2016 Playoffs Round 1: OKC Thunder vs. Dallas Mavericks

[bondom34]

Yeah, if you don't think they were good last night I don't know what else to say. They had a few stretches of bad play but won by 29 and pretty much dominated. Nobody really holds that high a level 48 minutes.

[KD35Brah]

Is there a reason why Adams does this multiple times a game?

At 0:09 he jumps too high on the screen and pauses for a second and guides Felton to the rim. Durant should have closed that gap as well.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYj2Lg3Qy0w[/youtube]

Same thing happened at 0:20 as well.

This needs to be cleaned up, because it will destroy us defensively against much better and bigger players.

[NaturalThunder]

Through 3 games we're +66 and Randy Foye is -1...

His output in the Playoffs so far:

2/10 (30 TS%), 6 PTS, 3 AST, 6 REB, 5 TOV (27.8 TO Ratio), 4 PF, On/Off: -30.6

Donovan is an idiot.

[Pillendreher]

The score may look dominant, but I didn't think we played that well, especially offensively. Way too few movement.

#hottake

Well, you were getting great looks most of the time even without that much movement, so I don't see the problem in this game. I don't know how reliable the new hustle stats at NBA.com are, but according to them Dallas contested 43 shots last night compared to 63 in the previous game, which is a major improvement for the Thunder.

Also Kanter was used more, Russ played mostly under control and took good shots, and this time made cuts to the basket when KD was posting up in the wing in the 4th. Yeah, there were a few brief periods where the concentration seemed lacking, but they recovered quickly every time.

Yeah, if you don't think they were good last night I don't know what else to say. They had a few stretches of bad play but won by 29 and pretty much dominated. Nobody really holds that high a level 48 minutes.

What you two are talking about is the performance in the 3rd game specifically. I mean good in a general sense. The offense was straight trash for stretches in the game, although the defense was much improved compared to the 2nd game.
We're dominating because Dallas is so terrible, but not because we're playing our best basketball. And that's fine to some extent because we don't need to.
I think most of this is effort-related, although KD's offensive performance so far has been very underwhelming: He's forcing shots, not really involving his teammates.

Ibaka, Kanter, Adams and Roberson have been good-to-great so far. Westbrook has found his groove a little bit and Waiters played a really solid game last night.

Through 3 games we're +66 and Randy Foye is -1...

His output in the Playoffs so far:

2/10 (30 TS%), 6 PTS, 3 AST, 6 REB, 5 TOV (27.8 TO Ratio), 4 PF, On/Off: -30.6

Donovan is an idiot.

He's been a clear negative in every game:

G1 On/Off: -60.3
G2 On/Off: -9.1
G3 On/Off: -24.5

This Foye bs has to stop. Put Payne in there and be done with it.

[bondom34]

The score may look dominant, but I didn't think we played that well, especially offensively. Way too few movement.

#hottake

Well, you were getting great looks most of the time even without that much movement, so I don't see the problem in this game. I don't know how reliable the new hustle stats at NBA.com are, but according to them Dallas contested 43 shots last night compared to 63 in the previous game, which is a major improvement for the Thunder.

Also Kanter was used more, Russ played mostly under control and took good shots, and this time made cuts to the basket when KD was posting up in the wing in the 4th. Yeah, there were a few brief periods where the concentration seemed lacking, but they recovered quickly every time.

Yeah, if you don't think they were good last night I don't know what else to say. They had a few stretches of bad play but won by 29 and pretty much dominated. Nobody really holds that high a level 48 minutes.

What you two are talking about is the performance in the 3rd game specifically. I mean good in a general sense. The offense was straight trash for stretches in the game, although the defense was much improved compared to the 2nd game.
We're dominating because Dallas is so terrible, but not because we're playing our best basketball. And that's fine to some extent because we don't need to.
I think most of this is effort-related, although KD's offensive performance so far has been very underwhelming: He's forcing shots, not really involving his teammates.

Ibaka, Kanter, Adams and Roberson have been good-to-great so far. Westbrook has found his groove a little bit and Waiters played a really solid game last night.

So basically, everyone's played reasonably well to very well with the exception of KD? And the offense still looks great? Yeah, I'll take that, because I don't see KD as playing poorly and if he has been, he's not gonna stay that way.

Dallas is not a bad team.

[Pillendreher]

So basically, everyone's played reasonably well to very well with the exception of KD?

