Western Conference | Round 2 | (1) Phoenix Suns vs. (4) Dallas Mavericks (2-2)

[bisme37]

Continued from here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2188782&start=1860

[Texas Chuck]

It would be cool if this thread could go back to talking about the series, and not your personal Luka agenda.

Suns are simply too good for this thread to be 80% Luka bickering and 20% Suns posters acting like Rodney Dangerfield.

Let's talk about the brilliance of Chris Paul. The defense of Mikal. The effectiveness of all 3 Suns centers. The importance of role playing shooting from both sides. Can Jalen Brunson figure out how to be effective despite the length and defense of the Suns perimeter players? Can Sweeney come up with any defensive wrinkles to slow down the Suns. Etc..

I know this is a futile ask, but as a long-term reg, I'm hoping a few of you at least will honor it.

[Archx]

Heh yeah well unfortunately they all looked like that. Kidd was talking about some changes for game 3, i'm eager to see what those changes will be or if it's more or less the same.

I am genuinely curious why they don’t just let Brunson bring the ball up and have Luka settle in the post. Seems like this business of dribbling the ball for half the possession takes a lot of energy and often goes nowhere and he’s very effective posting the Suns. He’d get less shots but the offense would be more balanced and he’d have more energy late.

They were actually doing that for the most part of the regular season. No clue why they went back to Rick style offense from last season. Maybe Suns defenders are giving too many problems to Brunson. I mean Suns are really good, they cover a lot of ground and they have 3 centers that can disrupt any runs to the rim. But it's a problem Mavs will have to solve really fast...

[Hsker4Life]

It would be cool if this thread could go back to talking about the series, and not your personal Luka agenda.

Suns are simply too good for this thread to be 80% Luka bickering and 20% Suns posters acting like Rodney Dangerfield.

Let's talk about the brilliance of Chris Paul. The defense of Mikal. The effectiveness of all 3 Suns centers. The importance of role playing shooting from both sides. Can Jalen Brunson figure out how to be effective despite the length and defense of the Suns perimeter players? Can Sweeney come up with any defensive wrinkles to slow down the Suns. Etc..

I know this is a futile ask, but as a long-term reg, I'm hoping a few of you at least will honor it.

Mavs fans have been nothing but superb! Especially that Gimli guy.

If I had to put money on tonight’s game, I’d lean towards the Mavs. It’s a must win for them. I expect the arena to be rowdy and the team to be full of energy. Their bench, led by Theo, will be talking trash from the start, running on the court and celebrating at any opportunity. I expect Brunson and Dinwiddie to shoot better at home than what we’ve seen so far. The Mavs will likely get the benefit of the whistle at home and down 0-2.

[Mavrelous]

Huge game for the Mavs tonight, they already slim chance, going down 0-3, seals the deal.
Keys to a win IMO:
Don't use Powell, it's not the series for him, go 5 out with your "bigs" being Luka, DFS, Maxi and Bertans.
Play Luka off ball as a post up option, initiate the P&R with Brunson in the 1st qtr, save Luka's energy to the 4th.
Come out strong, don't spend the game chasing them and then be out of breath in the end.

[SkyBill40]

How we've not yet drawn Scott Foster amazes me. I'm willing to bet he is the lead official in a potential close out game 4 or 5.

[jcsunsfan]

How we've not yet drawn Scott Foster amazes me. I'm willing to bet he is the lead official in a potential close-out game 4 or 5.

0-14

That is Chris Paul's record in playoff games reffed by Scott Foster. That is not a statistical anomaly. That is refereeing prejudice. Scott Foster has no business reffing a Chris Paul game in the post-season.

[SkyBill40]

How we've not yet drawn Scott Foster amazes me. I'm willing to bet he is the lead official in a potential close-out game 4 or 5.

0-14

That is Chris Paul's record in playoff games reffed by Scott Foster. That is not a statistical anomaly. That is refereeing prejudice. Scott Foster has no business reffing a Chris Paul game in the post-season.

Oh, I'm all too aware of the present streak. Yet, as I'm sure it's coming, we WILL see a Scott Foster led crew in one of the next few games. Bank on it.

