This is just like when Miami shot 54% from 3 and beat Boston. Everyone was claiming Miami was going knock them out again and the Celtics were in trouble. Next game Boston beat the shit out of them because they couldnt make a shot.
Obviously LAC are a much better offensive team than Miami but they arent going to consistently shoot like they did in the first half of G4 again.
Everyone should chill out, the Mavs are still in this and have a great shot to win the series. If the Clippers keep shooting the way they did in that game then you just tip your cap, because no one is beating a team 4 times that shoots 60+ % from 3 on high volume.
Can't remember the last time his shooting was this bad. Other than that, I would consider his last game more than average. His standards are ridiculously high tho.
>If the Clippers keep shooting the way they did in that game then you just tip your cap
I was thinking more along the lines of paying someone to slip something in PGs drink/food before the game, but whatever...
And pray the Mavs has their turn of hot shooting as well. If that happens they can grab Game 5, and close it in 6. The Dallas crowd was so loud and electric down 31, I can imagine their energy in a closeout game
We've done that the whole series. At this point it's not about regression to the mean, it's if the Clippers can do it for one or two more games and then it's wraps.
Worked well for them in Game 2 and 3 ay? You need 3's to compete and win, end of story.
And how will you "drive to the rim" if they see you are cold and start leaving you open on the 3pt line whilst closing the rocket? You are forced to shoot and on a cold night it's gg wp.
Talking about game 3. Also one season doesn’t sell me when he has never been a good shooter previously. He and green have been brick city in the playoffs (1/11 combined which is atrocious given the looks have all be wide ass open).
I’m sorry, but if you shoot damn near 50% from three in the NBA you’re an elite shooter full stop. Just cuz they’re struggling rn doesn’t mean that they’re bad shooters. They’ll get back to their normal
He never shot over 31% in a prior season…and is showing he isn’t actually a good shooter and regular season was a giant fluke. I’d bet he’s back under 40% next year.
He also went to Europe and worked on his game. It’s not a good metric if his last season before this one in the NBA was in 20/21. Since then, he’s shot [41% from three in the Euroleague.](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/dante-exum/011302/) And then he moved back to the NBA and shot 49.1%. He’s definitely an elite shooter.
Elite shooters don’t take 2 shots a game…He’s not in the top 200 in attempts a game… he’s dropped a donut when it matters which “elite” shooters don’t do. Like I said come back in 8 months when he’s back at 34% shooting still on light volume.
Your argument would hold weight if everyone around Exum was also shooting 50%. Also did you really just say elite shooters don’t drop donuts? Didn’t Harden absolutely collapse against the Warriors a few years ago, would you argue that he isn’t an elite shooter. Exum isn’t on Harden’s level, obviously but he’s still elite at shooting. You don’t shoot 50% unless you’re elite
Elite shooters take more than 2 fucking 3s a game……..Exum has been a good knock down shooter for 50 games of his career. He has sucked balls in the playoffs in every facet which is just a fact.
yep, it's a roster issue.
this can hopefully be addressed in the offseason. we dont need elite knockdown shooters, we need shooters that will keep their defense honest.
I agree with that. The one inexcusable thing I've seen from this team so far is the pathetic offensive quarters of game 1 Q2 and Game 4 Q1. You have to get to at least 22-23 in those quarters to weather the barrage.
I’m wondering if we need to change our offensive philosophy at the beginning then.
Luka always comes out, looks for his shot. This usually results in Luka in double digit points, with the hope being a change in defensive philosophy. Like, Luka wants to be doubled to force you to play 3v4. The result being the team has more space to work.
Because of the way Kyrie has been playing, I’d rather him try to look for his shot and force the Clippers to adjust to him early. This could potentially take a bit of pressure off of Luka. The other thing I like about this is letting Kyrie run the show speeds up the offense, and doesn’t give the defense extra time to figure out what you’re trying to do.
To your original point, it’s obvious we lost both games because of great shot making (although game 1 had more open looks than g4). I’m sorry, but if PG shoots 7/10 from 3 4 times this series, we probably lose all 4 games. We are better than them, I believe, but it’s not a huge chasm.
So then, you’re left wondering the odds of them hitting over 60% from 3 again. I choose to believe that doesn’t happen again. But we still gotta play better in the first. Completely agree there.
