Game 1: San Antonio Spurs (0-0) vs. Dallas Mavericks (0-0)

[Jym]

just scratching the surface
this team can play way better

[Scott41theMavs]

Three words: Lively, Klay, Hardy. Lots to be optimistic about after tonight. And Maxi isn't ready for the glue factory yet.

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

Three words: Lively, Klay, Hardy. Lots to be optimistic about after tonight. And Maxi isn't ready for the glue factory yet.

If we could have this Maxi for 1,600 minutes, oh boy

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

Love to see Luka play off the ball. Undervalued part of Nani’s game is his ball handling and distribution. Kyrie played very few minutes at the point. Interesting.

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

One game in, but my overreaction is that Klay is perfect in this lineup at the 3.

[myconsumerclub]

lots of bright spots when a team comes out weak and then starts to take the game over late when the game gets serious.

Hardy will deserve more playing time if he stays hot and hits his 3's like this. Klay made all the haters STFU leading the team in 3's with 6.

Irving and Luka laid back and let the game develop without losing their cool so it was a great game. Luka just getting started and still he got 28 10 and 8.

Lively and Gafford did enough that the combined play produced 24 points 17 rebounds with 8 assists 2 steals and a block. Hell of a contribution from the two headed monster we have at center and did it facing Wemby. who only scored 17 and had 9 rebounds to miss his first opportunity for a double double of the year. Yeah it looks like Lively is going to develop into an all star fast if he keeps it up.

Looks like we only need to get Naji and PJ warmed up a bit more so they get it in gear to start showing us what they are capable of. Maybe next game that happens and we blow out the other guys by 30.

[MarkAguirreWrathofGod]

I thought Marshall was supposed to be good on defense. Guy looks slow.

He looks noticeably heavier and bulkier than I remember him. Anyone else feel that way?

[omahen]

Great start to the season. Started a bit rusty as it could be expected, but once shots started to go in, Mavs looked great. They have many weapons on offense now and Klay is exactly what THJ couldn't be. Great shooting with good defense. Defense was solid. Mavs are big and they can switch most of the actions. Spurs don't really have a great scorer so we will see how Mavs look against teams that do.

I liked the rotations. Starting five is set and I liked how subs came in, although I expected 2 of Klay/Luka/Kai on the floor at all times. Hardy brought offense from the bench when needed, although his defense leaves a lot to desire. SD is here to play when Luka or Kai will not be available, which I think is great. Provide regular minutes to younger guys, bring him in in case of emergency.

[F Gump]

MY OBSERVATIONS
1 Impressed with the coaching. The 10 man rotation knew and played within their roles, played hard on both ends (they played hard on defense. all of them, and fought on the boards -- didn't seem to take off any possessions). Looks like they figured out how to play the game in the playoff run, and don't want to go back to the old days.
2 No surprises in the minutes. Mavs played big ball all the way until garbage time (Gaff and Lively split the C minutes, PJ and Maxi split almost all the PF minutes). I'm amazed at what a force Gaff is.
3 Hardy played better in 1st half than I've seen before, because he played high-effort D, played team ball, contributed off the ball, made good passes, took the right shots WITHIN the offense. That's promising, even with the reversion to old (bad) habits in the 4th. It looks like he's been made aware of how to get minutes, or lose them.
4 Both Grimes and Naji showed various skills, but those skills didn't make an impact. Maybe next time?

[Jym]

so did we actually install an offense or am I crazy?
we had backcuts for layups, we had wide open threes off complex multi-person screens
a lot of missed open shots in the first half but it was still a thing of beauty

[david75090]

That is the Maxi we like to see. Solid, when healthy. The darling of nearly every trade scenario.

[LukaMagic]

If we could have this Maxi for 1,600 minutes, oh boy

Yes. I think he should be told to ease up on risky plays whereby he throws himself at the rim trying to make a block or a dunk. He should work on cutting those things out. Especially in anything near transition situations. He had one or two such attempts in the game yesterday. And I think that's how he got injured the last couple of times. He's not athletic and sturdy enough for such things.

[omahen]

Yes. I think he should be told to ease up on risky plays whereby he throws himself at the rim trying to make a block or a dunk. He should work on cutting those things out. He had one or two such attempts in the game yesterday. And I think that's how he got injured the last couple of times. He's not athletic and sturdy enough for such things.

