Just rewatched some of the fourth. Man. It was somehow even worse than I remembered. Not to pile on, but since this is Venting Day --
The Raps made up their 30-point deficit in 8 game minutes. Dallas had the last 5:30 to recover, but couldn't manage it. On the floor, the Mavericks didn't just look they were making some bad decisions. They looked like they had completely fallen apart. Wild passes to all the wrong places, repeatedly sending the Raps to the line, turning the ball over, missing free throws, terrible shots, hesitancy, indecisiveness, lack of aggression, lack of any sort of cohesion. Total meltdown. Gave up a 47-point quarter to Toronto. Yikes.
Thoughts. Here, I am imagining myself as the coach of the team and trying to figure out what can be learned from that. --
I'm not sure exactly why Dallas was so unsettled by the trap, which is a pretty time-honored type of defense. Nurse said he took the trapping technique "right out of the high school coaching handbook." But they're likely to see a lot more of it. Maybe they need a little coaching up on dealing with aggressive double teams.
On reflection, maybe when the team has completely collapsed for a long period of time and isn't getting it together, it's time to put a veteran out there to provide some guidance, rather than just leaving the young guys out there to twist in the wind. Especially if you don't have your best players out there. I could see an inexperienced team (even a good one) losing it in the playoffs, when they are subject to a strategy they weren't expecting. Hopefully, they will come out more able to keep their composure and fight through it.
Maxi and Powell are so critical to the Mavs' offense -- setting screens, rim-rolling, rebounding, cutting, diving, helping the team create the best shots. I understand that Dallas was playing their diminutive lineups to match up with what Toronto was doing. But without their big men, they were having trouble creating offense and mostly settling for a bunch of bad shots. I wonder whether tiny units should appear for any considerable amount of time without Luka on the floor.
I'm a little puzzled as to why the Mavs weren't making some adjustments, at least to stop Lowry. They didn't institute a counter-press, double-team Lowry, or appear to make any changes in their scheme. Continued to go under the screen against Kyle for much of the run. Rick is generally one of the best in-game adjustments coaches in the game. Did he not make adjustments? Or were the players unable to execute them? I guess the solution to this depends to an extent on the reason for the problem.
These thoughts are not intended to say Rick necessarily should have done something different. A lot has to go wrong to lose a 30-point lead in 8 minutes. Just to try to identify what can be learned about this team and its management for the future.
The Raps made up their 30-point deficit in 8 game minutes. Dallas had the last 5:30 to recover, but couldn't manage it. On the floor, the Mavericks didn't just look they were making some bad decisions. They looked like they had completely fallen apart. Wild passes to all the wrong places, repeatedly sending the Raps to the line, turning the ball over, missing free throws, terrible shots, hesitancy, indecisiveness, lack of aggression, lack of any sort of cohesion. Total meltdown. Gave up a 47-point quarter to Toronto. Yikes.
Thoughts. Here, I am imagining myself as the coach of the team and trying to figure out what can be learned from that. --
I'm not sure exactly why Dallas was so unsettled by the trap, which is a pretty time-honored type of defense. Nurse said he took the trapping technique "right out of the high school coaching handbook." But they're likely to see a lot more of it. Maybe they need a little coaching up on dealing with aggressive double teams.
On reflection, maybe when the team has completely collapsed for a long period of time and isn't getting it together, it's time to put a veteran out there to provide some guidance, rather than just leaving the young guys out there to twist in the wind. Especially if you don't have your best players out there. I could see an inexperienced team (even a good one) losing it in the playoffs, when they are subject to a strategy they weren't expecting. Hopefully, they will come out more able to keep their composure and fight through it.
Maxi and Powell are so critical to the Mavs' offense -- setting screens, rim-rolling, rebounding, cutting, diving, helping the team create the best shots. I understand that Dallas was playing their diminutive lineups to match up with what Toronto was doing. But without their big men, they were having trouble creating offense and mostly settling for a bunch of bad shots. I wonder whether tiny units should appear for any considerable amount of time without Luka on the floor.
I'm a little puzzled as to why the Mavs weren't making some adjustments, at least to stop Lowry. They didn't institute a counter-press, double-team Lowry, or appear to make any changes in their scheme. Continued to go under the screen against Kyle for much of the run. Rick is generally one of the best in-game adjustments coaches in the game. Did he not make adjustments? Or were the players unable to execute them? I guess the solution to this depends to an extent on the reason for the problem.
These thoughts are not intended to say Rick necessarily should have done something different. A lot has to go wrong to lose a 30-point lead in 8 minutes. Just to try to identify what can be learned about this team and its management for the future.