Game 25: Houston Rockets (15-5) vs. Dallas Mavericks (8-16)

[SleepingHero]

[Smitty]

Dallas Mavericks Starters vs. Houston Rockets:

G Ryan Nembhard
G Naji Marshall
F Cooper Flagg
F P.J. Washington
C Anthony Davis


Interesting. Max is out, with PJW back. Guessing since Klay is out tonight, Kidd wants some bench shooting. I expect to see some 2nd quarter Hardy minutes also. To see if his shooting carries over from last night.

[RasheedsBigWhiteSpot]

DIRK!!!!!!!

I truly love him. I've had some very challenging years (well, life) and I can't tell you how much joy he's brought me.

[Smitty]

Biggest win of the season and no one was here to talk about it. Davis showed that last night was a one-off. Coop, PJ, Naji, Nemby all did their thing. BWill was huge off the bench. Our undermanned Mavs are fighting their ass off. A huge underdog on the second night of a b2b and put it to the Rockets!

[myconsumerclub]

Looks like we got some good things starting happen for us. January 1st is only 10 games away so Irving could be back in just 9 or 10 more games, maybe even sooner. I wonder if Irving is going to make it back before our centers are ready.

Looks to me like we could win most of these next 10 games to make up for all the early season losing. If we can win 9 of the next 10 we are back to playing .500 ball. Detroit is the top team record wise in the East so that would be a nice win to get. Denver is probably the toughest game we have coming up because they will be looking for revenge after the game the mav's took from them in Denver.

Dec 12
vs BKN 8:30 pm ET Mavericks American Airlines Center Week 8

Dec 15
@ UTA 9:00 pm ET Mavericks Delta Center Week 9

Dec 18
vs DET 8:30 pm ET Mavericks American Airlines Center Week 9

Dec 20
@ PHI 7:00 pm ET Mavericks Xfinity Mobile Arena Week 9

Dec 22
@ NOP 8:00 pm ET Mavericks Smoothie King Center Week 10

Dec 23
vs DEN 8:00 pm ET NBC American Airlines Center Week 10

Dec 25
@ GSW 5:00 pm ET ABC/ESPN Chase Center Week 10

Dec 27
@ SAC 5:00 pm ET NBA TV Golden 1 Center Week 10

Dec 29
@ POR 11:00 pm ET NBC Moda Center Week 11

Jan 1
vs PHI 8:30 pm ET Mavericks American Airlines Center Week 11

[FireNicoHarrison]

Flagg-PJ-Street Clothes is a great front court.

No Sengun helped us for sure, but it's ok... Good W.

[FireNicoHarrison]

Street clothes is damn soft, Amen destroyed him with that block.

[Chicagojk]

Outside of the OKc game, this has been a fun team to watch recently. Last night included. Fun game. Mavs really aggressive.

I thought AD was really good. Defense and offense. Marshall continued his good play. PJ started out rough on offense and defense but worked himself into a good game. nembhard was solid.

Williams was great. Just attacked all night. Sheppherd can really score but is pretty careless with the ball and the mavs attacked him all night on defense. Williams won the backup pg ballet and was one of the main reasons Mavs won.

[Winter]

It was an interesting starting lineup. I'm not sure exactly what to make of it. Klay was out with knee soreness, but it looks like there was some intent on getiing Naji, PJ, and Flagg in the lineup early - Christi being the odd man out.

Both Naji and Flagg look like players that can be plugged in anywhere. I'll be interested to see if this happens again when they come back from this short break.

[DanSchwartzgan]

It was an interesting starting lineup. I'm not sure exactly what to make of it. Klay was out with knee soreness, but it looks like there was some intent on getiing Naji, PJ, and Flagg in the lineup early - Christi being the odd man out.

Both Naji and Flagg look like players that can be plugged in anywhere. I'll be interested to see if this happens again when they come back from this short break.

Probably the most frustrating thing about this game was Houston getting so many Offensive boards.  It felt like it was 100, but was only 16 (and we had a fairly big lineup out there most of the night).  Otherwise, good game against a team missing an important player.  It was hard to watch every detail as I had the Big 10 Championship on TV and the Mav's on my IPad.

