ROUND 1 Game 4 - NOTE TIME: 12:30 PM PDT on ABC

[Captain Ballmer]

It's hilarious that Mavs fans think the EXACT SAME WAY about Rick lol. I guess every fanbase is the same.

LOL. Switch the coaches and we would have swept the Mavs.

Exactly. People seems to forgot what a good coaching is with all the mediocre since Doc Rivers tenure.

Rick Carlisle, has less experienced and talented team with less depth comparing to us,plus his 1st and 2nd options missed games for injuries. Regardless he delivered, everything that team does becomes easier, recipe to succeed. Clearly Outcoached Doc Rivers.

In my top 3 coach since 2011 chip!
By the way among the other 2 of my fav coach, one is also outschooled Doc couple years ago(2017). Quin Snyder of Utah Jazz. Snyder still deliveres with that shorthanded Jazz team.

Oh boy Doc is Suck.

[TrueLAfan]

Well, I'm a mod. People have the right to whine, although I 100% it's (for the most part) misplaced. I should have said that earlier, but I'm a Professor, so this last week has just been a $*i*show for me. Now this.

Anyway, PG has shot like ass for the last two games. He does, as he says, "other things," but not enough. He. Needs. To. Step. Up.

Same with Trezz. I feel bad about his fmailt situation. I never thought I would say this about Trezz, but he looks … disinterested. He looks like a mediocre player that’s been told to “play like Montrezl Harrell” and can’t. It’s weird.

Sham is … okay. But he doesn’t do enough. He shoots well and spreads the court—but he doesn’t pass all that well and doesn't shoot that much. (Less than an assist and a half every 36 is just not going to do for a perimeter player on a team that’s moving the ball.)

JaMychal Green is a professional basketball player with the Los Angeles Clippers. I heard that he was on the court in the first two games, but you could have fooled me. At least he played a little last game. But he’s barely there. Still don’t know what happened with this guy.

No Pat Bev is killing us. You can see the scope of what he does when he’s not out there.

And I’ll mix this in with Reggie. Reggie is playing fine. He’s been put in a position with Bev being out and, for the most part, has come through. Hate on him all you want; bitch about his defense. His +/- is terrific; he’s hitting well from outside. He’s doing what we need him to do. He's a backup G forced to play extra right now and is doing well enough. He’s not the problem, although I wish he was part of the solution.

The problem is our perimeter D, primarily from the G position (So, yeah, Reggie--a little, but nor more and probably less than Sham and Lou). I’m not talking about Doncic … I'll talk him in a second. I’m talking about Seth Curry and Tim Hardaway Jr. combining for 36 points a game on 52% shooting. Seriously, wtf? I get not stopping Doncic. Luka was borderline 30-10-10 during the RS. His playoff per 36 is pretty much identical to his RS play. He’s just that good. If it wasn’t for that the fact that he’s crushing my team, I’d be fired up to see a true elite superstar step out. Which he is absolutely doing.

But that’s not the issue. Like I said—36 a game from Hardaway and Curry. Almost 50 if you add in Trey Burke. Those guys are good players … but they should not be scoring 50 points a game on us, and they definitely should not be shooting 53.5%.

And here’s the deal—with PG/Trezz/Sham not scoring a bunch, we need more scoring. And Pat Bev is both an adequate scorer and a good facilitator on top of being a small terror on D. Without him … we’ve got good D and no scoring, or mediocre D and some scoring, and little passing with either.

The whole “Fire Doc!” thing … yeah, every team that loses a couple of games has people that want to fire the coach or get someone "better." The coach is the easiest target. It's often not warranted; I don't think it is here either. I don’t agree with everything Doc does. But after the fact is after the fact--and Doc can't do everything for the players's psyches. I think his comments on being “emotionally weak” are true. Other than Kawhi and Lou—and I’ll even give PG a tiny amount of credit for seeming kind of disgusted with himself—nobody seems to really give a crap. And that is both dangerous and weird. Some of that certainly falls on Doc—but you can’t make everyone care. They’ve got to want it. I’ve seen little from PG or Trezz or JaMychal or Sham in the playoffs that makes me think they’re angry and fired up. And they need to be, or we’re done.

[donemilio21]

I'm not sure why Jackson is such a bad match up for Doncic. He is smaller, for sure, but he has really long arms. It is very frustrating that Doncic is somehow able to drive around him- Jackson is quicker, so it must be poor defensive instincts?

Being quick or having long arms does not make him a good defender, just makes him more physically capable. At that situation you want someone not only very good perimeter defender but also is taller than Luka.
If the lead is 2 or 3 points, you double team him after screen, and take your chances with a pass to inside. But with one point lead, you can't do that so you have to make sure your top defender is on the guy.

