Game 31: Cleveland Cavaliers (17-13) vs. Dallas Mavericks (18-12)

[SwisherPrice]

The Exum/Seth/THJ/Green/Lively lineup had the Cavs on the ropes with a 9-point lead with 5 minutes to go but Kidd blew it by calling TO and killing the momentum. I understand trying to get Luka back into the game at some point but if the guys on the floor are rolling with no signs of letting up, why not keep milking it as long as possible? And with a B2B, maybe they would have finished off the Cavs and Luka wouldn't even need to play those 5 minutes.

[MrGoat]

I blame Dwight Powell for this one for injuring Kyrie. We really could have used Kyrie in this one, Luka wasn't 100% going in to this one and he just ran out of gas.

[Chicagojk]

Lovely with another bad start against Minny. Learning how to attack the ball off the rim is his #1 goal this offseason. To many times he is very slow to react. He has pllaberages looks ok but he leaves so many rebounds out there for the young kid.

Do Mavs have any other plans besides Luka saving them? Look like they have no idea what else to do. Really rough watch.

[BoredAssistant]

Minny's 3pt shooting will fall back down to earth. Just look at DJJ.

[loki]

wrong thread

[KillerLeft]

The box score says Powell is playing well tonight. I can't watch. Is that the case?

[Chicagojk]

I am on my phone and and can’t start a new thread. Why did Exum go out two minutes in third and not come back?

The Morris minutes were a killer. Ouch. Lost all momentum there.

[omahen]

The box score says Powell is playing well tonight. I can't watch. Is that the case?

Yes, he is playing well. Bringing the energy, collecting second chances. Mavs would need Wolves to go cold same way Mavs went cold against Cleveland. Valiant effort though, I thought this one will be over by halftime but they refuse to let it go

[BoredAssistant]

I can't answer these questions because I missed some of it. Apologies. But this has been a gutsy performance from what I have seen.

[Chicagojk]

Grant Williams is a minus 30 in 30 minutes to go with 3 rebounds. He is really in a bad way right now.

[MrGoat]

The box score says Powell is playing well tonight. I can't watch. Is that the case?

Fuck Dwight Powell. That vagina has ruined our season.

[DallasMaverick]

Fuck Dwight Powell. That vagina has ruined our season.

Too much to drink tonight.

[Reunion Mav]

I am on my phone and and can’t start a new thread.  Why did Exum go out two minutes in third and not come back?

The Morris minutes were a killer.  Ouch.  Lost all momentum there.

Was just foul trouble probably. They also turned him over a bit. He came back in the 4th.

[WildArkieBoy]

Fuck Dwight Powell. That vagina has ruined our season.

Are you saying that Powell takes a lot of pounding?

[HoosierDaddyKid]

This same group (minus Green) wasn't really much better on Christmas either, 7-23.  9-51 shooting around Luka isn't going to get it done (9-53 if you include Lawson on Christmas).  

I was assuming we were going to win despite all the bad shooting and come in here and mention it's either a good thing that we've found ways to win despite the bad shooting or it's a bad thing because a lot of these guys may be regressing to the mean (and then we lose anyways so I didn't even get to take that angle).  DJJ and Exum never found homes in the league for this very reason so I'm really hoping what we saw early on this season keeps up and these are just some bad shooting nights otherwise this new starting 5 that everyone is excited about is going to end up hitting some harsh realities in the playoffs.

Never assume anything..

[KillerLeft]

 ...Dwight Powell. That...has ruined our season.

Wow, dude. Why so angry? 

The season isn't ruined. Far, far from it.

[Nowitzki Way]

Wow, dude. Why so angry? 

The season isn't ruined. Far, far from it.

KL. You drop knowledge bombs and i'm a fan of your posts. So i say this with all respect. Its over man. This season is tanking fast.  The roster is poorly constructed. Injuries, lack of depth, and lack of size will continue to destroy us. 

We might be a play-in team. We might not even get that high. But this team is not built to win a play-off series in the West.

[KillerLeft]

KL. You drop knowledge bombs and i'm a fan of your posts. So i say this with all respect. Its over man. This season is tanking fast.  The roster is poorly constructed. Injuries, lack of depth, and lack of size will continue to destroy us. 

We might be a play-in team. We might not even get that high. But this team is not built to win a play-off series in the West.

I can't tell if you're serious or joking.

[Nowitzki Way]

I can't tell if you're serious or joking.

I'm serious man. i've been saying it since the off-season. i was not a fan of the off-season moves.

I was all for bringing back Kyrie. i loved the Lively, O-Max moves. And i was actually higher on Holmes than most. Boy was i wrong there. 

But free agency was a S show in my opinion. Seth Curry is redundant with Hardaway / Hardy.  

Grant Williams is an undersized 4, who offers no rebounding or size. Two things we needed.

We brought back Powell and Morris. Two scrubs who should not be on NBA rosters. 

The whole Javale McGee fiasco. 

The two under the radar moves have been the best. Exum and DJJ. 

Our two best players are both ball handling guards who have injury issues. You had to account for Luka and Kyrie missing games. Lots of games.  Having three ball handlers (Doncic, Din, Brunson) got us to the finals.  Why not replicate that somehow. I dont see Exum being an answer there, even with what we know now.

We are lucky, very lucky, that Lively doesnt play like a typical 19 year old big. I'd be scared to see what our record would be without him.  They had no back up plan for non-Lively minutes.  We have no size. No rebounding.  Things just dont fit very well.  And one of our big 3 gets injured, its exposes us in a huge way.

[KillerLeft]

I'm serious man. i've been saying it since the off-season. i was not a fan of the off-season moves.

I was all for bringing back Kyrie. i loved the Lively, O-Max moves. And i was actually higher on Holmes than most. Boy was i wrong there. 

But free agency was a S show in my opinion. Seth Curry is redundant with Hardaway / Hardy.  

Grant Williams is an undersized 4, who offers no rebounding or size. Two things we needed.

We brought back Powell and Morris. Two scrubs who should not be on NBA rosters. 

The whole Javale McGee fiasco. 

The two under the radar moves have been the best. Exum and DJJ. 

Our two best players are both ball handling guards who have injury issues. You had to account for Luka and Kyrie missing games. Lots of games.  Having three ball handlers (Doncic, Din, Brunson) got us to the finals.  Why not replicate that somehow. I dont see Exum being an answer there, even with what we know now.

We are lucky, very lucky, that Lively doesnt play like a typical 19 year old big. I'd be scared to see what our record would be without him.  They had no back up plan for non-Lively minutes.  We have no size. No rebounding.  Things just dont fit very well.  And one of our big 3 gets injured, its exposes us in a huge way.

Wowowow. I agree with some of this, but not much. 

Not only was I higher on the summer than you were, apparently, but on top of that the team has performed BETTER than I expected after being so high on their summer. They won 37 games last year. It was one of the worst seasons in memory. This team is night and day different. They're FUN, and they're WINNING. I absolutely LOVE the fit of all the pieces. 

Sorry you can't enjoy it, my friend. Not saying your opinion is less valid, I just honestly wish you could have fun with the team. I know how much it sucks to follow a team when you don't like the state they're in.