Shooting nearly .600 from the field will make up for only taking 18 three's (making 7 for .389%).  Houston took 28 to make 10.  We basically jammed the ball down their throats.  Obviously, that strategy doesn't work with OKC, but if you can't guard your rim, Dallas is going to try to live in the paint.

I agree, the Naji for Max sub was a bit strange for a team needing spacing and already down Thompson.  I will point out that we blew it open in the third (13-0 run followed by a 9-2 run) when Naji sat and Christie came in (along with Williams).  So, whatever the reason, it seemed to work.  Kidd still had Christie end the first half and had him set up to close the game had it been necessary.  The only thing I can think of is Kidd wanted another ball handler in case Thompson completely neutralized Nembhard.  The other note about the rotation is that one of Flagg or PJ was in at all times (other than garbage time).  So, how you work Marshall into that is a consideration (though I would think it would be easier to manage with Naji off the bench).

[myconsumerclub]

The new lineup is awesome. AD may not be happy playing center as much but what can we do when Gafford and Lively are out and as for Houston being down a man we had both our twin towers out and have for ages plus Irving and Klay that is at least 3 starters not playing so I do not want to hear Houston bitching about not having Sengun

[myconsumerclub]

I'd say our 4 defender starting line up last night was strong enough defensively to be a potent play off team, loved the 13 steals. Nembhard is the key to our recent success because we had nothing but shit at the PG for dishing the ball before that and it was such a weak link the whole team suffered. Irving coming back may mean we see him playing the 2 next to Nemby as we will need Nemby dishing the ball still as the glue that holds us together.

I think Brandon can turn the corner to get his 3 pointer falling at 40% plus so he will be the 3rd PG making Dlo tradeable.

Cooper shot the 3 well last night making 50% yeah only 2 shots so he made sure he shot good, maybe its becoming a priority for him now to work on that % since the rest of his game is more stable with the game starting to slow down for him. He has the skill to hit better than 40% he just needs to make it a major priority and train himself to not take shots that are too high risk. Nemby will help with that process.

If Irving returns by January first there will be 9 more games and that 10th game is on the 1st.

In that 10 games Detroit and Denver are the toughest teams we face and we could go 8 and 2.

If we go 9 and 1 we are back to 500 for the season and definitely in a position to take the team into the playoffs and compete for a ring.

Chemistry and developing top secret plays that can score points easier is the thing we need to start developing and adding to the arsenal and Irving will be critical to getting the team playing next level. He will be on minutes restriction to start with but I see him taking a month to get his game back and needing to play next to Nemby when he is first getting back on the court.

A trade at the TDL to add talent may be something we use to address an area of need. Would love to move Dlo Hardy and Martin. I see Martin is slowly gaining more ground on redeveloping his ability but I doubt he can become the player he used to be on such low minutes.

Hardy is the third best shooter from 3 on the team so far this season. Is he fools gold or an asset we can trade to someone looking to add on an affordable talent? I say we only trade him if we get a trade piece coming back that is too good not to trade him. He could be a starter on most teams. Klay and Max are ahead of him at SG and now even Naji can play there as well so he is fighting to get minutes.

The PG is clearly in the hands of Nemby and Williams and soon to be Irving. That makes him 3rd or 4th in line to get minutes at the 2. He is not small but he is smaller than the others at the 2. Size creates advantage and he compensates by giving you better shooting, is that enough to justify keeping him for his offense? I say yes if we are not getting something awesome back in return. Max is a good shooter and Klay can be if he is not cashing out and on the downward spiral to mediocrity and irrelevance. If Klay crashes out this season we may be wishing we kept Hardy so if we do trade him it has to be for like level of talent at the very least so someone that is hitting over 40% from 3 and nothing short of that.

[Reunion Mav]

Missed the game for a Christmas party but I am glad to see it. Senguin always kills us and many other teams so that does matter. Ten and 0, 9-1 would do us a lot of good. The schedule does seem doable but I would be happy with 7-3 and don’t expect that.

[windjc]

You guys realize Coop is 18 years old right?

[meistermatze]

Super fun game to watch and a nice win by itself. Of course they were missing Sengun, but we were without Kyrie, Klay, Lively and Gafford as well.