I think Serge, Adams and Roberson have been great. Waiters has one solid-to-good game and Kanter looked solid as well. Russ still hasn't found a way to crack the Mavs' zone defense and KD hasn't played good at all (look below).

And the offense still looks great?

No, it doesn't. We've been able to score on the Mavs because we're that much more talented, but if we try to get by with this kind of offense against the Spurs, they're gonna annihilate us. We're not running stuff, we're not passing the ball, we're not putting ourselves into great position.
According to stats.nba.com, 38.5 % of our shots were open or wide open yesterday. Our season average of that stat is 44 %. And the Mavs are an below average defensive team missing multiple rotation players, whereas we are an elite offensive team with way more talent and athleticism than the Mavs.

Yeah, I'll take that, because I don't see KD as playing poorly and if he has been, he's not gonna stay that way.

Oh, he's played poorly alright. Durant has played 108 minutes in this series so far and has passed the ball 99 times - that's 0.92 passes per minute compared to 1.04 passes per minute during the Regular season. So far he's logged 12 Assist Adj (Assists, FT Assists and Secondary Assists) - that's 0.11 per minute played compared to 0.17 during the Regular Season.
He's forcing the issue (85 % of his shots have been tightly or very tightly contested compared to 63 % during the Regular Season) and he's hurt his team by doing so. Instead of chucking contested midrange jumpers he should be driving to the basket, coming off screens and running stuff with his teammates.

His defensive effort has been alright tho.

Dallas is not a bad team.

The only reason Dallas is not the worst team in these playoffs is because the Grizzlies got hit by the injury bug even worse. This depleted Dalals squad is a bad team. The only way they can even remotely hang with us is if we let them.

[bondom34]

So basically, everyone's played reasonably well to very well with the exception of KD?

I think Serge, Adams and Roberson have been great. Waiters has one solid-to-good game and Kanter looked solid as well. Russ still hasn't found a way to crack the Mavs' zone defense and KD hasn't played good at all (look below).

And the offense still looks great?

No, it doesn't. We've been able to score on the Mavs because we're that much more talented, but if we try to get by with this kind of offense against the Spurs, they're gonna annihilate us. We're not running stuff, we're not passing the ball, we're not putting ourselves into great position.
According to stats.nba.com, 38.5 % of our shots were open or wide open yesterday. Our season average of that stat is 44 %. And the Mavs are an below average defensive team missing multiple rotation players, whereas we are an elite offensive team with way more talent and athleticism than the Mavs.

Yeah, I'll take that, because I don't see KD as playing poorly and if he has been, he's not gonna stay that way.

Oh, he's played poorly alright. Durant has played 108 minutes in this series so far and has passed the ball 99 times - that's 0.92 passes per minute compared to 1.04 passes per minute during the Regular season. So far he's logged 12 Assist Adj (Assists, FT Assists and Secondary Assists) - that's 0.11 per minute played compared to 0.17 during the Regular Season.
He's forcing the issue (85 % of his shots have been tightly or very tightly contested compared to 63 % during the Regular Season) and he's hurt his team by doing so. Instead of chucking contested midrange jumpers he should be driving to the basket, coming off screens and running stuff with his teammates.

His defensive effort has been alright tho.

Dallas is not a bad team.

The only reason Dallas is not the worst team in these playoffs is because the Grizzlies got hit by the injury bug even worse. This depleted Dalals squad is a bad team. The only way they can even remotely hang with us is if we let them.

This Dallas team is, as a team still as good as Houston. They're better coached and play harder.

I'm not expecting KD to play this poorly, even though he hasn't been bad overall. And I don't see the Spurs stopping the offense entirely either, they didn't really in the RS and I wouldn't expect that big a shift now.

To this point, they've got the 3rd best D rating in the playoffs, and 4th best O rating. They dropped 1 game by a point on a historically bad shooting night for Durant or else they're up 3-0 with a MOV of about 20 ppg. If you're expecting more, the bar is probably too high considering so far they've statistically outperformed everyone in the playoffs by pythag wins.

[Pillendreher]

This Dallas team is, as a team still as good as Houston. They're better coached and play harder.

So it's a 3-way-tie between Dallas, Houston and Memphis. It really doesn't matter: They are bad teams. Based on SRS alone, Dallas is a .500 team and now it's missing several (key) guys.

I'm not expecting KD to play this poorly, even though he hasn't been bad overall.

I'm not expecting it to continue either, but in my opinion he has been bad. His USG% is up to 38 % and he hasn't done anything with it. This is not our style.