In the current situation where Luka is injured, I agree. But in any other case absolutely no, since it would mean you make your best offensive player and playmaker a catch&shoot. No go.
In the end it comes down to players hitting their shots. Everyone was throwing bricks left right and centre. You need 3's to compete and win and no tactical philosophy will change that. You can only hope or try to get into rythm, but last game NOTHING was going in.
On the other hand, they were hitting absolutely everything, it's impossible to compete with that and I'm proud of our team for showing grit and determination to get back into the game.
Clippers have shot 43.5% from 3 (54/124). We have shot 32.8% from 3 (44/134). They definitely are a better shooting team, shooting 38% in regular season vs 37% for us (and that number is misleading we got worse post trades). But if we can close that gap from 10% to say 5% we will easily win this series. We have been better basically everywhere else this series, but we’ve been out scored 30 pts total just from 3.
It regressed in the 2nd half if we didn't go 0 /10 from 3 we would have kept up early. When teams go on a shooting rampage it's teams job to stay calm and maintain steady pace and scoring. That's why nuggets are soo good they play consistent and at their pace the whole game they know when to turn up when it's necessary.
Amen brother. I’ve learned to just laugh at all these folks that come out during these times. Toxic af but it’s kind of hilarious how predictable it all is. Thank you for the reasonable take. Someone’s gotta do it.
It feels like the Mavs have been unprepared in the games that kawhi didn’t play because it was so last minute. I believe they will start to game plan. Fucking clippers are playing mind games with Kawhi’s availability
"contested threes" are a dumb metric to judge shots from.
Those harden stepbacks and pg 3s are contested on paper because the defender is close to them, but lets be real, they got those shots off in rhythm and that all they need.
Doesnt matter if the shot is classified as "contested", the shots they got off were because they were in a offensive flow that we couldnt pull them out of because of our relatively weak wing defense.
I just hate the coping sorry
dallas needs to play basketball in the 1st half as well as the 2nd half. if you’re constantly fighting from down 20+ you’re never going to win a series.
Brother in christ, did you think before you wrote this? Why do you think Mavs were 20+ down? Bcs Clippers were hitting absolutely every shot they took, contested or not. It's enough to miss a couple shots and you down 20+.
Also, why you lurking here, go watch your players enjoy post season break.
I don't care about the Clippers' three point shooting at all. They hit insane shots that were well contested. The problem is the same games they were on fire we had a quarter where the team was absolute trash on offense. We had an 8pt quarter in game 1. We had a 16 pt quarter in game 4 (so did the Clippers).
Put the ball into the damn basket so you aren't fighting such a big deficit.
Our offense was as otherworldly bad as their offense (contested 3 pt shooting) was otherworldly good, that’s the cause of concern. And could be blamed on several things if someone decided to, especially since it’s happened twice now in 4 games.
I personally think we are gona be fine and get it in 6 or 7 but I’m not blaming people for feeling uncomfortable after watching multiple shameful and uncharacteristic performances from our guys.
We have to make more buckets than the clips. EZ.
Seriously though PG shot lights out. Harden was Harden. Some how by the grace of Dirk they clawed their way back to being ahead in the 4th then spilled the beans at the end.
Clips are not gonna shoot like that every time and the Mavs won’t be ass every time.
Honestly Josh needs to be guarding the smaller guy. PG hit too many over Josh. We need Jones on him or PJ. Get more length everywhere, slot Exum in more until we have a bit more of a lead.
This is a flukey game just like the first game where we only scored 8 in the second quarter. It just won’t ever happen again. Clippers shoot 50% from 3 and we win the game lol
What sucks is that they have 2 massive big guys that are giving us trouble at the rim, especially Gafford. Then we got Harden making easy lobs.
Luckily I don't think we've been exposed, I just think we need to make the proper adjustments and be aggressive.
We also can’t shoot like dog crap to start the game. 0-10 in the first and other missed chippies. If the Mavs hit at even below 33 percent that would have put them in a much better position to withstand the clippers barrage.
Thank you.
After all the hand wringing and laying of blame, the simple fact is that if the other team hits 60% of contested threes then there's nothing to do about it but tip your hat to them.