Doc should have had Kawhi, PG, Mann, Morris and Green on the floor and told Kawhi not to switch off Luka. If he tried to stick to Luka, Kleber could have committed an offensive foul by trying to push him away from Luka via moving screen.

Watch the last play, and this is right after a timeout,
- Finney-Smith is inbounding the ball, Shamet is on him. (You want a tall guy with long arms here to block vision and potentially tip the inbounbd pass - MISTAKE #1).
- Kawhi is on Luka (this is good)
- Reggie Jacson is on Kleber who is 6 inches taller than him (MISTAKE #2)
- PG is on Curry (this is good as Curry is the best shooter on the floor and second most likely to take a 3point shot after Luka)
- Morris is on Hardaway (this is OK as Morris can also drop inside to protect the rim if an alley-oop is in play)
MISTAKE #3 is obviously telling the team to switch off when you have mismatched defenders.

Doc has 3 mistakes during a timeout. Inexcusable.

[MartinToVaught]

The whole “Fire Doc!” thing … yeah, every team that loses a couple of games has people that want to fire the coach or get someone "better." The coach is the easiest target. It's often not warranted; I don't think it is here either. I don’t agree with everything Doc does. But after the fact is after the fact--and Doc can't do everything for the players's psyches. I think his comments on being “emotionally weak” are true. Other than Kawhi and Lou—and I’ll even give PG a tiny amount of credit for seeming kind of disgusted with himself—nobody seems to really give a crap. And that is both dangerous and weird. Some of that certainly falls on Doc—but you can’t make everyone care. They’ve got to want it. I’ve seen little from PG or Trezz or JaMychal or Sham in the playoffs that makes me think they’re angry and fired up. And they need to be, or we’re done.

Doc is supposed to be a brilliant personality manager. If the team isn't fired up or ready for the playoffs, it's on him - especially since we know we won't be seeing any great adjustments or X's and O's to make up for it.

[esqtvd]

Well, I'm a mod. People have the right to whine, although I 100% it's (for the most part) misplaced. I should have said that earlier, but I'm a Professor, so this last week has just been a $*i*show for me. Now this.

Anyway, PG has shot like ass for the last two games. He does, as he says, "other things," but not enough. He. Needs. To. Step. Up.

Same with Trezz. I feel bad about his fmailt situation. I never thought I would say this about Trezz, but he looks … disinterested. He looks like a mediocre player that’s been told to “play like Montrezl Harrell” and can’t. It’s weird.

Sham is … okay. But he doesn’t do enough. He shoots well and spreads the court—but he doesn’t pass all that well and doesn't shoot that much. (Less than an assist and a half every 36 is just not going to do for a perimeter player on a team that’s moving the ball.)

JaMychal Green is a professional basketball player with the Los Angeles Clippers. I heard that he was on the court in the first two games, but you could have fooled me. At least he played a little last game. But he’s barely there. Still don’t know what happened with this guy.

No Pat Bev is killing us. You can see the scope of what he does when he’s not out there.

And I’ll mix this in with Reggie. Reggie is playing fine. He’s been put in a position with Bev being out and, for the most part, has come through. Hate on him all you want; bitch about his defense. His +/- is terrific; he’s hitting well from outside. He’s doing what we need him to do. He's a backup G forced to play extra right now and is doing well enough. He’s not the problem, although I wish he was part of the solution.

The problem is our perimeter D, primarily from the G position (So, yeah, Reggie--a little, but nor more and probably less than Sham and Lou). I’m not talking about Doncic … I'll talk him in a second. I’m talking about Seth Curry and Tim Hardaway Jr. combining for 36 points a game on 52% shooting. Seriously, wtf? I get not stopping Doncic. Luka was borderline 30-10-10 during the RS. His playoff per 36 is pretty much identical to his RS play. He’s just that good. If it wasn’t for that the fact that he’s crushing my team, I’d be fired up to see a true elite superstar step out. Which he is absolutely doing.

But that’s not the issue. Like I said—36 a game from Hardaway and Curry. Almost 50 if you add in Trey Burke. Those guys are good players … but they should not be scoring 50 points a game on us, and they definitely should not be shooting 53.5%.

And here’s the deal—with PG/Trezz/Sham not scoring a bunch, we need more scoring. And Pat Bev is both an adequate scorer and a good facilitator on top of being a small terror on D. Without him … we’ve got good D and no scoring, or mediocre D and some scoring, and little passing with either.

