Game 10: Dallas Mavericks (5-4) vs. Denver Nuggets (6-3)

[Mavs2021]

Right now Naji isn't the shooter that DJJ was last year which isn't a very hard bar to pass.  Denver was leaving him to double Luka last night and even when Luka found him he didn't even really look at the rim when he was open.  He's currently on pace to shoot 90 less threes than DJJ did last year which is a pretty wide gap, he needs to show more willingness to shoot.  DJJ shot well enough to make defenses pay for leaving him, Naji hasn't shown that yet.

Before the season I assumed that if Klay struggled that everyone would be asking for Grimes to start because of the way he would address last year's concerns of not having enough shooting alongside Luka and Kyrie in the starting lineup paired up with point of attach defense that we've lost since DJJ left which makes him being in the doghouse even more frustrating.  He could potentially help with bench scoring or with starting lineup defense without completely losing the outside shooting threat when moving Klay to the bench.  He is currently out best bet at shaking up the rotations (that and just getting frickin healthy).

I really like Naji but Naji/PJ are combining for like 6 threes a game at around 20%.  I hope they turn it around because I love that pairing defensively but I want to see it first.

We have lost 8 of the 10 first quarters this season. Only led against Utah and Chicago. This current set-up is clearly not working either and I largely blame Luka for it. Somebody needs to keep him in check. I think Kidd is not it. He just keeps Luka and Kyrie happy, and they win enough games to keep him in a job. 

We should be a 60 win team with a proper run offense. We need somebody to hold Luka accountable. People made fun of Vlade saying he is not taking Luka, cause he´s concerned of his father´s lifestyle tendencies rubbing off on Luka. Maybe this is it. His mom is not visible anymore, but his dad is.

Our offense looks like complete garbage, literally bottom of the league sh*t. If the bottom ten 10 teams in terms of talent ran offense like we do, they´d go 8-74 with -15 pt. differential. It´s unwatchable.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

We have lost 8 of the 10 first quarters this season. Only led against Utah and Chicago. This current set-up is clearly not working either and I largely blame Luka for it. Somebody needs to keep him in check. I think Kidd is not it. He just keeps Luka and Kyrie happy, and they win enough games to keep him in a job. 

We should be a 60 win team with a proper run offense. We need somebody to hold Luka accountable. People made fun of Vlade saying he is not taking Luka, cause he´s concerned of his father´s lifestyle tendencies rubbing off on Luka. Maybe this is it. His mom is not visible anymore, but his dad is.

Our offense looks like complete garbage, literally bottom of the league sh*t. If the bottom ten 10 teams in terms of talent ran offense like we do, they´d go 8-74 with -15 pt. differential. It´s unwatchable.

Don't disagree that lots of the slow starts fall on Luka, that doesn't necessarily require a shakeup of the starting lineup like we were talking about.  Just need him to snap out of it, we've grown accustomed to him leading the league in first quarter scoring so we know he can get back to that point.

[SleepingHero]

Yeah I can’t.

I don’t know what this team is doing. Kidd cannot draw up a single play for his life. There are at least 3 games already this season this team has lost just because a fucking coach can’t draw up a last second play to get ONE of THREE all time scorers a wide open look.

[omahen]

Wow you guys derailed with this Luka crap. Mavs lost first quarter against Denver. But, Mavs were shooting 1-7 from three (Luka contributed 2), with Klay and Hardy adding 2 misses each. Luka was -3 in the first quarter while Kyrie and Klay were -9 (Luka sat for just 3 minutes in the first). Lets go play by play:
- Den: Murray scores against Naji and Gafford in the hand-off
- Dal: Luka gets to the line
- Den: Porter scores over Irving
- Dal: Thompson scores (assist Luka)
- Murray misses with Luka guarding him
- Dal: Thompson misses an open three (pass from Luka)
- Den: Porter scores easy shot in the penalty area over Gafford (drop coverage of PnR with Jokic)
- Dal: Kyrie goes solo and misses (Gafford off rebound)
- Dal: Gafford passes to Thompson for another open three and he misses
- Den: Luka blocks Brauns fastbreak
- Den: Gafford fouls Porter on a drive
- Dal: Thompson TO (his dribbling mistake)
- Den: Braun scores in the fastbreak
- Dal: Luka passes to Klay and him to Gafford for a dunk
- Den: Porter misses 3pt (another dribble hand-off), Luka not involved
- Dal: Kyrie goes solo and scores
- Den: another dribble handoff between Jokic and Murray and he scores against Irving
- Dal: first Luka shot 4 minutes into the quarter (missed three)
- Den: Klay helps on Jokic leaving Watson wide open and Jokic delivers a pass for a three
- Dal: Thompson moves without a ball and receives a pass from Irving for a midrange, 2 pts
- Den: Murray and Jokic miss, Luka not involved until he grabs the rebound from Jokic
- Dal: Kyrie misses a fastbreak attempt but Luka is there for a putback
- Den: Gafford blocks Jokic
- Dal: Gafford gets rewarded in a fastbreak
- Den time out and Mavs put in OMax and Powell for Naji and Gafford. Jokic scores a wide open three as Powell helps in the drop on Braun
- Dal: Doncic passes to Powell for fouled layup (2 FT)
- Den: Porter scores a tough three over OMax
- Dal: Doncic scores a midranger and is subbed after that

So lets get this straight. Doncic was not at fault at all for a slow start on either end of the floor. He went to the line once, scored once and missed once in first 7 minutes Mavs down by 8 at that point). He was not forcing anything. Delivered a couple of passes for nice shots, that were unfortunately missed. Also, Klay was involved a lot early on. Its not like he is standing in the corner waiting for someone to pass him the ball.