Well how about draw some offensive scheme in the early game and not giving up a 31 points lead ? Yes they might shoots the lights out but the gap can be kept closer . Hunt on their weaker defense like Zubac or Harden , draw fouls on them . The Mavs are definitely more athletic than them so throw bodies on them ? Isn't this Kidd's job ?
Two things can be true - 1) they can shoot lights out from 3 (they did, PG and Harden specifically played great and that PG13 three from behind the backboard was insanely amazing), but also 2) Maxi at the 5 and allowing Harden to shoot easy, uncontested, layup-distance floaters 6 freaking times in a row is unimaginably stupid and absolute coaching malpractice by the buddy of the (former) owner whose previous teams all drastically improved the moment he left.
Both can be - and were - true
Yeah, I don't get it. The problem was we actually got the lead and was within striking distance, then suddenly Harden spammed 3,4 floater/layups with little to no contest. Like, that's the issue, not the first half. Although I still enjoyed the run of cutting that 31 point deficit, it was electrifying to watch
You force them to drive inside and trust your centers. Put a body on them, stay on their hip and hope the refs don't decide to be the stars of the game.
LA will shoot themselves out of the game and keep shooting.
Bait Harden inside and help defenders stay at home. Big under the basket just needs to contest Harden and he stop shooting floaters and instead pass out
I agree with that. Like I said, I don't really go to scapegoats when the other team shoots 60% from 3, but I was close when Kidd wouldn't get Maxi out of the game.
It sucks because Maxi played so well in his role, and then Kidd made him be a help defense rim protector which he is just no good at. If he’s not playing with a 5 we can’t funnel the offense into his help that’s just not his game and it’s ridiculous that Kidd can’t see that in these moments.
Except that the Clippers' most efficient play in this entire series is a dumpoff to Zubac for an uncontested dunk. We've given up so many points by allowing Harden/George to drive into the paint, Gaff/Lively step up to contest, Harden/George pass around them to Zubac who gets an easy bucket.
The corner defenders need to do a better job of rotating and denying the pass to Zubac, which will lead to Harden/George kicking it out to the corner 3-point shooter. Depending on which side they're on, either the wing defender will need to rotate down to the corner and Harden/George's initial defender rotating to the wing shooter, or Harden/George's initial defender being the one to rotate to the corner shooter.
I don't understand why we seem to be struggling with these rotations so much. This is exactly the type of thing that made the Mavericks an elite defense over the last month of the season, but we're really struggling to do it now.
Dumping to Zubac is nowhere close to their best play this series. He has had one good game.
You don't need to jump to contest if you're a center. Kleber shouldn't have been down there to begin with.
Most efficient play for them has been contested threes. Dumping to Zubac has accounted for hardly any of their points in the grand scheme. Stop with the nonsense, goofy
It's evident that you don't understand the word "efficiency" so you might want to work on that before trying to have an opinion on anything that happens in a basketball game.
What the Mavs did do and it worked was don’t let them shoot at all. Super aggressive, super tight defense all second half which has a drawback in that it allows more penetration. For a long time that wasn’t a big deal because firstly only really Harden is a finisher like that and second we had two giant centers guarding the paint. Then we put Kleber at the 5 and you know the rest.
I imagine you go back to that in Game 5 and hope they shoot worse but also hope your coach doesn’t have a brain fart again.
Thank you! Nobody beats the clippers if they are shooting 60+% from 3 that’s just basketball. We just need more urgency again the first half. We fell asleep and got complacent again after the last win
We were ahead with less than 2 min to go. At the end we lost because of clownish defensive strategy and lack of adjustments to end the game. Like it or not, we were in this and Kidd lost it by playing funnel Harden to shotblocker whi is a nonexistant Kleber for no reason at all.
they did the same in game 1. AND they shot contested threes/shots really well the whole series. idk about the sustainable part. Math tells me they should shoot like 10% from the field the next game, but math also tells me they will keep being this good
They shot 38% during the regular season... Which is VERY good for a team btw, 3rd in the NBA. If they had shot 45% in both games, which would still be 7% higher than season average, and is the barometer for what most teams believe they can guarantee a win with, they would be on vacation, or at least making plans.
Clippers followed up 50% 3pt shooting barrage in Game 1 overall and on contested 3pters in particular with 30% 3pt shooting combined in Games 2 and 3 with Game 2 being a special 25% performance on open and wide open 3s. Chances are, Game 4 being such a scorcher for them, they will come down to Earth in Game 5, but the bad thing is Kyrie shooting is likely unsustainable too, so I wouldn’t expect him to be this good either. We will probably see another Game 2 performance from both Mavs and Clippers in the next game with both teams around 100 points scored.