And I don't see the Spurs stopping the offense entirely either, they didn't really in the RS and I wouldn't expect that big a shift now.

The difference between the RS and the Playoffs is that our offensive style changed over these last few games. Dallas started packing the paint because that's the only thing they can do to try to defend us. And we've been letting them do that by not enough movement and not enough passing. Just passing the ball to KD isn't enough offensively. I'd recommend you'd rewatch the first 5 or so minutes of the 4th quarter of G3. That's not gonna cut it in the next round.

To this point, they've got the 3rd best D rating in the playoffs, and 4th best O rating. They dropped 1 game by a point on a historically bad shooting night for Durant or else they're up 3-0 with a MOV of about 20 ppg. If you're expecting more, the bar is probably too high considering so far they've statistically outperformed everyone in the playoffs by pythag wins.

I'm not complaining about the results, I'm complaining about the way they've accomplished them. I'm not saying they should beat them 50 each night, but I just want them to play smart basketball. It would be so much easier on them.

[bondom34]

This Dallas team is, as a team still as good as Houston. They're better coached and play harder.

So it's a 3-way-tie between Dallas, Houston and Memphis. It really doesn't matter: They are bad teams. Based on SRS alone, Dallas is a .500 team and now it's missing several (key) guys.

I'm not expecting KD to play this poorly, even though he hasn't been bad overall.

I'm not expecting it to continue either, but in my opinion he has been bad. His USG% is up to 38 % and he hasn't done anything with it. This is not our style.

And I don't see the Spurs stopping the offense entirely either, they didn't really in the RS and I wouldn't expect that big a shift now.

The difference between the RS and the Playoffs is that our offensive style changed over these last few games. Dallas started packing the paint because that's the only thing they can do to try to defend us. And we've been letting them do that by not enough movement and not enough passing. Just passing the ball to KD isn't enough offensively. I'd recommend you'd rewatch the first 5 or so minutes of the 4th quarter of G3. That's not gonna cut it in the next round.

To this point, they've got the 3rd best D rating in the playoffs, and 4th best O rating. They dropped 1 game by a point on a historically bad shooting night for Durant or else they're up 3-0 with a MOV of about 20 ppg. If you're expecting more, the bar is probably too high considering so far they've statistically outperformed everyone in the playoffs by pythag wins.

I'm not complaining about the results, I'm complaining about the way they've accomplished them. I'm not saying they should beat them 50 each night, but I just want them to play smart basketball. It would be so much easier on them.

So I assume you'd be mad if you were a GSW fan too then, considering they lost a game as well. The Spurs beat a much worse Memphis team, the Cavs haven't looked good either.

I agree, KD playing poorly isn't their style. I don't expect it to continue.

The change in the offense is pretty simple, KD missed a ton in game 2 so it looked bad. They had 1 really poor game (game 2) surrounded by 2 great games. They threw 240 and 246 passes in the 2 good games, slightly down from average. The one bad one they threw 203. So take out the one garbage game and we're back to RS levels basically. You're seeing the 2 best players on the team with increased usage, which is pretty much what's going to happen come playoffs.

Outside 1 game they've played pretty solid basketball, the offense doesn't worry me a ton. The defense was my concern and that's been great. If they keep that up, the offense will come.

[KD35Brah]

Outside 1 game they've played pretty solid basketball, the offense doesn't worry me a ton. The defense was my concern and that's been great. If they keep that up, the offense will come.

That's the thing, you are confusing Dallas with being bad and us playing a great game.

Everything we did in the regular season, al the things we did to lose to all the top teams in the league are still happening. When the Spurs series comes around they'll be doing the same thing they've done all season.

There is massive difference from playing great and just beating a horrible team convincingly.

[bondom34]

Outside 1 game they've played pretty solid basketball, the offense doesn't worry me a ton. The defense was my concern and that's been great. If they keep that up, the offense will come.

That's the thing, you are confusing Dallas iwth being bad and us playing a great game.

Everything we did in the regular season, al the things we did to lose to all the top teams in the league are still happening. When the Spurs series comes around they'll be doing the same thing they've done all season.

There is massive difference from playing great and just beating a horrible team convincingly.

I assume you're not impressed by GSW or the Spurs at all then, considering they've done the same. The Cavs too. In which case heck, why worry about round 2 when whoever they match up with is playing poorly as well?