Against Phoenix Luka had great counting stats, but team was -11 with him in the first.

Against Indy (skipping win against Chicago) same story as against Denver. Luka plays for almost 10 minutes and Mavs are -2. Mavs lost the quarter by 7 with Gafford at -15, Ky and Klay at -11.

To be honest, I am fed up with all this negativity on the board. Mavs were in the finals 10 games ago and you have zero respect and trust towards the team and individual players that did it after just a couple of losses. Just repeating simple narratives over and over, no matter what is true or not. I am gone...

[KillerLeft]

Yeah I can’t.

I don’t know what this team is doing. Kidd cannot draw up a single play for his life. There are at least 3 games already this season this team has lost just because a fucking coach can’t draw up a last second play to get ONE of THREE all time scorers a wide open look.

I agree, the lack of creative ATO's (mostly, there have been 1-2 good ones this year) and especially the lack of creative offensive action of any kind during those end-of-game possessions has been consistently frustrating. 

Again, my takeaway is that the entire team, coaches included, seems to be in this mindset of "Luka and Kyrie need to do Luka and Kyrie things that will save us." I think Kidd deserves a lot of the blame, but not all of it.

[Chicagojk]

The Klay thing will take time. I hope it works out. Not guaranteed.

I was in favor of getting him early looks when he was not getting early looks in the game. Since then, he has gotten looks. Just not making enough.

So far the fit seems not fluid. He typically gets off to slow starts, I believe.

Regardless, I dont think he is or should be our third best player. But he has ton of experience in big games. Mavs signed him for 2-3 games in a series where he hits over 6 threes. Not wide open three Ms either. That is where we will see if the pickup was worth it. Until then, we just need to find ways to mix the defense with offense with our lineups.

[dmavs4life03]

kyrie has really won me over as a fan of his play. I always respected his play based on highlights and headlines but the guy can play and doesn't mind sitting back and just feeding off the rest of the team flow and it sucks how we wasted it in the 4th. That said we really lost in part because of the refs and because of Luka taking too long deciding about attacking the defenders or passing the ball. That "foul " on Murray was bogus and we didn't help by just chucking 3s. And then isolating entirely on Kyrie .... just Smh and a waste of a great game.

[KillerLeft]

kyrie has really won me over as a fan of his play.

Totally with you. I was very vocal with my distaste of him and of that trade when it happened, and actually considered giving up on the team because I was so sure it was another horrible, crippling decision. I couldn't have been more wrong, and in fact, the version of Kyrie the Mavs have gotten has wildly exceeded even what I would've believed was the best possible version of him. I'm a fan, for sure.

[SleepingHero]

To be honest, I am fed up with all this negativity on the board. Mavs were in the finals 10 games ago and you have zero respect and trust towards the team and individual players that did it after just a couple of losses. Just repeating simple narratives over and over, no matter what is true or not. I am gone...

That's a knife to my heart reading this.

Only thing I can say is that every where else in the Mavs universe is sharing in the negativity. Such are the ebbs and flow in the regular season game-to-game.

I do hope you come back, if only because we can share in some crazy Luka moments from across the world!

[ballsrchr]

To be honest, I am fed up with all this negativity on the board. Mavs were in the finals 10 games ago and you have zero respect and trust towards the team and individual players that did it after just a couple of losses. Just repeating simple narratives over and over, no matter what is true or not. I am gone...

Naw man...don't go.  We need input from people of all walks of life--and opinions.  You've been a great contributor--from Slovenia?...or some place like that. We need you!   A lot is expected from NBA players.  Luka and Kyrie are STARS, but they sometimes don't play up to the high bar that we fans expect.  Yeah...we are unreasonable sometimes.  But most of the time most of us, including me, are just trying to analyze the situation.  We are couch coaches...I guess you could say.  The Mavs are my team.  I root for them to win.  Some people over react when they don't.  It's just part of life.

[Chicagojk]

i hope you don't leave Omahen. I enjoy reading your thoughts...even if they may be different than mine at times.

The game logs are tough to read. Most of mine are stream of consciousness and not really well thought out. I typically start to watch games last and then comment when I get caught up. It may be best not to do these in game posts.

I do have some frustration, but try to be measured. I have not gotten upset with one loss yet this year. In fact, I am having a little trouble getting into the season after that long run last year. I am still watching every minute, but June seems like such a long time from now.

It appears we have lost some good posters. Either they are feeling the same things that I am or they have left. I hope they haven't left. I liked the smaller feel here than a game post on Reddit where there are so many people posting you don't ever get to know a certain poster.

Anyway, i hope you stay

[BigDirk41]

Omahen, like everyone else, I hope you stay. I understand your frustration with some of us, but the same reasons you mentioned that we should trust the team, players, coaches is the same reason the expectations are high and more is expected than a 5-5 start. I think you are missing that most everyone seems to agree that we'll peak before the end of the season, but our worry is that a top 4 seed won't be achievable if they don't get going soon. In a perfect world, we could let them take 20-25 games to figure things out, but that's not doable in the West this season. I do disagree with you on your Luka take and it infuriates me that he doesn't take care of his body like Lebron, MJ, Kobe, etc. He would absolutely be the best player in the league if he had the desire to eat and train right year round. That being said, we are all entitled to our opinions of Luka, the team, or the coaches. We can agree to disagree. Things will be more positive when we start winning. That's not what you want to hear, but we all expected a lot more from this team. I hope you stay. I enjoy your contributions to the forum.