[darmani]

Read on Twitter

[sunsbum]

Originally I had Suns in 5 but I think this will be a sweep. The mavs will have to play out if their minds while the Suns would have to put up a sub 50% shooting night.

[IamBBAnalysis]

I think the Dallas role players will be more aggressive in this game. Also, I don't think the Mavs have been that far off from winning except for the 4th quarter of the last game. So I think if they put together a full game they have a chance.

[Kingarella]

the mavs are just too shallow. Without a legitimate center and with a bench shorter than an Alaskan summer you can do only as much. AT the beginning I was thinking 4-2 for the suns and hoping Luka magic would do even more. Hell, I was even optimistic after 3 quarters in the second game but that 4th quaarter meltdown was deadly. I think it is a consequence of the mavs shallowness which leads to overplaying key players that get tired in the endgame. I would give Chriss a couple of minutes, can't be worse than Powell.

[Hsker4Life]

Suns are slight underdogs tonight.

[leolozon]

Suns are slight underdogs tonight.

They shouldn't be. The Mavs have to prove that they can beat them. It's the team they've been struggling with the most.

More things can go wrong for the Mavs than for the Suns.

[MrGoat]

If Luka's thigh isn't feeling better this will be a romp for Phoenix. Once they spotted that he wasn't moving right they went right after it and they'll do it again if his mobility looks hampered, they'll probably try it even if he looks fine just to try to wear him out. Hopefully Kidd's callouts of Brunson and Dinwiddie will get them to move the ball a little better. I don't see any answer for the center problem though, Phoenix is so deep with centers it didn't even matter that Ayton got into foul trouble because they have McGee and Biyombo too

[JShuttlesworth]

I would love for the Mavs to get a game here and try and make something of this series

The Suns look rock solid though, they might just run away with another one and make this 3-0

[Gimli]

One more funny thing the Mavs could do, which shouldn't work anyway, is to give Brunson the ball and play Doncic PF. And just "freeze" Doncic from offense. And let Doncic do some off ball screens and some other **** etc. Maybe they can prepare some simple plays, so that offense looks somewhat passable. With the intention of keeping Doncic fresh for defense, so that he can play 1 vs 1 against CP3 and stop him from hitting everything.

So I don't know, try to make it into a Jordan 6 3pointers at half time game. Except for defense. The Suns are targetting Doncic the whole time, either directly or indirectly... Maybe JB being playmaker the whole time and Doncic focusing only on the defense can be a solution. But I don't know if he can just play PF without any experience.

[Revived]

If Luka's thigh isn't feeling better this will be a romp for Phoenix. Once they spotted that he wasn't moving right they went right after it and they'll do it again if his mobility looks hampered, they'll probably try it even if he looks fine just to try to wear him out. Hopefully Kidd's callouts of Brunson and Dinwiddie will get them to move the ball a little better. I don't see any answer for the center problem though, Phoenix is so deep with centers it didn't even matter that Ayton got into foul trouble because they have McGee and Biyombo too

His thigh looked fine when he dropped 24 pts in the first half of last game. I think Phoenix simply did a better job on him in the second half of last game and he also ran out of energy after having to do so much in the first half.

[Gimli]

I just don't know why the Mavs didn't try to play Doncic as PF at certain times in the regular season. In the games when opponents were blown, they had lots of opportunity to do so. Doncic + JB can't really play as 1 and 2, because JB either just stands on the perimeter and that's it, or Doncic just stands on the perimeter.

They would have much more synergy, imo, with Doncic playing the PF, when JB has the ball...

[Texas Chuck]

One more funny thing the Mavs could do, which shouldn't work anyway, is to give Brunson the ball and play Doncic PF. And just "freeze" Doncic from offense. And let Doncic do some off ball screens and some other **** etc.

You need to stop. Just stop.

Going to Boban isn't the answer.
Turning Luka into a 1990's PF isn't the answer.

Sometimes you have to just accept the other team is better and causes problems with no easy solutions. But this gimmick nonsense ain't it.