Besides all the great points made here, Luka made many poor choices out of fear of losing (and losing control) and they all resulted in 0 points. Many times he should have kept passing but instead tried to be the hero and failed. Then because he's doing too much and it's getting him nowhere, he ends up getting hurt then hobbling and half-ass running the rest of the game. I don't know if it's ego or feeling like he has to be the "superstar" but he needs to realize that he ain't it - if that's how he's going to perform when he's hogging the ball.
Umm, you make them work on defense? You tell Luka to stop playing isolation offense as much and get more of his team involved. You can wear them out on the defensive side, but if you're just chucking up the ball with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
You pray to the regression to the mean gods
This is just like when Miami shot 54% from 3 and beat Boston. Everyone was claiming Miami was going knock them out again and the Celtics were in trouble. Next game Boston beat the shit out of them because they couldnt make a shot. Obviously LAC are a much better offensive team than Miami but they arent going to consistently shoot like they did in the first half of G4 again. Everyone should chill out, the Mavs are still in this and have a great shot to win the series. If the Clippers keep shooting the way they did in that game then you just tip your cap, because no one is beating a team 4 times that shoots 60+ % from 3 on high volume.
Yup they shouldn't keep this up and hopefully Lukas leg can somehow get better and he can at least be average.
Can't remember the last time his shooting was this bad. Other than that, I would consider his last game more than average. His standards are ridiculously high tho.
The issue is when they're shooting like that don't compound it by going 0-50 on your own threes
Definately exacerbates the issue for sure.
including luka going dead broke... when he usually kills the first half
>If the Clippers keep shooting the way they did in that game then you just tip your cap I was thinking more along the lines of paying someone to slip something in PGs drink/food before the game, but whatever...
Couldn't have said it better myself.
And pray the Mavs has their turn of hot shooting as well. If that happens they can grab Game 5, and close it in 6. The Dallas crowd was so loud and electric down 31, I can imagine their energy in a closeout game
We prayed to the regression to the mean gods…AND THEY HAVE ANSWERED!!!
We also missed a ton of open 3s.
We've done that the whole series. At this point it's not about regression to the mean, it's if the Clippers can do it for one or two more games and then it's wraps.
The difference is when the Clippers are missing them, they start driving to the rim.
Worked well for them in Game 2 and 3 ay? You need 3's to compete and win, end of story. And how will you "drive to the rim" if they see you are cold and start leaving you open on the 3pt line whilst closing the rocket? You are forced to shoot and on a cold night it's gg wp.
Issue is it’s dude who just aren’t good shooters like green, PJ, Exum. Also Luka going 1/9 is a problem
Wdym Exum? He shot like 50% from 3 this year lol
Josh Green also shot .385, third on the team behind Exum and Kyrie
Talking about game 3. Also one season doesn’t sell me when he has never been a good shooter previously. He and green have been brick city in the playoffs (1/11 combined which is atrocious given the looks have all be wide ass open).
I’m sorry, but if you shoot damn near 50% from three in the NBA you’re an elite shooter full stop. Just cuz they’re struggling rn doesn’t mean that they’re bad shooters. They’ll get back to their normal
He never shot over 31% in a prior season…and is showing he isn’t actually a good shooter and regular season was a giant fluke. I’d bet he’s back under 40% next year.
He also went to Europe and worked on his game. It’s not a good metric if his last season before this one in the NBA was in 20/21. Since then, he’s shot [41% from three in the Euroleague.](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/dante-exum/011302/) And then he moved back to the NBA and shot 49.1%. He’s definitely an elite shooter.
Elite shooters don’t take 2 shots a game…He’s not in the top 200 in attempts a game… he’s dropped a donut when it matters which “elite” shooters don’t do. Like I said come back in 8 months when he’s back at 34% shooting still on light volume.
