2024 NBA Playoffs: Western Conference Finals: #3 Minnesota Timberwolves vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (DAL leads 3-0)

[jokeboy86]

Also it’s crazy Kyrie has been fully healthy all season

Not fully healthy but I guess mostly will do. For all the talk about Kyrie being penalized for his off the court attitude/views and such, the main reason he’s missing a lot of individual/team accolades and also why teams were scared to sign him this past off season is cause the guy has been injury prone for most of his basketball career. He hasnt played more than 60 games since ‘19 or played at least 70 since ‘17. You basically have to have an iron man on your team to pair with him so when he misses games it doesnt tank your season or chemistry. Thats why the pairing with KD was basically foolish from the beginning.

[Dundalis]

If I was a betting man I'd put money on Wolves winning Game 4. One loss for Mavs doesn't go against the script and in fact, helps DAL as they'll be able to host another playoff game which is good for millions of dollars. Too tempting to pass up. Plus they have the loss of Lively for political cover.

scratch that, I got my series mixed up. I'd put money on the Pacers to force a game 5 in Boston because of Porzingis being out and BOS getting to host a home playoff game which is worth millions of dollars and a small market team in the luxury tax needs that. I think DAL sweeps the Wolves but I wouldn't bet on it since Lively is out and Game 5 would be in MN.

Don't think theres any confirmation on Lively, but def gives Wolves an opportunity to steal one. Thing is I think Dallas role players are much better at home, and I think if they can play Gafford big minutes and limit Powell's time, Gaff is not as good as Lively, but still good enough at Lively's main strengths to where it prob won't make too much difference.

Dallas sweep and then the break to give Luka rest, as well as time for both Lively and Kleber to get healthy should make a damn good finals series. Kleber could be a huge addition for the Mavs in that series, especially with Celtics potentially getting KP back.

[Ssj16]

Show nets management. He never came to work to show them anything

Well he did for the Mavs

1 not allowing him to play away games either though ban for unvaccinated players was only in N.Y. , then changing the decision when things got rough

2 ridiculous and humiliating 6 points to do list for Kyrie from Tsai

3 inability to negotiate reasonable contract which he easily did with Mavs after the trade went down

He isn’t blameless, but it’s Nets front office and ownership who stirred this **** up big time

I’ll never root for snake Durant and fat Harden , Kyrie left because he wanted to get paid and he was unable to reach agreement with our FO

I’ll root for Kyrie easily anytime

It took no team wanting him but dallas and losing his nike deal for kyrie to refocus.
From day one kyrie choosing not to play in the bubble season when he could of. Missing random games for bday parties and whatever else. Getting coach Atkinson fired. his former places cavs and Celtics having similar issues. Nets offered him the same contract with more money. They just wanted him to play out the season, which he did with the mavs anyway. It took awhile but kyrie finally being a professional.

I'm happy for Kyrie and can enjoy watching him play again but there is no need for revisionist history with this guy. Between his Boston and his Nets stints, he was far from the most professional/dependable player.

He seems so mature now and he deserves credit for that.

[Iwasawitness]

So are people going to pretend the Timberwolves aren’t a legitimately great team?

[Dundalis]

I was wrong about this series.

I think personally, the biggest misconception I had coming into the series was the memory embedded in my brain of the game shortly after Dallas added Irving. At that time, it was two alphas taking turns going back and forth in isolation. But Dallas completely changed the makeup of the team by drafting Dereck Lively and trading for Daniel Gafford. They both have the perfect skill sets to pair with Doncic and Irving. Their ability in the pick and roll and their explosion to the rim completely changed the makeup of this team and completely changed the outlook for the series. You could see Lively's impact by how Minnesota went on its 3rd quarter run immediately after Lively exited the game.

I still don't love the SG/SF rotation alongside Irving and Doncic, but they are doing enough in this series.

