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Luka certainly makes Kidd’s job easier. But I wanted to ask about moves and countermoves you all have noticed in the series. 

Number 1 on my list is Bogdanovic’s defense. He’s turned into their primary point-of-attack defender. And especially in game 4, he’s had success in that. But at what cost? His shooting seems to decline proportionately as his defensive responsibilities increase. 

Kidd seemed to respond in game 5 by ratcheting up the first-half pace. I thought they had Bogdanovic dragging by the second Q, and he never made a shot all game. Remember all those post-ups he converted early in the series against smaller defenders? All gone. And his shooting percentages have fallen off a cliff. Check out the regression in his series shooting stats below.

Bogdanovic FGs (reg season 46%):
Game 1: 11/20 (55%)
Game 2: 9/15 (60%)
Game 3: 8/12 (67%)

Game 4: 4/10 (40%)
Game 5: 0/9 (0%)


Bogdanovic from deep (reg season 39%):
Game 1: 2/6 (33%)
Game 2: 1/4 (25%)
Game 3: 4/7 (57%)
Game 4: 1/5 (20%)
Game 5: 0/5 (0%)


Bogdanovic from the charity stripe (reg season 86%):
Game 1: 2/2 (100%)
Game 2: 6/7 (86%)
Game 3: 4/4 (100%)
Game 4: 3/4 (75%)
Game 5: 2/3 (67%)


Or let’s compare Bogdanovic’s shooting in Games 1-3 to his Game 4 & 5 performance:
Games 1-3: 28/47 (60%), 7/17 (41%), 12/13 (92%)
Games 3-5: 4/19 (21%), 1/10 (10%), 5/7 (71%)

My take? Using Bojan as a point-of-attack defender was a colossal mistake, despite his obvious success in that role compared to Utah’s other options.

Certainly seems to have killed their 3pt production and if they're not scoring it's going to be very difficult for them to win with defense. If Mitchell misses game 6, UTA might just be toast. Look above Vivint Arena to see if the vultures are circling yet.

Was reading a week or so ago where UTA was built to be a superior offensive team, but without much attention to defensive abilities. DAL fans know where a good offense and poor defense gets you, so I'm enjoying the balanced play of our boys.

I look at it this way - sacrificing Bogi won them game 4, they would perhaps lose without the adjustment. The big question is if they can make another adjustment in game 6.

(04-26-2022, 10:39 AM)omahen Wrote: [ -> ]I look at it this way - sacrificing Bogi won them game 4, they would perhaps lose without the adjustment. The big question is if they can make another adjustment in game 6.

They should have benched Conley for Clarkson.  That problem might solve itself if Mitchell can't go.

I am not sure it is exactly Utah's choice to make Bogi the primary defender. One of Dallas' primary abilities in the offense is to run multiple actions away from the ball before setting up the pick to switch. Basically Dallas sets up in order to get the defender they want making the choice to switch or stay in the P&R with Luka BEFORE involving the ball. I think Dallas may have CHOSEN to isolate Bogi as the primary defender in order to wear him down. This really demonstrates how important Ingles was to Utah. He was their Bullock to DFS, with Bogdanovic. Neither player for Utah was as athletic RB/DFS, but they could shoot and were adequate defenders. Now Utah is paper thin and was ground into submission in game 5. Obviously I hope game 6 works out similarly, but even worst case and they recover a bit at home, I don't think Utah can overcome the grind back to back with travel.

O BTW, Bogi did hit a 3 last night...
It would have counted, but on review the offensive foul occurred before the shot was released and he never got as good a look again.

(04-26-2022, 11:30 AM)SkenfromLMF Wrote: [ -> ]O BTW, Bogi did hit a 3 last night...
It would have counted, but on review the offensive foul occurred before the shot was released and he never got as good a look again.

IIRC, that was O'Neal's cheap shot on Luka. Negated Bogi's 3pter and gave the ball to DAL. Didn't much matter at the time, except for O'Neal continuing to ambush our leading scorers. 


Also helps that the ref's didn't gift UTA with an additional 20 FTAs.