NBA restart | Chokers (40-28) vs Phoenix | Sun 9 pm ET

[arkuo]

Carlisle and Doncic would just repeat the script from 2 days ago and say this loss is on them. not on anybody else, just on them etc etc.

[aggerrard]

With this loss we are pretty much locked into 7th.

Yeah, no surprise there. The team just can't win these close games. If they performed in clutch games, we're looking at a 2-3rd seed right now. But that's not the case. Hopefully they learn from this next season. Clippers aren't throwing away the 2nd seed, and can we take a game from them, i'd be more than happy. For now i just wanna see the team win some games and not choke one lead after another.

[BlueSan]

No comment regarding this game

[leolozon]

On a positive note, great FT shooting by Doncic. His 3s didn't fall as usual, but at least he only took 3 of them... I do wish he could hit some though.

It's kind of a shame that those last 6 games are basically meaningless. The odds of the Mavs not being the 7th seed and not playing the Clips must be incredibly low. I like rooting for something.

[BlueSan]

That is definitely the case. I do wonder when they are going to get pissed about their performsances

[leolozon]

About that last play... other than THJ taking the shot, why did Luka in bound the ball? It seems that if you want someone else than him shooting, then if he is on the court, he would get most of the attention and it could free up someone like Curry.

I can’t even begin to comprehend what happened during those last 2 plays. It’s like they want to lose.

[Darren]

The young Mavs team is soft as toilet paper in two consecutive second half letdown. I expect a 4-0 swap against any opponent in first round and a big failure. The Mavs can't get consistent production everywhere while needed.

- DFS is not defending well; foul prone against elite wings. Wright can't get any job done well on both end of the floor.
- Curry & Hardaway is not consistent on both end of the floor. once defensive efforts are required, the shooting gone.
- Zinger & Kleber ain't pairing well. No pain protection at all at times.
- luka takes bad shots a lot in 4th quarter.

It's time to play Barea. The young Mavs is not countable. So is Rick. No creative at all. The Mavs is too happy having a big lead. The Mavs is still pretty much do-or-die on 3 pointers. But the Mavs ain't performing well when teams punch back. No guts or souls against playoff teams. That's a huge problem. That's why Dirk's great.

[Archx]

The young Mavs team is soft as toilet paper in two consecutive second half letdown. I expect a 4-0 swap against any opponent in first round and a big failure. The Mavs can't get consistent production everywhere while needed.

- DFS is not defending well; foul prone against elite wings. Wright can't get any job done well on both end of the floor.
- Curry & Hardaway is not consistent on both end of the floor. once defensive efforts are required, the shooting gone.
- Zinger & Kleber ain't pairing well. No pain protection at all at times.
- luka takes bad shots a lot in 4th quarter.

It's time to play Barea. The young Mavs is not countable. So is Rick. No creative at all. The Mavs is too happy having a big lead. The Mavs is still pretty much do-or-die on 3 pointers. But the Mavs ain't performing well when teams punch back. No guts or souls against playoff teams. That's a huge problem. That's why Dirk's great.

Why do you think that Dirk would have won the game for them? Luka had almost a 40pt triple double. He almost killed the Suns by himself. Got 3 main guys in serious foul trouble in the process. Suns fans love to point out how good Bridges was defending him, i think he barely did anything to him. Luka got anywhere he wanted and he is a very smart player who knows how to draw fouls.

KP played good on Ayton and did his thing on offense.

But the problem again is in the supporting cast which can be really good but more often than not, it is atrocious. DFS, Maxi, Delon, THJ... they literally lost the ability to defend. Not to mention their offense, it's gone MiA.

1st half was great, attack the rim and draw fouls when Mavs were in bonus, really doesn't get any simpler than that. But the 2nd half was horrible because for some reason, after they got Booker and Ayton in foul trouble, they let some random scrub score at will. And Mavs themselves reverted to 1v1 pickup ball. Rick couldn't even rest Doncic because Burke didn't do anything to organize them in the half court and Delon is simply horrible at playmaking. Maybe Barea could have been a better decision than Delon this time.

And for that last play, even Suns announcer saw it from miles away that Mavs were going for the win. Those both plays were by Rick's design to get a 3pt shooter open. Doncic wanted to draw double team and kick it out but yeah, it was a stupid idea.

[Captain_Obvious]

These losses hurt but in the two games I have been really happy with KP. I was sceptical if he can be a 1st or 2nd option but he has looked really impressive and confident.

We have to continue to build around our two franchise players. This is their first year together and they will bomb out in the playoffs unless a couple of roleplayers can rediscover their form [so we lose in 5].

Right now we play Wright/Cleveland/Burke combined for 40 minutes. Burke at least can get hot, the other two are just meh.

Credit to Phoenix for not giving up when Booker and Ayton had to sit. These Mavs can hang with anyone but this game highlights they don't have the mentality to finish games. It's not going to change over night. I don't trust Carlisle to fix it at this point, probably needs to be addressed by roster and/or coaching (Jamahl Mosley anyone?) changes.

[Michaellam1987]

Our defense rotation is terrible, every opposite wing is scoring like Jordan against us. I think the whole team should watch more on the game film of TOR to learn their team defense scheme. We also still lack that tough minded leader like Chandler/Kidd that can draw charge, instruct the team defense, and Dirk who is the clutch time leader offensively.