BWill was great as a sparkplug but Menbhard continues to impress. He is a real PG and we desperately needed it. I think he can be very good for us going forward.

Unfortunately, this team is way too good to tank, if we stay healthy. If AD stays healthy and Ky comes back, I can see us getting as far as the 6th seed or at least the play-in tournament. We can even win a series there but we won't win a title.

So it sucks a little bit because we are too good to suck but suck too much to be really relevant.

What to do?

I for one would be okay with a full on rebuild. Coop is the real deal!

[mvossman]

Super fun game to watch and a nice win by itself. Of course they were missing Sengun, but we were without Kyrie, Klay, Lively and Gafford as well.

BWill was great as a sparkplug but Menbhard continues to impress. He is a real PG and we desperately needed it. I think he can be very good for us going forward.

Unfortunately, this team is way too good to tank, if we stay healthy. If AD stays healthy and Ky comes back, I can see us getting as far as the 6th seed or at least the play-in tournament. We can even win a series there but we won't win a title.

So it sucks a little bit because we are too good to suck but suck too much to be really relevant.

What to do?

I for one would be okay with a full on rebuild. Coop is the real deal!

Its really unlikely they can get a 6th seed.  That was 49 wins last year.  That would require a 70% win percentage the rest of the way when the schedule gets much tougher.  They will most likely be in the 9th to 12th range.  I see no value in making the 8th seed and getting slaughtered by OKC in the first round.

[meistermatze]

Good point, I did not do the math there. So best case is to somehow get the 7th seed and play the Nuggets, Rockets or Lakers. I can imagine a world, where, if everything goes our way until then (health-wise) we could win a series against those teams (but we are huge underdogs for sure, no doubt about that) but there's still this OKC problem.

The again, Shai could tear his achilles and everything looks different (remember when we thought the Warriors would be a dynasty for the next 5 years and then the injuries happened?). I am not saying you can count on that, but things change quickly in this leauge. It took Derrick Rose one the first injury and his career was basically over (at least as a superstar).

So my point it: We can be competitive and we look like a good team now but if I had to make the decision, I would go full rebuild and trade our vets as soon as possible (they have to built value first, obviously). And maybe that's the plan. I hope so.

[DanSchwartzgan]

Good point, I did not do the math there. So best case is to somehow get the 7th seed and play the Nuggets, Rockets or Lakers. I can imagine a world, where, if everything goes our way until then (health-wise) we could win a series against those teams (but we are huge underdogs for sure, no doubt about that) but there's still this OKC problem.

The again, Shai could tear his achilles and everything looks different (remember when we thought the Warriors would be a dynasty for the next 5 years and then the injuries happened?). I am not saying you can count on that, but things change quickly in this leauge. It took Derrick Rose one the first injury and his career was basically over (at least as a superstar).

So my point it: We can be competitive and we look like a good team now but if I had to make the decision, I would go full rebuild and trade our vets as soon as possible (they have to built value first, obviously). And maybe that's the plan. I hope so.

This isn't my preference, but if you do this you have to at least get to 8 so you can move to 7 and avoid OKC by winning the play-in game.  Otherwise, give me the better lottery odds.

[mvossman]

This isn't my preference, but if you do this you have to at least get to 8 so you can move to 7 and avoid OKC by winning the play-in game.  Otherwise, give me the better lottery odds.

The incentives are just a mess in the NBA.  They spread out the odds to reduce hard tanking, but now the team that loses the play in has a legit shot at high pick (as Mavs demonstrated) and most teams are probably better off losing.  I'm not really sure what the point of the play in is.  Half the teams were already making the playoffs and at least a third were tanking.  I think its made things worse.

[DanSchwartzgan]

The incentives are just a mess in the NBA.  They spread out the odds to reduce hard tanking, but now the team that loses the play in has a legit shot at high pick (as Mavs demonstrated) and most teams are probably better off losing.  I'm not really sure what the point of the play in is.  Half the teams were already making the playoffs and at least a third were tanking.  I think its made things worse.

Especially in the west.  9/10 is a death sentence.  Same if you lose the 7/8 game.  Will we see a team rest its entire starting lineup in the game for the 8th playoff seed?