Game 7: Indiana Pacers (2-4) vs. Dallas Mavericks (4-2) | 8:45pm CST

[myconsumerclub]

okay now we got some luka magic happening

[KillerLeft]

Wow Luka's defense is horrendous, every Pacers point in the last 5 minutes has been on him.

Right at him out of the timeout to ice it, too.

[Scott41theMavs]

okay now we got some luka magic happening

It's not happening.

[SleepingHero]

Lol. Pacers attack Luka right out the time out and an easy score

[SleepingHero]

Luka with one of the worst 34/7/15 games in NBA history tonight.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Pacers have beat the Mavs 3 straight times now.

[SleepingHero]

Klay not getting any shot attempts to end the 4th is also coaching malpractice.

Im so fucking tired of Kidd just abdicating his responsibility as a coach for 3/4ths of every season, letting the Mavs get into a hole, and then finally waking up and do his job.

Run some sets for christs sake.

[Chicagojk]

Mavs have some work to do.

Moments of awesomeness that can typically run away from bad teams. Not good teams though and right now they aren’t consistently doing the small things they did last year. Maybe all the new guys but they just dont seem connected.

[Chicagojk]

Mavs have some work to do.

Moments of awesomeness that can typically run away from bad teams. Not good teams though and right now they aren’t consistently doing the small things they did last year. Maybe all the new guys but they just dont seem connected.

[ThisIStheYear]

Mavs were too satisfied after beating a crappy Orlando team and just weren’t prepared for the start of the game. Kidd’s idiotic challenge didn’t help. He needs to stop wasting them in the first quarter. Losing your first challenge basically costs you two challenges. Luka missed a lot of shots and really struggled to defend anyone. He was an open three plus layup line defender. This is a bad matchup for him personally. Mavs need to get their act together. They’re not making the finals again if they have to play more than one series on the road. Plus, if Luka wants an MVP, he’s going to need to win in the high 50s and stay very close to OKC in the standings. Otherwise, SGA or Tatum will win it by default. It’s been a disappointing start to the season, but that’s just the Jason Kidd way I guess.

[JamesConway912]

Wellp, we basically played without our C-rotation. Lively out due to injury and Gafford continues to struggle against stretch bigs.

I hope it’s not a longer issue for Lively because tbqh I think it’s time to start discussing pulling Gafford out of the starting group.

HUGE game from Marshall. Just a stud defender and also appears to have found his niche on offense. 

I don’t know what they’re doing with Klay. He’s been solid all around so far all things considered but it feels like they’re not making any progress getting him involved more frequently. 

The offense in general is a mess. Just so much iso ball all the time. Very tough to watch.

[SleepingHero]

Obligatory this was a good effort on a 2nd night of a back to back but the fact that the game was right there for the taking so many times and the Mavs just couldn't put together any stop, coupled with inane offensive possessions, has me crashing out right now.

Can this team just please look put together at the start of the season? Like wtf.

[juanc]

Looks like Chuck was right, this team is a 6, 7 seed the way they play right now...

[myconsumerclub]

Too little to late and not enough energy on late game defense and they allowed the other guys to get easy buckets inside. If you ask me Lively stops that but he was out and that is to be expected in the course of a season so it was winnable if the mavs wanted it but Kidd and his no center lineup BS all I can say is lets just look at that statistically and determine the positives and minuses because I think it was a negative on the night more than a positive. Turner killed us in that situation and I was not a fan but Naji did standd up and perform.

[KillerLeft]

This is a good team, I promise. I'm not falling for the game-by-game mood swings this year. They're a little less athletic than last season, and Luka has been baaaaaaaad so far, but he'll get better, and they're so much more skilled in a variety of way than last season.

I think the next one might be a loss, too, and boy, I'm not looking forward to that, but by the end of the season, we'll all be believers.

[omahen]

Indy is not a team to have on a second night of a B2B and especially on 5th game in 8 days. Lets give guys some understanding, they are not robots. They were visibly tired and just couln't keep up with Indy. Missing Lively really hurt them in this one. As predicted the five out lineups were giving them problems and Mavs have trouble forcing their PnR on teams that just switch everything. Mavs are overplaying Luka and Kyrie, they can't have 40 minute games whole season.

[SleepingHero]

https://twitter.com/noahweber00/status/1...7177125082

Say what you want about Luka, he's an actual psychopath. Love this from him and how he never backs down. Here he is telling Mathurin "everybody actin tough when they up"

[ThisIStheYear]

This is a good team, I promise. I'm not falling for the game-by-game mood swings this year. They're a little less athletic than last season, and Luka has been baaaaaaaad so far, but he'll get better, and they're so much more skilled in a variety of way than last season.

I think the next one might be a loss, too, and boy, I'm not looking forward to that, but by the end of the season, we'll all be believers.

In theory they should be a good team but it doesn’t matter how much I believe in them by the end of the season, my bigger belief is that the playoffs will revert to form and favor home teams. We’re not going to see a somewhat fluky road warrior playoff run again. The Mavs need to set themselves up for success by getting at least the #2 seed. That means these early season games actually count.  They count in the MVP race also. That award will go to a player in the mix for best conference record.  Need to get on a run.

[Smitty]

I haven't read the game chat here, so I don't know the temperature of the board. Just wanted to post my thoughts about the game.

- The Indiana Pacers are THE one team where Lively and Maxi play all 48 minutes at Center. The Mavs had neither in this one. L
- PJ is playing damn good basketball on the defensive end but 0-5 on WIDE OPEN three's, most of them timely ones. Tough!
- It felt like Kyrie and Luka missed so many bunnies. In-and-Outs. Or at least shots they normally make.
- Naji was incredible. Finally a breakout game on offense to match what he's shown defensively this season.
- Dinwiddie was pretty good in this one, it seems like he's solidified that backup guard spot. I'm sure Hardy will get another shot later in the season.
- Klay and Grimes were fine. Klay didn't get many shots in the first half. Grimes should have played more to help with the teams' turnstile perimeter defense.

The Mavs were outscored 21-9 (-12) in the first 5:16. The Mavs were outscored 18-11 (-7) in the final 5:47. In the other 36:57 the Mavs outscored the Pacers 107-95 (+12). Second night of B2B and the shorthanded Mavs started slow and finished poorly.

Long season but I saw enough positives to feel encouraged about the ceiling of this team. The Pacers have the Mavs number. It is what it is.

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

I'm not seeing any comments about Naji. Last night he played like the player i saw in NOP and thought we were getting. IMO, this is huge for our rotation. I'd say he's our third distributor on O and gives us body up D that DJJ didn't.