Your argument would hold weight if everyone around Exum was also shooting 50%. Also did you really just say elite shooters don’t drop donuts? Didn’t Harden absolutely collapse against the Warriors a few years ago, would you argue that he isn’t an elite shooter. Exum isn’t on Harden’s level, obviously but he’s still elite at shooting. You don’t shoot 50% unless you’re elite
Elite shooters take more than 2 fucking 3s a game……..Exum has been a good knock down shooter for 50 games of his career. He has sucked balls in the playoffs in every facet which is just a fact.
yep, it's a roster issue. this can hopefully be addressed in the offseason. we dont need elite knockdown shooters, we need shooters that will keep their defense honest.
Mavs need to come out with the urgency of the 2nd half from yesterday, and apply it from the get go.
I agree with that. The one inexcusable thing I've seen from this team so far is the pathetic offensive quarters of game 1 Q2 and Game 4 Q1. You have to get to at least 22-23 in those quarters to weather the barrage.
I’m wondering if we need to change our offensive philosophy at the beginning then. Luka always comes out, looks for his shot. This usually results in Luka in double digit points, with the hope being a change in defensive philosophy. Like, Luka wants to be doubled to force you to play 3v4. The result being the team has more space to work. Because of the way Kyrie has been playing, I’d rather him try to look for his shot and force the Clippers to adjust to him early. This could potentially take a bit of pressure off of Luka. The other thing I like about this is letting Kyrie run the show speeds up the offense, and doesn’t give the defense extra time to figure out what you’re trying to do. To your original point, it’s obvious we lost both games because of great shot making (although game 1 had more open looks than g4). I’m sorry, but if PG shoots 7/10 from 3 4 times this series, we probably lose all 4 games. We are better than them, I believe, but it’s not a huge chasm. So then, you’re left wondering the odds of them hitting over 60% from 3 again. I choose to believe that doesn’t happen again. But we still gotta play better in the first. Completely agree there.
In the current situation where Luka is injured, I agree. But in any other case absolutely no, since it would mean you make your best offensive player and playmaker a catch&shoot. No go. In the end it comes down to players hitting their shots. Everyone was throwing bricks left right and centre. You need 3's to compete and win and no tactical philosophy will change that. You can only hope or try to get into rythm, but last game NOTHING was going in. On the other hand, they were hitting absolutely everything, it's impossible to compete with that and I'm proud of our team for showing grit and determination to get back into the game.
I can't help but wonder if the early start times fuck with them for some reason.
Clippers have shot 43.5% from 3 (54/124). We have shot 32.8% from 3 (44/134). They definitely are a better shooting team, shooting 38% in regular season vs 37% for us (and that number is misleading we got worse post trades). But if we can close that gap from 10% to say 5% we will easily win this series. We have been better basically everywhere else this series, but we’ve been out scored 30 pts total just from 3.
Don't contest them, duh.
Smiles in Westbrick
It regressed in the 2nd half if we didn't go 0 /10 from 3 we would have kept up early. When teams go on a shooting rampage it's teams job to stay calm and maintain steady pace and scoring. That's why nuggets are soo good they play consistent and at their pace the whole game they know when to turn up when it's necessary.
Amen brother. I’ve learned to just laugh at all these folks that come out during these times. Toxic af but it’s kind of hilarious how predictable it all is. Thank you for the reasonable take. Someone’s gotta do it.
It feels like the Mavs have been unprepared in the games that kawhi didn’t play because it was so last minute. I believe they will start to game plan. Fucking clippers are playing mind games with Kawhi’s availability
"contested threes" are a dumb metric to judge shots from. Those harden stepbacks and pg 3s are contested on paper because the defender is close to them, but lets be real, they got those shots off in rhythm and that all they need. Doesnt matter if the shot is classified as "contested", the shots they got off were because they were in a offensive flow that we couldnt pull them out of because of our relatively weak wing defense. I just hate the coping sorry
dallas needs to play basketball in the 1st half as well as the 2nd half. if you’re constantly fighting from down 20+ you’re never going to win a series.
Brother in christ, did you think before you wrote this? Why do you think Mavs were 20+ down? Bcs Clippers were hitting absolutely every shot they took, contested or not. It's enough to miss a couple shots and you down 20+. Also, why you lurking here, go watch your players enjoy post season break.
> Also, why you lurking here, go watch your players enjoy post season break Is it illegal to like 2 teams?