The only thing that could be better with the 2 wings flanking Luka and Kyrie is 3 point shooting percentages (more talking overall shooting ability, than just the short sample of this years playoff). Otherwise they are pretty much perfect. They aren't all world one on one defenders, but both are phenomenal team defenders IMO, DJJ has the tier one athleticism that can jump and disrupt shots from bad positions (6'5 guys don't tend to have block rates that high), and PJ has the gadget arms that constantly disrupts, but both are very positionally sound. They are arguably a better tandom for the overall team defense than some of the elite all world wing defenders that will frequently sell out for steals or blocks leaving them in bad positions hurting the defensive structure or taking bad fouls (McDaniels has been a key example).

Also for people talking about Gobert's offense, while it is terrible, the TWolves also have no one who can throw him a decent lob whatsoever other than occasionally KAT. I do think if Luka or Kyrie were playing with him in PnR and feeding him lobs the narrative around his offensive usefulness would be completely different.

[rapstarter]

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Sounds like days rather than weeks if out.

[jourdy]

Round 1: Clips just not hitting shots, nothing to do with Dallas defense
Round 2: We would've won if we had just hit our normal shots, we were #1 3P% in the regular season. We were wide open.
Round 3: ANT is just too young and KAT ain't it. They've gone cold.

As usual, no credit to Dallas - particularly Luka and Kyrie being great defenders overnight.


Haven't seen the Luka haters lately. Hahaha

[dirkules_41]

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Didn't realize the difficulty of the shot after that foul. Gobert really pushed him hard.

Honestly how was that not a flagrant? I remember (yes cause I'm older) Jerry Stackhouse shoving Shaq on a dunk Game 4 of the 2006 NBA finals and it was a 1 game suspension for the next game. I thought shoving a guy midair is an automatic something ..

Imo also a clear flagrant - curious if there's a post game review and fine. Probably they didn't check it as the game was over anyway but this is dangerous and not a basketball play in the slightest so should clearly meet the definition.

[Dundalis]

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Sounds like days rather than weeks if out.

Thank god. An absolute requirement against the Celtics. Lively and a healthier Luka with rest if they can sweep and also Kleber back for Celtics is everything aligning for the Mavs.

[Dundalis]

It seems like most Non-Boston fans are leaning Mavs>Celts in the next series, as am I. But something tells me that Boston is a bad matchup for them and I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this --

How has the post-trade deadline Mavs fared against teams that play a lot of 5 out like Boston? Did OKC play any 5 out with Chet? I remember him out at the 3 point line some, but remember him being in the dunker spot a lot as well. My thinking is that Horford/Portzingis pulls Gafford/Lively out to the 3 point line, making their rim protection null and void. Then Boston has freer lanes to drive and either Dallas collapses, closes off driving lanes and leaves open three point shooters (Part of the reason Boston spams so many 3's) or Dallas stays home on shooters and Tatum, Brown, White and Jrue has open lanes with no rim protection... Am I thinking about this right?

One obvious counter is to go PJ Washington as the 5, but I'm not sure that's the move -- it provides them more spacing on offense -- which is great, but it removes the lob threat that's been so great for them. Plus it doesn't solve the issue, Dallas on defense with Boston on offense.

It seems to me the way Dallas wins this is to go PJ at 5 and just play the outscore them game. I don't see Dallas' defense being nearly as effective as they have been against the Wolves and Thunder. I actually think Dallas is built to play this way as well. Doncic, Irving, DJJ, Washington and either Green, Hardy, or THJ depending on who's the hot man, is a heck of an offense squad -- the question becomes if it does play out this way, how long will it take Kidd to make this adjustment, and second, will PJ hold up at Center on the boards against Horford and Portzingis.

There's one piece that resolves this scenario for the Mavs, is the return of Maxi Kleber, which by reports is likely by the Finals. He unlocks that 5 out offense where you can still keep PJ at the 4, and he can also play at the 4 with one of the bigs for extra size too. He isn't quite the vertical threat Lively and Gafford are, but he can bring that as well as space the floor. Despite how well the Mavs have played, we've missed him in terms of the insane flexibility he gives us on both sides of the ball. Basically the Mavs defense could be even better when he's back.

[TheBullsDynasty]

Wolves looked shook up until Lively got injured and left the game. They then went on a run, even took the lead, but folded late in the 4th. It seems like if the games are close in the 4th (which all 3 have been so far), they simply don't have the personnel to match Luka and Kyrie's shot making ability.

