11-01-2024, 07:18 AM
(11-01-2024, 06:55 AM)Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo Wrote: Reasons for the L:
Refs -- the crowd was right. It's the most biased officiating against the Mavs since the series against OKC where SGA got every call. There were 2 questionable calls on Lively early on.
Luka's not facilitating -- I get it, scorers need to shoot, that's what's needed to break out of a slump. But with Luka it isn't just a shooting slump, he just isn't ready yet for the usual Luka scoring runs, so he needs to facilitate more, or at least, don't kill ball movement with ISOs. It's funny how we can see the difficult passes and think how'd he do that? But I've seen Luka miss the open man too many times this game (and even this season). It's so un-Luka like.
Luka's complaining less -- but still complaining. I mean, I hate Lebron's flops, most people do. Luka's whining is almost at that level. People are starting to hate it.
Rebounds -- Sure the ball bounces funny some times, but it shouldn't be all the time. There was a considerable lack of effort in securing the boards.
NOTES: I don't like Kidd, but this wasn't his fault. At least, not a big chunk of it. I applaud him for sitting Luka at times when Luka is trying to singlehandedly lose the game with sloppy plays. I also like that Kidd trusts Naji. It may not look like Naji is productive when you look at the box scores, but I'm loving what I'm seeing from Naji.
I think reboundng was the biggest issue of the above. Mavs got their but kicked last night on the boards. At one point in the third quarter they said the Mavs had 11 defensive boards and the Rockets had 11 offensive boards. That can't happen. If the Mavs eliminated most of those second (third) opportunities, they wouldn't have needed a crazy comeback to have a chance.
For a team who relies on their centers to do certain things and be ultra productive, we have seen in both losses they have been vastly outplayed. Senguin is really good. Nurkic not so much.
There are things clearly that need to be improved as the season moves forward. Getting Luka right is by far the most important as we don't have a chance if he isn't. I almost forgot what a healthy Luka looks like. It has been a while. He is doing it with mainly grit right now...but that is not sustainable.