[KD35Brah]

Outside 1 game they've played pretty solid basketball, the offense doesn't worry me a ton. The defense was my concern and that's been great. If they keep that up, the offense will come.

That's the thing, you are confusing Dallas iwth being bad and us playing a great game.

Everything we did in the regular season, al the things we did to lose to all the top teams in the league are still happening. When the Spurs series comes around they'll be doing the same thing they've done all season.

There is massive difference from playing great and just beating a horrible team convincingly.

I assume you're not impressed by GSW or the Spurs at all then, considering they've done the same. The Cavs too. In which case heck, why worry about round 2 when whoever they match up with is playing poorly as well?

The Cavs are playing well Lebron isn't playing as dumb as KD and Russ are and that matters a lot. Kyrie and Love aren't on these guys level so i didn't compare them. Cavs just hit 20 3s on Detroit.

The Spurs have championship pedigree and won 67 games without leading the NBA in blown 4th quarters and have the best defense in the league, there is no comparison.

You know Curry missed 2.5 games against the Rockets so why even bring up a team that won 73 games when healthy?

[bondom34]

That's the thing, you are confusing Dallas iwth being bad and us playing a great game.

Everything we did in the regular season, al the things we did to lose to all the top teams in the league are still happening. When the Spurs series comes around they'll be doing the same thing they've done all season.

There is massive difference from playing great and just beating a horrible team convincingly.

I assume you're not impressed by GSW or the Spurs at all then, considering they've done the same. The Cavs too. In which case heck, why worry about round 2 when whoever they match up with is playing poorly as well?

The Cavs are playing well Lebron isn't playing as dumb as KD and Russ are and that matters a lot. Kyrie and Love aren't on these guys level so i didn't compare them. Cavs just hit 20 3s on Detroit.

The Spurs have championship pedigree and won 67 games without leading the NBA in blown 4th quarters and have the best defense in the league, there is no comparison.

You know Curry missed 2.5 games against the Rockets so why even bring up a team that won 73 games when healthy?

The Cavs nearly lost to Detroit. They played 1 good game and 1 game about as bad as OKC's game 2. OKC's certainly been more impressive than they have.

The Spurs have pedigree but to this point have achieved no results this season as good as OKC. OKC's defense has been nearly as good as theirs in the playoffs, and Dallas, even in this form, is a much better offense than Memphis.

And yep, Curry missed some time. But KD could literally have been Kyle Singler for game 2 and they'd have been as well off. So he pretty much did too.

Depeleted or not, these are playoff games against the second best coach in the league and a veteran team. Perfection isn't happening.

[KD35Brah]

I assume you're not impressed by GSW or the Spurs at all then, considering they've done the same. The Cavs too. In which case heck, why worry about round 2 when whoever they match up with is playing poorly as well?

The Cavs are playing well Lebron isn't playing as dumb as KD and Russ are and that matters a lot. Kyrie and Love aren't on these guys level so i didn't compare them. Cavs just hit 20 3s on Detroit.

The Spurs have championship pedigree and won 67 games without leading the NBA in blown 4th quarters and have the best defense in the league, there is no comparison.

You know Curry missed 2.5 games against the Rockets so why even bring up a team that won 73 games when healthy?

The Cavs nearly lost to Detroit. They played 1 good game and 1 game about as bad as OKC's game 2. OKC's certainly been more impressive than they have.

The Spurs have pedigree but to this point have achieved no results this season as good as OKC. OKC's defense has been nearly as good as theirs in the playoffs, and Dallas, even in this form, is a much better offense than Memphis.

And yep, Curry missed some time. But KD could literally have been Kyle Singler for game 2 and they'd have been as well off. So he pretty much did too.

Depeleted or not, these are playoff games against the second best coach in the league and a veteran team. Perfection isn't happening.

Detroit is much better than this Dallas team and Detroit got incredibly lucky hitting 52% of their 3s on 29 attempts considering they are one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. You know who would've lost that game? The Thunder.

I guess winning 67 games and having one of the best 5 defenses the NBA has ever seen is nothing. 82 games > 3 games against garbage injury riddled teams.

Comparing missing the MVP who just led his team to 73 wins to KD who had a garbage game makes no sense. Curry hasn't played since the 1st half in game 1, game 3 for his team just ended.

[bondom34]

Detroit is much better than this Dallas team and Detroit got incredibly lucky hitting 52% of their 3s on 29 attempts considering they are one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. You know who would've lost that game? The Thunder.