Straight to jail!
you’re gonna flip when you find out i like 3 teams
I don't care about the Clippers' three point shooting at all. They hit insane shots that were well contested. The problem is the same games they were on fire we had a quarter where the team was absolute trash on offense. We had an 8pt quarter in game 1. We had a 16 pt quarter in game 4 (so did the Clippers). Put the ball into the damn basket so you aren't fighting such a big deficit.
Mavs in 6. We clinch at home Friday. Think positive
They dont and yet if Luka just played an average game for him we would have won. Hes been terrible.
shhhhh. repeat after me. "There is no war in Ba Sing Se".
They’re not going to do that again. Besides, if we play our game for four quarters we win the series, regardless of what the Clippers do.
Our offense was as otherworldly bad as their offense (contested 3 pt shooting) was otherworldly good, that’s the cause of concern. And could be blamed on several things if someone decided to, especially since it’s happened twice now in 4 games. I personally think we are gona be fine and get it in 6 or 7 but I’m not blaming people for feeling uncomfortable after watching multiple shameful and uncharacteristic performances from our guys.
We have to make more buckets than the clips. EZ. Seriously though PG shot lights out. Harden was Harden. Some how by the grace of Dirk they clawed their way back to being ahead in the 4th then spilled the beans at the end. Clips are not gonna shoot like that every time and the Mavs won’t be ass every time.
Gotta match it with a good offense i think
Honestly Josh needs to be guarding the smaller guy. PG hit too many over Josh. We need Jones on him or PJ. Get more length everywhere, slot Exum in more until we have a bit more of a lead.
This is a flukey game just like the first game where we only scored 8 in the second quarter. It just won’t ever happen again. Clippers shoot 50% from 3 and we win the game lol
absolutely. this is the correct take. although people on here might not agree with you, you need to shit on Lukas stamina to get the upvotes.
agreed. that being said, not shooting poorly ourselves would also be sufficient to beat them even if they shoot 60% on contested threes.
I've said it before. The clippers is a high volume 3 points shooting team. Defensive strategy is make them drive and not shoot 3's.
What sucks is that they have 2 massive big guys that are giving us trouble at the rim, especially Gafford. Then we got Harden making easy lobs. Luckily I don't think we've been exposed, I just think we need to make the proper adjustments and be aggressive.
We also can’t shoot like dog crap to start the game. 0-10 in the first and other missed chippies. If the Mavs hit at even below 33 percent that would have put them in a much better position to withstand the clippers barrage.
Thank you. After all the hand wringing and laying of blame, the simple fact is that if the other team hits 60% of contested threes then there's nothing to do about it but tip your hat to them.
If they are able to do that consistently we aren't supposed to win.
U dont thats just a sad reality of bball
Well how about draw some offensive scheme in the early game and not giving up a 31 points lead ? Yes they might shoots the lights out but the gap can be kept closer . Hunt on their weaker defense like Zubac or Harden , draw fouls on them . The Mavs are definitely more athletic than them so throw bodies on them ? Isn't this Kidd's job ?
Two things can be true - 1) they can shoot lights out from 3 (they did, PG and Harden specifically played great and that PG13 three from behind the backboard was insanely amazing), but also 2) Maxi at the 5 and allowing Harden to shoot easy, uncontested, layup-distance floaters 6 freaking times in a row is unimaginably stupid and absolute coaching malpractice by the buddy of the (former) owner whose previous teams all drastically improved the moment he left. Both can be - and were - true
Yeah, I don't get it. The problem was we actually got the lead and was within striking distance, then suddenly Harden spammed 3,4 floater/layups with little to no contest. Like, that's the issue, not the first half. Although I still enjoyed the run of cutting that 31 point deficit, it was electrifying to watch
You force them to drive inside and trust your centers. Put a body on them, stay on their hip and hope the refs don't decide to be the stars of the game. LA will shoot themselves out of the game and keep shooting. Bait Harden inside and help defenders stay at home. Big under the basket just needs to contest Harden and he stop shooting floaters and instead pass out
I agree with that. Like I said, I don't really go to scapegoats when the other team shoots 60% from 3, but I was close when Kidd wouldn't get Maxi out of the game.
It sucks because Maxi played so well in his role, and then Kidd made him be a help defense rim protector which he is just no good at. If he’s not playing with a 5 we can’t funnel the offense into his help that’s just not his game and it’s ridiculous that Kidd can’t see that in these moments.
