Playoffs 20/21 - G4 - Mavs vs Clippers (Sunday, 9:30 PM EST)

[Teffer10]

I've been a big KP fan but that is quickly fading...especially watching him against small ball.
He's too big/slow when teams go small and he's too light against teams with legit sized centers.
There is no reason why he shouldn't completely dominate and punish the Clips or anyone with 6'8 centers.

His lack of P&R defense and offense and inability to guard small players and true centers make him virtually worthless.
Maybe sandwiching him between Marion/Chandler caliber players and putting him in a Dirk type role might work but I'm beginning to think moving him in the off-season should be top priority.

[JJP]

I've been a big KP fan but that is quickly fading...especially watching him against small ball.
He's too big/slow when teams go small and he's too light against teams with legit sized centers.

His lack of P&R defense and offense and inability to guard small players and true centers make him virtually worthless.
Maybe sandwiching him between Marion/Chandler caliber players and putting him in a Dirk type role might work but I'm beginning to think moving him in the off-season should be top priority.

I agree. He has actually regressed to the point where he is disregarded as a rim protector. He's not mobile enough to stay with smaller players. Unless a miracle happens, this organization is doing a dis-service to the fans if he's not moved this off-season. You simply can't just hope KP changes and call that a strategy. Luca has to have defensive support, and keeping KP for another season would send a bad message to him and other players. The Mavs are 22nd in the league on defense. That's not going to change much if both your two "stars" are bad defensive players.

[DJ_3_Ball]

unless Carlisle has any other moves looks like this may be over...

I think Carlisle has to start doubling Kawhi. Stick a decent defender on PG... DFS, I guess? and dare Morris, Batum, and Jackson to beat you from 3. They probably will, but they could also get cold & if the Mavs regain their 3 point form, this is a series.

guarding Kawhi 1-on-1 and PG for that matter, and having no rim protection gives the Mavs no chance.

[Apz]

Vant win if it really was 16(?)% from 3. Noone can

[RingColluder]

unless Carlisle has any other moves looks like this may be over...

I think Carlisle has to start doubling Kawhi. Stick a decent defender on PG... DFS, I guess? and dare Morris, Batum, and Jackson to beat you from 3. They probably will, but they could also get cold & if the Mavs regain their 3 point form, this is a series.

guarding Kawhi 1-on-1 and PG for that matter, and having no rim protection gives the Mavs no chance.

Your best bet is forcing PG to shoot jumpers. He gets to the rim as he has been this series, you don't have a chance. He's a very streaky shooter and finished the year horribly from the perimeter.

Kawhi is just on a different level. This is th best I've seen him look since the Raptors series. This guy was not at all present during the Denver series last year.

[agentofatlas]

unless Carlisle has any other moves looks like this may be over...

I think Carlisle has to start doubling Kawhi. Stick a decent defender on PG... DFS, I guess? and dare Morris, Batum, and Jackson to beat you from 3. They probably will, but they could also get cold & if the Mavs regain their 3 point form, this is a series.

guarding Kawhi 1-on-1 and PG for that matter, and having no rim protection gives the Mavs no chance.

Your best bet is forcing PG to shoot jumpers. He gets to the rim as he has been this series, you don't have a chance. He's a very streaky shooter and finished the year horribly from the perimeter.

Kawhi is just on a different level. This is th best I've seen him look since the Raptors series. This guy was not at all present during the Denver series last year.

I think Rick concluded that they don't have the defensive personnel to win the series. I mean the mavsmoney guys pointed it out that Luka was their best perimeter defender at times during the game and that should never ever happen. That's why Boban's number was called. Outscoring them seems like the only strategy viable. Problem is a lot of this have to go right for that to happen.

[agentofatlas]

I've been a big KP fan but that is quickly fading...especially watching him against small ball.
He's too big/slow when teams go small and he's too light against teams with legit sized centers.
There is no reason why he shouldn't completely dominate and punish the Clips or anyone with 6'8 centers.

His lack of P&R defense and offense and inability to guard small players and true centers make him virtually worthless.
Maybe sandwiching him between Marion/Chandler caliber players and putting him in a Dirk type role might work but I'm beginning to think moving him in the off-season should be top priority.

KP's toast man. He always had trouble defending in space but his paint and rim protection were very good. It dropping significantly this year and really **** with the team's defensive scheme. Doesn't help that Maxi and DFS also seem to drop off defensively with Richardson being a big negative on the court.

[BlueSan]

There is a bunch of things that can be done, but doubling Kawhi IMO would not be a good option, of course, you can partially do it to give him different looks, same as for Luka on the other side (especially since Kawhi and company are less used to seeing double teams and Kawhi isn't as good of a passer as Luka.
Going into aggressive and good closeout Zone is also an option.

Again problems come when you need good rotations and closeouts and Dallas has so far shown they are extremely poor at handling those.

However there is just one thing I dislike about the entire thing, since I did say Clippers are better and for me it was Clippers in 4:1 or max 4:2.

Attitude of the team. Clippers were like = no worries blah blah
Our guys...heads down, we were bad, we need to do better and stupid stuff like that. Man up and say you will smack them next game. Give some optimism even if you fail, go out there actually believing you are a better team not just feeling sorry for yourself and all depressed. It is extremely painful to watch. Wont even talk about the coach = have had it with this guy already 10 folds. Every single time giving some generic answers no passion fire whatever. Might as well skip the conferences all together. How this guy can inspire anyone is beyond me