With Lively out and most likely missing the next few games, this was honestly Wolves' best chance to get back into the series. Now down 0-3, they're statistically in the purgatory land which no team has come back from.

[Dundalis]

Wolves looked shook up until Lively got injured and left the game. They then went on a run, even took the lead, but folded late in the 4th. It seems like if the games are close in the 4th (which all 3 have been so far), they simply don't have the personnel to match Luka and Kyrie's shot making ability.

With Lively out and most likely missing the next few games, this was honestly Wolves' best chance to get back into the series. Now down 0-3, they're statistically in the purgatory land which no team has come back from.

If his scans are clear which the above tweet seems to confirm, he prob misses one game max.

[SweetTouch]

Mavs defense has relied on leaving Kat open for threes all series

He’s a scrub so he missing them

Can they do that against the Celtics. Jrue knows he’s going to be the one left wide open

[BloodNinja]

Round 1: Clips just not hitting shots, nothing to do with Dallas defense
Round 2: We would've won if we had just hit our normal shots, we were #1 3P% in the regular season. We were wide open.
Round 3: ANT is just too young and KAT ain't it. They've gone cold.

As usual, no credit to Dallas - particularly Luka and Kyrie being great defenders overnight.


Haven't seen the Luka haters lately. Hahaha

That part is true. KAT is a certified bum.

[Rubio9Guy]

Congrats Mavs fans. They are simply/clearly the better team.

There's a world where the Wolves are up 2-1 if Ant/Kat do anything in games 1-2.

But that's the real difference between the two isn't it? The consistency/experience from Luka and Kyrie has been unreal and the difference in this series.

[Rubio9Guy]

Mavs defense has relied on leaving Kat open for threes all series

He’s a scrub so he missing them

Can they do that against the Celtics. Jrue knows he’s going to be the one left wide open

The dumb take squad is really out in full force

[Dundalis]

Mavs defense has relied on leaving Kat open for threes all series

He’s a scrub so he missing them

Can they do that against the Celtics. Jrue knows he’s going to be the one left wide open

Huh? KAT has not been wide open all series, PJ has stuck to him fairly well and contested plenty of his shots, but even if they did, it's not like that would continue if he were hitting all his shots, defenses adapt. Mavs defense relies on exactly the thing it's done all playoffs, funneling the oppositions best penetrator into their rim protection and collapsing the paint around them. Leaving a random player wide open has hardly been the key to their defense. They will do it if a player warrants it, just like any other defense would. It's always better to allow 3's than paint points. Question is how is Boston going to defend Dallas PnR. KP is a much worse PnR defender than Gobert, and without him, Mavs have an even bigger size advantage than they did over OKC. And when Kleber is back, Mavs can play 5 out too.

[Crunch 99]

I used to see quite a few Dallas fans complaining about Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning more. And now with Dallas up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd? I think he is doing a good job coaching this series.

[Mavrelous]

I used to see a lot of Dallas posters banging on Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning more. And with Dallas up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd now? I think he is doing a pretty good job.

We wanted him gone in January, the team was sliding to the 8th seed due to injuries and he didn't do anything to help, he was passive, let the team lose big leads, didn't try new things to help Luka who was carrying the entire team on his bac (the 73 points game was in this period), horribely managed the games (almost cost the team a game due to him not calling a TO when THJ was trapped, THJ semi-called him out for it).
After the trade the team had 5 losses in 6 games and people wanted him again, but most understood it's not going to happen.

Kidd is a horrible coach when things are trending in a bad direction, and in the NBA regular season bad stretches are bound to happen, Kidd can elongate them and make them miserable, last year he gave up on the team, he saw the roster was bad and he decided to just not bother, his post game pressers were a PR disaster.
Kidd is also bad offensive coach, he relies solely on Luka/Kyrie brilliance, good strategy for the PO, bad strategy in RS, and also very taxing, especially on Luka.
But he is an excellent defensive coach when he has the fitting and willing personnel, and can maximize his team's ability to defend.

Long story short, very bad 82 games coach, excellent 16 games coach with the right personnel.

[TroubleS0me]

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