The whole “Fire Doc!” thing … yeah, every team that loses a couple of games has people that want to fire the coach or get someone "better." The coach is the easiest target. It's often not warranted; I don't think it is here either. I don’t agree with everything Doc does. But after the fact is after the fact--and Doc can't do everything for the players's psyches. I think his comments on being “emotionally weak” are true. Other than Kawhi and Lou—and I’ll even give PG a tiny amount of credit for seeming kind of disgusted with himself—nobody seems to really give a crap. And that is both dangerous and weird. Some of that certainly falls on Doc—but you can’t make everyone care. They’ve got to want it. I’ve seen little from PG or Trezz or JaMychal or Sham in the playoffs that makes me think they’re angry and fired up. And they need to be, or we’re done.

Trezz might not be right in the head yet, and as a relatively unskilled player, everything else is off too. He has nothing to fall back on at the moment. Obviously he needs to be put on a shorter leash but he only played 17 minutes anyway and J-Myke has been a non-factor too.

Without MONSTATREZZ in the house and Bev sidelined, there's a huge hole where our heart would be. That's 2 of our top 6 players and our 2 most demonstrative guys too.

If we go down 3-2, this kvetching might make some sense. 9 times out of 10 Doncic's shot misses, we're up 3-1 and all this vulturing is moot. Every championship team has some close calls along the way. Props to all those who have been able to hold their water.

[MartinToVaught]

Trezz might not be right in the head yet, and as a relatively unskilled player, everything else is off too. He has nothing to fall back on at the moment. Obviously he needs to be put on a shorter leash but he only played 17 minutes anyway and J-Myke has been a non-factor too.

Without MONSTATREZZ in the house and Bev sidelined, there's a huge hole where our heart would be. That's 2 of our top 6 players and our 2 most demonstrative guys too.

If we go down 3-2, this kvetching might make some sense. 9 times out of 10 Doncic's shot misses, we're up 3-1 and all this vulturing is moot. Every championship team has some close calls along the way. Props to all those who have been able to hold their water.

Excuses, excuses. Doncic was hobbled, Porzingis was out and we were up 21. Imagine using a career role player like Bev as an excuse for losing that game.

[MartinToVaught]

Read on Twitter

That's weird, I thought Doncic misses that shot 9 times out of 10? Not with Reggie guarding him, that's for sure.

[TrueLAfan]

Doc is supposed to be a brilliant personality manager. If the team isn't fired up or ready for the playoffs, it's on him - especially since we know we won't be seeing any great adjustments or X's and O's to make up for it.

Well, let's not carried away. doc is considered a "player's coach"--but that's not some sort of be all/end a;ll/cure all. And I'm pretty sure Doc said "some of that is on me" with regard to the team's emotional/mental letdown. And I agree (as I said). But I also think it's ridiculous to expect 15 grown men to say/think "Yeah, we're kinda lethargic right now--fire us up!" The main guys we've had to lift us out of that this year have been

Kawhi (who is coming through)
Pat Bev (who is out)
Trezz (who is clearly not mentally focused right now)

There's blame to be shared--and, yeah, more than our share of bad luck and fortunate bounces/shots. Good for Doncic in pulling through in the clutch with a 30 footer. Bad for us. I just don't read more into it than that.

[esqtvd]

Trezz might not be right in the head yet, and as a relatively unskilled player, everything else is off too. He has nothing to fall back on at the moment. Obviously he needs to be put on a shorter leash but he only played 17 minutes anyway and J-Myke has been a non-factor too.

Without MONSTATREZZ in the house and Bev sidelined, there's a huge hole where our heart would be. That's 2 of our top 6 players and our 2 most demonstrative guys too.

If we go down 3-2, this kvetching might make some sense. 9 times out of 10 Doncic's shot misses, we're up 3-1 and all this vulturing is moot. Every championship team has some close calls along the way. Props to all those who have been able to hold their water.

Excuses, excuses. Doncic was hobbled, Porzingis was out and we were up 21. Imagine using a career role player like Bev as an excuse for losing that game.

This has nothing to do with what I wrote. Unless you have a factual rebuttal please stop harassing me.

[esqtvd]

Doc is supposed to be a brilliant personality manager. If the team isn't fired up or ready for the playoffs, it's on him - especially since we know we won't be seeing any great adjustments or X's and O's to make up for it.

Well, let's not carried away. doc is considered a "player's coach"--but that's not some sort of be all/end a;ll/cure all. And I'm pretty sure Doc said "some of that is on me" with regard to the team's emotional/mental letdown. And I agree (as I said). But I also think it's ridiculous to expect 15 grown men to say/think "Yeah, we're kinda lethargic right now--fire us up!" The main guys we've had to lift us out of that this year have been

Kawhi (who is coming through)
Pat Bev (who is out)
Trezz (who is clearly not mentally focused right now)

There's blame to be shared--and, yeah, more than our share of bad luck and fortunate bounces/shots. Good for Doncic in pulling through in the clutch with a 30 footer. Bad for us. I just don't read more into it than that.

