A Few Thoughts on Mavs 114, Lakers 129

[mtrot]

First off, that was one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. Multiple missed calls in favor for the Lakers. I mean there were blatant hacks on Luka that went uncalled, yet if anyone breathed on Lebron it was an easy trip to the free throw line. Doesn't take many of those type of possessions to throw a team completely off. It finally culminated in the refs literally breaking the rules for the Lakers with that review call that got Carlisle unjustly ejected. Absolute travesty and I hope every single ref is punished for that performance. If the NBA wants to push for gambling, then they can't have this going on. 


Secondly, the Mavs definitely played like dogshit. Everyone was off their game. The Lakers zone defense stifled any ball movement or penetration. Dwight Powell played like a high schooler. Maxi was non existent. DFS just got run over by Lebron in the post. No one could make a shot.

As unfortunate it'd might be to break up this team's chemistry, I think the Mavs need to go all out to try to get some size and more wings. Justin Jackson was unplayable this game. Powell got lit up by Dwight Howard and Javale Mcgee. In the playoffs, if the they'd put on that performance in a 7 game series they'd get swept. 

Furthermore, Carlisle made some really inane choices. I really disliked his subs this game. Most notably, when the Mavs got both Mcgee and Howard in foul trouble, Carlisle chose to match the Lakers small ball lineup by taking Powell out and replacing him with Wright. WHY????? Why not punish the Lakers size, why make it easier for the Lakers to deal with our size?? Made absolutely no sense. It made even less sense that while Powell and Maxi were putting up a stinker, Carlisle didn't even TRY to put in Boban when the Lakers were running Jared "The Flash" Dudley at center. SERIOUSLY? I understand Boban is slow, and the Lakers were playing 5 out, but AT WORST you trade buckets. At best the Mavs get consistent easy buckets inside. 

Finally another blunder I felt Carlisle made in the 3rd was that he subbed out Luka with 3:30 left in the 3rd in favor of going even smaller. It killed our offense. The Mavs were on a 10-2 run and then failed to score for the next 12 minutes. It was ugly. By subbing out Luka, the Mavs stopped attacking the basket when the Lakers had ZERO rim protection. It was just a THJ 3, into a Curry 3, into a Jackson 3, on repeat. Just killed any hope the Mavs had for trying to come back.


Mavs have been quite terrible as of late. 9-9 of their last 18. Basically since the beginning of December they've been treading water. Fairly, they've lost their 2 most important players back to back, but just watching the games the role players seem just off.

Well, my guess is because the Lakers were making threes.  I mean, yes if we went big, we might be better able to make twos inside, but if the Lakers were able to keep making threes, we would just fall further behind.