GAME 5: LAL Refs (4-1) @ DAL (3-2) | 110-119 OT loss | NBA admits missed call

[Thukydides]

Man, what a game. I´m totally torn what to make of it. On the one hand a terrible, unnecessary loss, a waste of a Luka masterpiece - inexplicable mistakes by Kleber, Carlisle and the refs (don´t wanna hate on Kleber, though - he actually seems to be one of the brightest and most aware players we have). On the other hand that must be close to the biggest statement any loss can even be. Our young guys will learn from it. Lakers are old, we are super young. This franchise is set up super well for the future. 

Don´t have any words for Luka - all is said. Maybe it´s note worthy, that Luka just seems to excel in this type of games. It´s like he needs the excitement and the stakes to be high for a game. It has been like that his entire career, as  I´ve been following him long before he became a Mav. And it´s funny, because Dirk was of that exact same caliber. I fully expect him to be one of the best playoff performers of all time.

And on a sidenote. Man, I love Doris Burke commentating games.

[ClutchDirk]

http://bleacherreport.com/post/luka-donc...ad0557d0af

[Dahlsim]

The Mavs lost because of 22 turnovers.  End of story.

 I hate this attitude. You shouldn´t need to beat a team by 11 just to win by a 1. Even with all your faults, we would have won a clean reffed game.

The Mavs got more free throws than the Lakers.  I’m fine with the reffing. No team that turns the ball over that much and misses that many free throws deserves a win. Hopefully the team doesn’t take the whiney, blame others, excuse making attitude of the fans out of this game and actually fixes their problems.

Your 1000 % wrong no way on the Howard hold on Curry can't be called, yes players made mistakes but it does not matter when you have a call like that at end of game. It was not a slight little grab that made Curry take an extra step he was held for over in second to get Green open to tie game.

I’m 100% right. Refs miss calls. It was subtle. Just looked like Curry was out of position (he actually was) to me until they slowed it down.  Howard made a crafty play.  Good for him. There are 110 possessions in a game. It’s not going to always be called perfectly every time.  But regardless of that, no excuse for the sheer sucktitude of the Mavs at protecting the ball and making free throws. Refs have almost nothing to do with that.  If the Mavs hit one more free throw or have one less turnover over the course of the entire game, they win.  If the Mavs turn it over an average amount or are merely average at the line, they win easily.  They have no one to blame but themselves.

You're right, but definitely not 100%.  I agree the cheating move was crafty and he did execute it in a way where he was trying to be subtle because he grabbed and quickly released him timing it so the ref wouldn't detect it. 

Where you are 100% wrong is to say this is "good for you".  You're not only condoning cheating but you're actually cheering for it.  People tolerating things like this in sports and outside of sports are as big a part of the problem as the people doing them.

[SportPsychMav]

I stand by it, it was a concussion. Dallas did not follow the concussion protocol. It was reckless.

"I felt a little bit weird a few minutes after the hit, but then it was OK," said Doncic, who finished with 31 points, 13 rebounds and 15 assists in a thrilling duel with childhood idol LeBron James. "There was nothing to worry about. ... It was a little headache. I had a little headache for a few minutes, but then it was over. I put some ice on it and it was better."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2798...fficiating

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Howard clearly grabbed Mavs guard Seth Curry from behind with both hands to prevent Curry from getting into the passing lane, a play that unfolded after Dallas failed to execute Carlisle's plan to foul before the Lakers had a chance to shoot.

"Even so, I knew what play was coming," Curry said. "I knew exactly what was going to happen. I'm still there to take away that pass, and then [Howard] grabbed me and it was a no-call right in front of the official. It's just unfortunate."

[mtrot]

https://streamable.com/pgzz9

Mistake is on Kleber for helping inside. Makes no sense at all. Howard cheated and Mavs failed to foul.

This.  With the Mavs up three, Kleber has to worry about defending a three, not about a two point dunk by Lebron.

[ClutchDirk]

https://streamable.com/pgzz9

Mistake is on Kleber for helping inside. Makes no sense at all. Howard cheated and Mavs failed to foul.

This.  With the Mavs up three, Kleber has to worry about defending a three, not about a two point dunk by Lebron.

