Mavs 97, Clippers 104

[Jason Terry]

Rick commented on KP after the game.


"I love the way he's playing." 

Really? Rick went on to say how professional Kris has been about adjusting to the team strategy. It sounded more like Carlisle loves the fact that KP is no longer squawking all the time about accepting a greatly reduced role. 

Rick continued, saying that with Porzingis, it always comes down to the question of "getting him going," and whether that is the right thing for the team, considering the opponent lineup and the fact that they assign a difficult defender to him. Clearly, the implicit answer was no.

Maybe the best thing in this series is for KP to stand in the corner and not be involved in the offense. Maybe it isn't. Whatever. The team is limited in their options for Game Seven to the choices that exist today. 

But in the larger picture, when KP signed his extension, I cannot imagine that either the team or KP envisioned that his offensive role in playoff games would be to take seven shots and score seven points and get 5 rebounds, even if he does draw off a defender. Tha might have actually made a little sense in the situation when the defender he was drawing off was Kawhi, but now it's just a guy. 

Even if this is really the best option on the court for now, it seems like the Mavs are waving the white flag and pasting a massive "Epic Fail" label on the KP situation. The roster isn't built to withstand KP being an offensive zero. Many on the board have noted as the season went along that the Kristaps fit didn't seem to be heading in the right direction, but I didn't foresee it coming to this. 

I hope I am just over-reacting.

He played 30 minutes in a playoff game. He’s 7 inches taller than all the clippers players. And only 5 rebounds. None of that really has much to do with what happened on the offensive end