01-10-2024, 09:38 AM
(01-10-2024, 08:50 AM)Chicagojk Wrote: I can't remember the Holmes minutes that much, but were they that bad? He sort of had a smirk when he was subbed out. I know he gave up an offensive rebound after contesting a shot but also had a nice assist. I don't have many expectations, but thought we should have given him more run. We were just begging Grizz to attack the rim. They did. Got a lot of baskets at the rim, open threes, and got rebounds on a lot of their misses.
This was not the issue last night due to us being shorthanded, but I really want to get to a place where this team can withstand a bad Luka game. A game where he takes his foot off the pedal and let others carry the burden. Jokic does this at times. He will be the passer and not look to score much, until it is needed. It feels even when Luka is struggling or injured, it is still the same offense. Maybe put him in the post and run action away from him? Something like that. With Green, Hardaway, Grant, etc struggling last night, we didn't have many other options.
I mean, Holmes minutes were so short, I don't exactly recall. Seems like coach didn't like what he saw.
GW small ball did work ok against Minny. But Mavs were the team hustling there on a playoff level while Minny perhaps wasn't. It obviously didn't work against Memphis. But, it is easy to be a general after the game. I understand Kidd giving it a shot to see if something positive happens. It didn't and GW didn't play again. Not sure why we don't play him at PF anymore, although he is a dissapointment defensively. It seems like he is a specialist against certain type of PF, but can't guard quick guards (too slow) or centers (too small). I expected way more physicality from him.
I agree about the second part. Offense either goes through Luka or he is standing around taking best opposing defender out of defense. I think the fact that Luka is shooting way more than he did in past seasons (less dependant on drives to the rim) is also making an impact. While his average efficiency is actually career best, I think variance is bigger. He has a bunch of "can't miss" games, but also some "can't hit a broad side of the barn games" (which for him means 30 points on not so great efficiency). Mavs don't have a back-up for those kind of games.
Last thing, as someone else already noted. Mavs offense this game was way too much relying on Luka and Kyrie. Memphis did a good job taking everyone else out of the game. Still, the biggest problem was inability to counter Memphis physicality, especially with small ball lineups.