I guess winning 67 games and having one of the best 5 defenses the NBA has ever seen is nothing. 82 games > 3 games against garbage injury riddled teams.

Comparing missing the MVP who just led his team to 73 wins to KD who had a garbage game makes no sense. Curry hasn't played since the 1st half in game 1, game 3 for his team just ended.

And everyone on GSW fell apart without him, losing to a team who's actually worse than this Dallas squad. And again, you could pretty much have played Singler and they'd probably have been better off in game 2 anyway.

And Detroit really isn't much better than this Dallas team, they lost when Reggie iso'd the heck outta the last 2 minutes of game 1.

If you want to call that shooting fluky, fine, but realize OKC lost a game when Durant shot worse than he ever will and the team had the lowest FG percentage of the season.

I'm not saying they're at the defensive level of the Spurs, but when locked in they have been and managed to split a season series against that team.

[spearsy23]

Detroit is much better than this Dallas team and Detroit got incredibly lucky hitting 52% of their 3s on 29 attempts considering they are one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. You know who would've lost that game? The Thunder.

I guess winning 67 games and having one of the best 5 defenses the NBA has ever seen is nothing. 82 games > 3 games against garbage injury riddled teams.

Comparing missing the MVP who just led his team to 73 wins to KD who had a garbage game makes no sense. Curry hasn't played since the 1st half in game 1, game 3 for his team just ended.

And everyone on GSW fell apart without him, losing to a team who's actually worse than this Dallas squad. And again, you could pretty much have played Singler and they'd probably have been better off in game 2 anyway.

And Detroit really isn't much better than this Dallas team, they lost when Reggie iso'd the heck outta the last 2 minutes of game 1.

If you want to call that shooting fluky, fine, but realize OKC lost a game when Durant shot worse than he ever will and the team had the lowest FG percentage of the season.

I'm not saying they're at the defensive level of the Spurs, but when locked in they have been and managed to split a season series against that team.

I'm not going to get into the major crux of this argument because I think we've played fine overall (although pretending we've been as good as SAS or that GSW should be concerned because they dropped a game without Steph is wrong imo), but you're really overrating this Mavs team. They were barely better than Houston throughout the season and now they're injury riddles as well. They're clearly the worst non-Memphis team, especially since having a superstar is a major plus in the playoffs. Yes, they admittedly have a great coach, but it isn't like the coaching gets worse in either of the next two rounds.

[bondom34]

Detroit is much better than this Dallas team and Detroit got incredibly lucky hitting 52% of their 3s on 29 attempts considering they are one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. You know who would've lost that game? The Thunder.

I guess winning 67 games and having one of the best 5 defenses the NBA has ever seen is nothing. 82 games > 3 games against garbage injury riddled teams.

Comparing missing the MVP who just led his team to 73 wins to KD who had a garbage game makes no sense. Curry hasn't played since the 1st half in game 1, game 3 for his team just ended.

And everyone on GSW fell apart without him, losing to a team who's actually worse than this Dallas squad. And again, you could pretty much have played Singler and they'd probably have been better off in game 2 anyway.

And Detroit really isn't much better than this Dallas team, they lost when Reggie iso'd the heck outta the last 2 minutes of game 1.

If you want to call that shooting fluky, fine, but realize OKC lost a game when Durant shot worse than he ever will and the team had the lowest FG percentage of the season.

I'm not saying they're at the defensive level of the Spurs, but when locked in they have been and managed to split a season series against that team.

I'm not going to get into the major crux of this argument because I think we've played fine overall (although pretending we've been as good as SAS or that GSW should be concerned because they dropped a game without Steph is wrong imo), but you're really overrating this Mavs team. They were barely better than Houston throughout the season and now they're injury riddles as well. They're clearly the worst non-Memphis team, especially since having a superstar is a major plus in the playoffs. Yes, they admittedly have a great coach, but it isn't like the coaching gets worse in either of the next two rounds.

The coaching won't but at the same time you're really overrating the Rockets and Pistons to me. Houston coughed up bad games late in the season and only managed to get in because Utah was somehow worse. Dallas beat both Houston and Memphis in the last week or so of the season, so saying they're clearly worse seems off to me.

[spearsy23]

And everyone on GSW fell apart without him, losing to a team who's actually worse than this Dallas squad. And again, you could pretty much have played Singler and they'd probably have been better off in game 2 anyway.