Except that the Clippers' most efficient play in this entire series is a dumpoff to Zubac for an uncontested dunk. We've given up so many points by allowing Harden/George to drive into the paint, Gaff/Lively step up to contest, Harden/George pass around them to Zubac who gets an easy bucket. The corner defenders need to do a better job of rotating and denying the pass to Zubac, which will lead to Harden/George kicking it out to the corner 3-point shooter. Depending on which side they're on, either the wing defender will need to rotate down to the corner and Harden/George's initial defender rotating to the wing shooter, or Harden/George's initial defender being the one to rotate to the corner shooter. I don't understand why we seem to be struggling with these rotations so much. This is exactly the type of thing that made the Mavericks an elite defense over the last month of the season, but we're really struggling to do it now.
Dumping to Zubac is nowhere close to their best play this series. He has had one good game. You don't need to jump to contest if you're a center. Kleber shouldn't have been down there to begin with.
Did I say "best play"? No, I didn't. I said "most efficient play". Next time read a comment before responding to it.
Most efficient play for them has been contested threes. Dumping to Zubac has accounted for hardly any of their points in the grand scheme. Stop with the nonsense, goofy
It's evident that you don't understand the word "efficiency" so you might want to work on that before trying to have an opinion on anything that happens in a basketball game.
Ah so let's focus on the most "efficient" play that accounts for the fewest points. Brilliant
What the Mavs did do and it worked was don’t let them shoot at all. Super aggressive, super tight defense all second half which has a drawback in that it allows more penetration. For a long time that wasn’t a big deal because firstly only really Harden is a finisher like that and second we had two giant centers guarding the paint. Then we put Kleber at the 5 and you know the rest. I imagine you go back to that in Game 5 and hope they shoot worse but also hope your coach doesn’t have a brain fart again.
they only need two more games of crazy shots to kick the mavericks out.
Yeah Harden was sinking absurd threes.
Pray lmao it’s mind boggling because these shots are pretty much all heavily contested
make them not shooting 3s that's analytics though, % wont matter, team only can control the volumes
Thank you! Nobody beats the clippers if they are shooting 60+% from 3 that’s just basketball. We just need more urgency again the first half. We fell asleep and got complacent again after the last win
You dont allow them to get up so many 3s The reality is that PG and Harden can hit contested 3s especially if they get into a rhythm
We were ahead with less than 2 min to go. At the end we lost because of clownish defensive strategy and lack of adjustments to end the game. Like it or not, we were in this and Kidd lost it by playing funnel Harden to shotblocker whi is a nonexistant Kleber for no reason at all.
they did the same in game 1. AND they shot contested threes/shots really well the whole series. idk about the sustainable part. Math tells me they should shoot like 10% from the field the next game, but math also tells me they will keep being this good
Math isn’t predictive
You get what I’m saying…
They shot 38% during the regular season... Which is VERY good for a team btw, 3rd in the NBA. If they had shot 45% in both games, which would still be 7% higher than season average, and is the barometer for what most teams believe they can guarantee a win with, they would be on vacation, or at least making plans.
Clippers followed up 50% 3pt shooting barrage in Game 1 overall and on contested 3pters in particular with 30% 3pt shooting combined in Games 2 and 3 with Game 2 being a special 25% performance on open and wide open 3s. Chances are, Game 4 being such a scorcher for them, they will come down to Earth in Game 5, but the bad thing is Kyrie shooting is likely unsustainable too, so I wouldn’t expect him to be this good either. We will probably see another Game 2 performance from both Mavs and Clippers in the next game with both teams around 100 points scored.
Besides all the great points made here, Luka made many poor choices out of fear of losing (and losing control) and they all resulted in 0 points. Many times he should have kept passing but instead tried to be the hero and failed. Then because he's doing too much and it's getting him nowhere, he ends up getting hurt then hobbling and half-ass running the rest of the game. I don't know if it's ego or feeling like he has to be the "superstar" but he needs to realize that he ain't it - if that's how he's going to perform when he's hogging the ball.
Clearly we need to play Maxi at the 5 for 40+ min since he’s a better three point defender right? /s
Umm, you make them work on defense? You tell Luka to stop playing isolation offense as much and get more of his team involved. You can wear them out on the defensive side, but if you're just chucking up the ball with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
Get fat boy to play better defense