165bows wrote:zoyathedestroya wrote:fallguy wrote:Hollinger.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5525343/2024/05/31/mavericks-celtics-nba-finals-preview-hollinger/
"Teams that strive to take away 3s and live with basket attacks, like Indiana, are the only ones that have a chance against the Celtics. Sure, the Pacers gave up points, but they also beat Boston twice in the regular season and had them dead to rights in Game 1 of the conference finals before fate intervened … with a late 3-pointer.
Dallas, in contrast, was a middle-of-the-pack team in preventing opponent 3s and has played that way again in the playoffs. The Mavs’ big conundrum is figuring out how to contort a defensive strategy that was close to optimal for playing the Clippers, Thunder and Wolves and adapt it to playing a very different Boston team. Recent events don’t augur well on that front; when the Mavs marched into Boston with all their new trade pieces in March, they lost 138-110, with Boston shooting 21 of 43 on 3s."
Been saying it for a while now...zoyathedestroya wrote:It's a random cutoff but here's the team's W-L record when...
...taking less than 44% of their shots from 3, RS: 18-11; 46-7 otherwise
...taking less than 44% of their shots from 3, PS: 4-2; 8-0 otherwise
I complain a lot about Cs "chucking threes" but when teams have limited our 3-ball attempts, they've had more success. I guess it just boils down to the type of threes we're taking and at what spots (both spots on the floor and time/situation).
This is also how the Heat beat the Cs last postseason. You even heard Spo say it in the broadcast. Take away Cs' threes.
Pretty interested to learn more about Dallas’ recent defensive surge. I’m a little suspicious that their innovations are simply Jason Kidd recreating early teens defenses from when he played lol.
The cutoff date everyone keeps referring to is March 8, when Kidd switched up their starting five. They went 15-4 rest of the way. Mavs only played 3 top 10 teams in that span (went 1-2) and 4 top 10 offenses (went 2-2).
OKC offense is legit but their style of play is more suited for the regular season. They lack another creator and are hampered by having non-shooters on the floor. Clippers were without playoff Kawhi. Wolves are offensively-challenged for various reasons.
Cs, who are #2 in offense in regular season and playoffs, haven't even shot the 3-ball well yet, particularly Sam, Al, and JT plus we didn't have KP for most of the playoff run.