And Detroit really isn't much better than this Dallas team, they lost when Reggie iso'd the heck outta the last 2 minutes of game 1.

If you want to call that shooting fluky, fine, but realize OKC lost a game when Durant shot worse than he ever will and the team had the lowest FG percentage of the season.

I'm not saying they're at the defensive level of the Spurs, but when locked in they have been and managed to split a season series against that team.

I'm not going to get into the major crux of this argument because I think we've played fine overall (although pretending we've been as good as SAS or that GSW should be concerned because they dropped a game without Steph is wrong imo), but you're really overrating this Mavs team. They were barely better than Houston throughout the season and now they're injury riddles as well. They're clearly the worst non-Memphis team, especially since having a superstar is a major plus in the playoffs. Yes, they admittedly have a great coach, but it isn't like the coaching gets worse in either of the next two rounds.

The coaching won't but at the same time you're really overrating the Rockets and Pistons to me. Houston coughed up bad games late in the season and only managed to get in because Utah was somehow worse. Dallas beat both Houston and Memphis in the last week or so of the season, so saying they're clearly worse seems off to me.

Memphis is clearly the worst team in the history of the playoffs. But using the team x beat team y so they are better argument just doesn't hold water, Dallas just beat us and they are clearly not better than us. Dallas had an expected win/loss of 40-42, I believe Houston's was 42-40, plus Dallas is now missing Parsons and has a hobbled Deron, and Harden started the year playing like crap but has rounded into form.

As far as Detroit, they won more games, had a better expected win/loss, and got better at after making the move for Harris. I don't see any real argument for calling this Dallas team as good or better than them.

[bondom34]

I'm not going to get into the major crux of this argument because I think we've played fine overall (although pretending we've been as good as SAS or that GSW should be concerned because they dropped a game without Steph is wrong imo), but you're really overrating this Mavs team. They were barely better than Houston throughout the season and now they're injury riddles as well. They're clearly the worst non-Memphis team, especially since having a superstar is a major plus in the playoffs. Yes, they admittedly have a great coach, but it isn't like the coaching gets worse in either of the next two rounds.

The coaching won't but at the same time you're really overrating the Rockets and Pistons to me. Houston coughed up bad games late in the season and only managed to get in because Utah was somehow worse. Dallas beat both Houston and Memphis in the last week or so of the season, so saying they're clearly worse seems off to me.

Memphis is clearly the worst team in the history of the playoffs. But using the team x beat team y so they are better argument just doesn't hold water, Dallas just beat us and they are clearly not better than us. Dallas had an expected win/loss of 40-42, I believe Houston's was 42-40, plus Dallas is now missing Parsons and has a hobbled Deron, and Harden started the year playing like crap but has rounded into form.

As far as Detroit, they won more games, had a better expected win/loss, and got better at after making the move for Harris. I don't see any real argument for calling this Dallas team as good or better than them.

I never said Memphis was better, they're not. But Dallas was 7-3 down the stretch with a win over this Houston team. Houston nearly coughed up a 17 point lead last night to a team that frankly looked more interested in giving them a game than OKC did game 2.

[spearsy23]

The coaching won't but at the same time you're really overrating the Rockets and Pistons to me. Houston coughed up bad games late in the season and only managed to get in because Utah was somehow worse. Dallas beat both Houston and Memphis in the last week or so of the season, so saying they're clearly worse seems off to me.

Memphis is clearly the worst team in the history of the playoffs. But using the team x beat team y so they are better argument just doesn't hold water, Dallas just beat us and they are clearly not better than us. Dallas had an expected win/loss of 40-42, I believe Houston's was 42-40, plus Dallas is now missing Parsons and has a hobbled Deron, and Harden started the year playing like crap but has rounded into form.

As far as Detroit, they won more games, had a better expected win/loss, and got better at after making the move for Harris. I don't see any real argument for calling this Dallas team as good or better than them.

I never said Memphis was better, they're not. But Dallas was 7-3 down the stretch with a win over this Houston team. Houston nearly coughed up a 17 point lead last night to a team that frankly looked more interested in giving them a game than OKC did game 2.

Houston went 6-4 down the stretch with wins over Cleveland, Toronto, and us. Dallas and Houston split the season series, Dallas is clearly hobbled, and Houston has Harden. Oh and Dallas came much closer to losing the game to us than Housron came to losing that game. Saying Dallas beat Houston so they're the better team isn't a good argument. That's just not the way It works in this league.