our way up from I can't remember 8th or 9th seed to 5th because we just kept winning. Just think if we never were in that hole to begin with.

Yeah hypotheticals are cool but in reality Luka didn't play defense with this intensity. Though i do admit he played much better defense over the year than in previous seasons. All i'm saying is, i do understand why they had SGA at nr2 in MVP voting.

[ChipotleWest]

Some of these Wolves fans are straight arrogant. You'd think they root for the 90's Bulls going for their 6th championship.

True. But I am more worried about a zombie apocalypse than the Mavs getting to the NBA finals.

I mean I've never sat there and said Mavs are definitely winning the series. I think it could go either way honestly. But these guys think they got it in the bag.

[winforlose]

Some of these Wolves fans are straight arrogant. You'd think they root for the 90's Bulls going for their 6th championship.

True. But I am more worried about a zombie apocalypse than the Mavs getting to the NBA finals.

I mean I've never sat there and said Mavs are definitely winning the series. I think it could go either way honestly. But these guys think they got it in the bag.

If you’re gonna quote me on that at least quote what I was quoting for the sarcasm to show through. It was not meant literally.

For context, the mod on our board was saying we are overconfident and would need to eat crow. That is why I made the joke about the Zombie apocalypse.

[ChipotleWest]

Some of these Wolves fans are straight arrogant. You'd think they root for the 90's Bulls going for their 6th championship.

True. But I am more worried about a zombie apocalypse than the Mavs getting to the NBA finals.

I mean I've never sat there and said Mavs are definitely winning the series. I think it could go either way honestly. But these guys think they got it in the bag.

If you’re gonna quote me on that at least quote what I was quoting for the sarcasm to show through. It was not meant literally.

Dude you've clearly thought your team has won the series for 2 days now, I can show many posts to back that up on the general board. Not sure why you're backpeddling now just say "F yeah got this"

[winforlose]

Some of these Wolves fans are straight arrogant. You'd think they root for the 90's Bulls going for their 6th championship.



I mean I've never sat there and said Mavs are definitely winning the series. I think it could go either way honestly. But these guys think they got it in the bag.

If you’re gonna quote me on that at least quote what I was quoting for the sarcasm to show through. It was not meant literally.

Dude you've clearly thought your team has won the series for 2 days now, I can show many posts to back that up on the general board. Not sure why you're backpeddling now just say "F yeah got this"

I do think we win in 5. But that post was funny because it was sarcastic. You just ruined my joke.

[winforlose]

Mike Conley gave an interview today in which he said he is playing. He said his leg is still sore on some days, but he has more good days than bad, and he is getting better every day.

[41Dirk41]

[Teffer10]

AE is such a freakin beast.
I love his game but hopefully we can find a way to somewhat contain him.

This will be a fun series and I think we'll surprise some people.

[Michaellam1987]

MIN is the best defensive team in the league, if we want to win, we have to stay very descipline offensively, no careless pass, no careless turnover, no random tough shot.

[Dirk]

Wolves fans are super confident.

Just based off a small group... so could be wrong, but I get vibes as if they had a championship team, that won 70 games. Not only that... but Anthony Edwards is now 6 foot 7 and a better playmaker than Luka.

I am just praying the refs are fair. And that if the Wolves are allowed to grab and be physical... then the Mavs can as well and won't get in foul trouble like against OKC.

Last night the refs literally stole a game from the Pacers and allowed the Celtics/Tatum to redeem themselves. I would be seething if that was the Mavs.

The Wolves may be a bit better than the Mavs. But dear me... reading some of the stuff online is cringe material... and we just have to hope the Mavs compete well and actually prove how delusional these Wolves fanatics are.

[MassimoPayne]

The wolves might be a little bit better on paper but there is no second squad out there that is so locked in and focused as the Mavs.

[Archx]

Last night the refs literally stole a game from the Pacers and allowed the Celtics/Tatum to redeem themselves. I would be seething if that was the Mavs.

The only thing players probably fear more than an injury is Tony Brothers or Scott Foster reffing the game.

[Dirk]

Last night the refs literally stole a game from the Pacers and allowed the Celtics/Tatum to redeem themselves. I would be seething if that was the Mavs.

The only thing players probably fear more than an injury is Tony Brothers or Scott Foster reffing the game.

I can a private chat with a level headed Wolves fan.

(I referenced Edwards driving to the basket and always yelling, which annoyed me)

I think many of the advantages the Mavs were able to leverage against the Thunder will work against the Wolves. Their ability to funnel into rim protection and protect the paint against drives is so good, and having multiple rim protectors gives them the ability to make things truly brutal in the paint. I think it wouldn't have worked against Jokic and the Nuggets as much, but it will work against the Wolves. We're similar to the Thunder in that we shoot threes well but they aren't the main driver of our offense, so we'll see if we can be less reluctant than the Thunder to shoot them.

Where I think the Mavs lose an advantage is that they will now be the smaller team. They were too big for the Thunder on the boards, and in terms of rim protection and just winning the paint. Lively got to play like a big strong man against Chet but now he'll probably be the physically weakest big in the series. It will be interesting to see how he looks against Gobert, who isn't crazy strong either but just has a lot of more years of physical development.

Luka and Kyrie... you do have to feel for them in terms of Luka injury and just going up against a gauntlet of perimeter defenders. Just wrapped Dort/Jalen/Cason/Shai and now they get McDaniels/Ant/Naw. The Wolves make it a lot of work to hunt Conley, and he rarely ends up feeling like a rewarding target even when you do get it.

I was kidding about the Ant calls...we're talking about someone with half the free throw rate of Shai. Ant can yell all day but he has zero tricks to draw fouls. Then I think (like Luka) his strength works against him because opponents will play him super physical and it doesn't result in as many calls as you'd hope. Many times against Denver, Ant would get hacked and refs would say play on. Ant did not draw a lot of fouls against the Mavs in most of the regular season games, except for his 44-point explosion back in late December were he went to the line 18 times.

In terms of free throw, we don't have 1 big free throw guy. Ant, KAT, and Gobert all typically get to the line a medium amount. Towns will send your team to the line more than your team will send him to the line

The Wolves do not have anyone close to SGA. So hopefully it won't be as likely to get defenders in foul trouble.

[ChipotleWest]

On the general board I brought up that Wolves only got out of the first round 1 year before this year and maybe they're just not used to it so they don't know how to act. A Wolves fan rebuttal was bringing up the Minnesota Lakers. Not even the same franchise.

[Archx]

I'll never understand why fans do this. Why the hell do people worry so much what opposing fans say? Just wait it out and see what happens then you'll have all the ammo to fire back. If you go all in now with your arguments and it backfires you'll only look foolish.

Just keep calm and wait until the series is over. And we all know, per tradition, game 1 means a huge loss for Mavs anyway

[ChipotleWest]

I'll never understand why fans do this. Why the hell do people worry so much what opposing fans say? Just wait it out and see what happens then you'll have all the ammo to fire back. If you go all in now with your arguments and it backfires you'll only look foolish.

Just keep calm and wait until the series is over. And we all know, per tradition, game 1 means a huge loss for Mavs anyway

Does the backfire and look foolish argument only apply to Mavs fans or does it also apply to Wolves fans who are actually doing the bragging? I've never even predicted a Mavs series win, I said it could go either way.