A Few Thoughts on Mavs 114, Lakers 129

[mtrot]

Taking so many 3’s and if not made leads to fast breaks for opponent.  Cut down on 3 attempts will help defense.  Then if you shore up defense you flip the script and make teams shoot worse which will lead to more Mavs fast breaks.

The Mavs offense is designed to, and did, result in open looks. Unfortunately, they missed open shot after open shot after open shot. They were actually getting good three-point looks; inexplicably, they just missed everything. Seth 3-6. Others:  DFS 2-9, Luka 1-5, rest of team 5-18. These are good shots. They usually shoot much better from deep. As far behind as they were, they needed a way to catch up quickly. 


Not saying they should always chuck. It was disconcerting when they went away from attacking when Luka was out. Agree that attacking the basket often leads to good kick-out shots. I hear what you're saying on long rebounds, and the Lakers were killing them in transition, but the Mavs were playing poorly inside, as well. 

Not saying they had a perfect scheme, but on analysis, I tend to think the problem in this game was less the strategy than the execution. Mavs just played terribly, especially in the first half. Part of this was putting in a subpar performance, and part may have been the lack of personnel with the size and skills to match up with a loaded Lakers roster.

As I posted in the game thread, the Mavs shooters get the yips in big games against the Lakers and a few other elite teams, and it's been this way pretty much this whole season.  And, IMO, Rick at this point just needs to assume that this is going to be the case, and not rely on three point shooting.

They usually do shoot better from three, but not against elite defense teams.  They get the yips and rush shots and can't hit anything.