But his exact value is in doing those things. He doesn't have much else.

[Chicagojk]

Spurs thoughts:

They were without their second best player in Vassel.

It is freakish how well Wemby moves at that size. What a freak. He did miss a ton of good looks though and a few of his buckets happened when the game was out of reach.

Thought it was a good first impression on Castle. Some nice passes and is a big, athletic kid. Shooting as he develops will determine how good he is.

I expect Johnson is on a new team by the trade deadline.

As good as Pop has been, the trying to make Sochan into a point guard was always a very questionable decision. Never saw that.

It is only one game and the past few years the spurs have put themselves in a nice spot. That hasnt changed. I never understood the universal acclaim from the media on the Chris Paul signing. He will be an adult on the room for a half a year or a full year, I just think the spurs could have made a better move (at not a bad cost) for someone who fit their timeline better. Paul is fine. I just don’t expect it to mean much.

[JamesConway912]

The biggest positives for me are:

1 Klay looking really good from game 1 on both ends. The way he moves on the perimeter improves this halfcourt offense by a mile. Really loved how Luka, Kyrie and Klay were able to produce this many high quality open looks.

2 Hardy playing 20 helpful minutes off the bench. His shooting continues to look like it has taken another leap and despite one or two tunovers he made some nice passes (especially to Lively).

IF we can count on Hardy for that on a nightly basis you’re looking at another dependable guy in the rotation on a rookie scale contract. Teambuilding wise that’s exactly what every team wants and needs.

Kleber played well but I hope they don’t overdo it with him. Last two seasons he played 800-900 minutes each. Next step is to find a way to work Omax into the rotation behind him Imo. That’s actually a really nice setup for a young player to slowly be brought along. 

I also liked Marshall. Played much more within the flow. Certainly helps to always have at least one of Luka / Kyrie on the court next to him.

+ Lively‘s statline was ABSURD. Double double with 60+% FT and 6 assists. He has shown plenty good things as a passer last year but it looks like he might have taken another step here. 

++ The few stretches (early 3rd and 4th quarter) where the offense clicked almost gave me a heart attack. Just a barrage of open looks being drained left and right. That’s the type of offense that leads to 55+ wins regular season as it puts tons of pressure on the opposing team to try to keep up. 

Defensively I think we looked good.

One negative: I REALLY disliked the stint in the 4th quarter after we were up 20+ points and they essentially pulled the starters with the exception of Luka. From that moment on it was just lazy shot hunting and stat padding from Luka. Just one horrendous chuck after another. The lead eroded quickly until they’ve finally subbed him.

Also Grimes played pretty forgettable in his limited time.

[Halfnir]

Lots of things to improve, but what i really like is that we seem to have a really smart group of team players on the court all of the time.
Almost everyone can dribble a bit, almost everyone can pass, all of them are looking for their teammates. Luka can not really be pressured to spend energy in bringing the ball up against tight defence, if Kyrie, Klay, Grimes, Naji, Jalen even PJ and Lively can do it as well. The also looked pretty cohesive on the defensive end for a first game.

This team is dangerous, and will put up an easy run everytime the ofiice starts to click as the defense is consistently there.

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

He looks noticeably heavier and bulkier than I remember him. Anyone else feel that way?

NOP is my #2 fav team, so I've seen a lot of Naji.  He's more of a body up defender, think Jae Crowder.

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

Only down note from last night: Grimes has to make more of an impact. He seemed to be floating.

[KillerLeft]

Jason Timpf approves of the new look Mavs offense:

https://youtu.be/kaGXs8wITEA?si=Wu-ayT38IIztgmXS

[Chicagojk]

This was probably my favorite play of the night. All with Luka standing and not touching the ball...in this short sequence.

Handoff to Thompson. He can shoot it or if they are up on him he can dribble towards the rim with a rolling big and Kyrie and Luka waiting for an open look. Maybe Klay isn't who you want running this all the time, but I loved the quick action.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=413&GameID=0022400074&Season=2024-25&flag=1&title=Irving%2026%27%203PT%20Jump%20Shot%20(13%20PTS)%20(Thompson%201%20AST)


favorite play # 2

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=515&GameID=0022400074&Season=2024-25&flag=1&title=Marshall%201%27%20Cutting%20Layup%20Shot%20(2%20PTS)%20(Lively%20II%203%20AST)