GAME 66: DAL (39-27) @ SAS (27-36) | 109-119 loss

[mtrot]

Another game that it's not on the coach, not on the refs. It's on our MAX guy that reverted back to his struggling days from early in the season. 7-32 on the last 2 games. 1-13 from deep. Hope he gets his mojo back or we won't win a single game come playoff time. Also Jackson and Boban are 3rd stringers and shouldn't see the court in the post-season. I guess Maxi is still feeling the effects of guarding Zion, because his games after that are trash.

I call BS on that.  Boban scores more easily than any other Mav, and vacuums up loads of rebounds.  Just because he got fouled a couple times w/ no calls tonight does not change that.  They can coach him up on how to prevent that.

Fixed it. But late in games the offense is SOOOOOOOOO predictable and more importantly, our shots are dictated to us by the defense instead of our "great offense" getting the look we want and scoring with it. Luka gets the ball and tries to create and everyone else goes into spectator mode. Let THJ get some screens and pop midrange/threes, post up Boban,KP,Maxi with DFS or THJ or Luka cutting. Almost all drives in the 4th are to pass back to the perimeter and twice in the 4Q alone, it gets picked off resulting in FTs or a bucket for the other team. Lets not even discuss our own missed FTs. 

Yes we know the refs are ass. They have been all year and probably always will be. So adjust the offense to stop relying on bailout calls, take the ball out of Lukas hands for a bit and let him be a decoy in the corner while we do a P&R with a C. (I know WCS wasn't available tonight but he'd be one option.) Read and react off that. Let THJ/Delon/Curry handle the ball. Post up or alley oop attempts with DFS/Maxi/KP. Not so many pull up 3s especially the deep ones because 9 times out of 10, when its missed we have no one in the paint to rebound and our guards are too small to get the long rebounds and we give up 2 points at the other end.

Make adjustments. And for crying out loud, when we have a play thats working.... milk it to death. Dont call a timeout because its rotation time when you see a player is smoking and at the same time, bench or limit the attempts of someone who's not hot. Boxing out, getting quality shots/making FTs has nothing to do with the bad refs. Same with playing undersized lineups or spectator ball in the 4th where Luka holds the ball to create and everyone else stands around watching. Delon can do stuff and always looks better without luka, as does Curry. THJ can handle the ball and attack the rack and set people up. KP should post up or catch by the FT line and go or P&R with someone other than only Luka. He's hurt, he's been carrying stuff all game long and the defense is literally waiting on him to try to bait him into quick 3s or to pick off his passes or to just foul him hard since he'll probably split a pair anyway. MIX IT UP and PLAY SIZE. Luka's wearing down from this crap and is getting beat up. 

Rant wasted because Rick's gonna do the same thing next game.

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I call BS on that.  Boban scores more easily than any other Mav, and vacuums up loads of rebounds.  Just because he got stripped a couple times tonight does not change that.  They can coach him up on how to prevent that.

Our problem is on the defensive side, always was and Boban's offense is fine, always was. His defense that is really bad. Combine the fact that he played with Doncic and Jackson and you can see why we couldn't get a stop. Guy has to foul to get back in position, every team he has been into it's the same story, very efficient and all. Do you really believe he should be on our 8-9 and even 10 man rotation over a good defensive player like WCS? 

Doncic/Curry/THJ/DFS/KP/Brunson/Lee/Wright/Kleber/WCS this is our team come playoff time (if we're going 10-man).

seems like we can never get a bucket because we have no staple play to get a decent attempt late in games or anytime we want it.... hence the cry for maybe boban (who if he gets fouled w/o calls we can't do anything about that) WCS to screen (and I mean SCREEN) for a shooter to get a good look. And they can roll to the hoop to get a potential tipin/out, rebound, accept a dump down pass etc. We also can't get a rebound when we need it, brick FTs and devolve to watch Luka get beatup with no calls on offense (which while it's bad, we aren't doing ourselves any favors not changing and trying to score some other way).

Well said.  Rick, as well as the way the Mavs tend to play, is just entirely too predictable for the other teams, which makes it too easy to shut down the Mavs in critical game situations.  You have to be creative and change things up sometimes, when what you are doing no longer works.