Doncic, a career sub-33% from distance, misses that shot 9 out of 10. We had closed off the drive--Kawhi is skulking somewhere around the left elbow. That's the one you don't want to give up. He's gonna get a much better look and a good chance for the foul call to boot.

Like you say, good on him.

[Quake Griffin]

LOL my guy Hurricane Chris, Shai, Danilo, and Co. fighting the Rockets off and tying this series up.

Beautiful.

I don't ever wanna hear **** about Chris's playoff failures in our uniform ever again [as long as Milk Carton George is on our roster]. At least Chris would hoop his ass off and get us into near winning positions before his few blunders.


And lol if they make it out of the 1st round and we don't.

[nickhx2]

feels like jimmy butler was a ship we really missed out on.

still hope for paul george, but he really needs to stop making himself look even more foolish after each game.

and also actually play well, for a few.

[MartinToVaught]

Read on Twitter

#TradePlayoffP

[Roscoe Sheed]

I'm not sure why Jackson is such a bad match up for Doncic. He is smaller, for sure, but he has really long arms. It is very frustrating that Doncic is somehow able to drive around him- Jackson is quicker, so it must be poor defensive instincts?

Being quick or having long arms does not make him a good defender, just makes him more physically capable. At that situation you want someone not only very good perimeter defender but also is taller than Luka.
If the lead is 2 or 3 points, you double team him after screen, and take your chances with a pass to inside. But with one point lead, you can't do that so you have to make sure your top defender is on the guy.

Doc should have had Kawhi, PG, Mann, Morris and Green on the floor and told Kawhi not to switch off Luka. If he tried to stick to Luka, Kleber could have committed an offensive foul by trying to push him away from Luka via moving screen.

Watch the last play, and this is right after a timeout,
- Finney-Smith is inbounding the ball, Shamet is on him. (You want a tall guy with long arms here to block vision and potentially tip the inbounbd pass - MISTAKE #1).
- Kawhi is on Luka (this is good)
- Reggie Jacson is on Kleber who is 6 inches taller than him (MISTAKE #2)
- PG is on Curry (this is good as Curry is the best shooter on the floor and second most likely to take a 3point shot after Luka)
- Morris is on Hardaway (this is OK as Morris can also drop inside to protect the rim if an alley-oop is in play)
MISTAKE #3 is obviously telling the team to switch off when you have mismatched defenders.

Doc has 3 mistakes during a timeout. Inexcusable.

I totally agree. I'm not defending Doc by any means, I just don't understand why Jackson isn't a better defender. He has the physical tools to be a solid defender.

[wco81]

I've heard speculation that PG13 may be injured.

His shoulder still messed up from last year?

[esqtvd]

LOL my guy Hurricane Chris, Shai, Danilo, and Co. fighting the Rockets off and tying this series up.

Beautiful.

I don't ever wanna hear **** about Chris's playoff failures in our uniform ever again [as long as Milk Carton George is on our roster]. At least Chris would hoop his ass off and get us into near winning positions before his few blunders.


And lol if they make it out of the 1st round and we don't.

Chris is finally the mature leader he always needed to be. He still wasn't, as recently as his stint with Beard and the Rockets.

And it sure sounds like Blake and the rest realize now that immaturity was Lob City's biggest problem. The finger points back at each one of them to one degree or another.

[Clemenza]

Its far from over. Tied 2-2. We got this.

[NickP]

LOL my guy Hurricane Chris, Shai, Danilo, and Co. fighting the Rockets off and tying this series up.

Beautiful.

I don't ever wanna hear **** about Chris's playoff failures in our uniform ever again [as long as Milk Carton George is on our roster]. At least Chris would hoop his ass off and get us into near winning positions before his few blunders.


And lol if they make it out of the 1st round and we don't.

Chris is finally the mature leader he always needed to be. He still wasn't, as recently as his stint with Beard and the Rockets.

And it sure sounds like Blake and the rest realize now that immaturity was Lob City's biggest problem. The finger points back at each one of them to one degree or another.

You need to come up for some air.

[MartinToVaught]

I've heard speculation that PG13 may be injured.

His shoulder still messed up from last year?

He's not injured. He's just afraid of the playoffs.

[esqtvd]

Its far from over. Tied 2-2. We got this.

Fan.

I've never understood taking pleasure from your own team's reverses. How perverse. That's for the offseason--until then, where there is life, there is hope.