Same thing I seen on that play...Lebron goes to the rim and Maxi reacts by leaving a shooter on the 3 point line...

[IamDougieFresh]

I woke up and I'm still fucking mad lol!

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The good news is they will learn from these early season mistakes and bad play vs LA refs and POR. They are no where near their potential yet and they got 4 trash teams in a row coming up to work out the kinks.

[Fuerza1]

The game doesn't come down to one play. Mavs shot themselves in the foot too many times and didn't take enough advantage of opportunities as others already mentioned. 

Championship teams always find a way. The Mavs are not at that level yet and it's okay. It is going to take some time. In 2011, I knew things were going to be different because our mentality changed; no matter how bad things got, we didn't flinch. 

Truth is, you can sense the Mavs' inexperience and difficulty to finish games. We were on fumes in Denver and almost blew it. This time, the Lakers with a real closer in LeBron and AD showed how it's done. 

This core doesn't know what winning tastes like yet so there's gonna be growing pains. Good news is the Mavs are definitely back and we aren't going anywhere for a long time [hopefully].

[Reunion Mav Old]

I have watched New Orleans, Portland, Denver and that team I hate. Yes, we have much to learn about closing games....all the things mentioned have been a problem.
BUT, I have seen small improvement on our negatives each game. also, I have seen a significant increase in the number of effective game winning plays. This needs to be emphasized. We are seeing improvement every game and it is happening faster than expected. Not as fast as we wish for but we did get two hotly contested wins.

[omahen]

The game doesn't come down to one play

No, it doesn't. Mavs played an excellent game yesterday. Excellent defense, hustle, outrebounded LAL by 20 rebounds. Yes, they made some mistakes and missed some free throws, but I dare to say they were better than LAL if not for the refs. I hate taking refs as an excuse because of a mistake here and there, but I dare to claim that I haven't seen such one sided refs in a long time and certainly shouldn't be the case in such a professional league.

Let me list just some of the things I remember:
- non existent offensive foul on DFS against LeBron. No idea what the refs saw there other than LeBron throwing himself to the ground
- offensive foul on Luka against Bradley (push by off ball hand). Ok, I could agree it was correct call. But then a couple of plays later LeBron does exactly the same thing against DFS (or perhaps THJ) with no whistle
- offensive foul on Luka against LeBron, who was moving and probably staying in the area below the rim. Please mind these first three incidents also account for three Mavs lost balls.
- no calls on Bradley reaches against Luka until the final minutes of the game
- no call on LeBron travelling inident in the second half
- no call on Caruso offensive foul for holding hands with Maxi
- contact between Howard and Luka resulting in three stitches for Luka. Luka had the ball and Howard definitely went into him, it wasn't just accidental bump of the heads while fighting for the ball
- no call on Howard holding Seth

Please mind half of these were very obvious calls that professionals should have no problem to see. 

Other than that - nice game, move on to the next ones. A couple of must win games coming now.

[audiosway]

Ideally, on that last play of the game Maxi stays out on the 3 point line and just lets LeBron make the layup. Game Over.

That said, the game was very poorly officiated in LA's favor. With that it still took an incredible near career effort from LeBron just to pull out an OT win. Things are looking great in Dallas. Give these guys another 30 games or so and I have a feeling they overcome the bad officiating and still pull out the win.

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status...0366740480

[SportPsychMav]

https://twitter.com/johnhollinger/status...64449?s=17

[fifteenth]

Hollinger doesn't know what he's talking about. Green didn't hit a shot ovet Seth. And no need to be surprised about Seth being on the floor, he's a good defender.

[StepBackJay]

Hollinger doesn't know what he's talking about. Green didn't hit a shot ovet Seth. And no need to be surprised about Seth being on the floor, he's a good defender.

I don't recall who the Mavs had on the floor at the end. I imagine Seth was out there because he could stay on his guy (if not held of course).

[Kammrath]

Hollinger doesn't know what he's talking about. Green didn't hit a shot ovet Seth. And no need to be surprised about Seth being on the floor, he's a good defender.

Exactly this. One of the Mavs best defenders.

[robillionaire]

That game was an instant classic. Tough break for the Mavs but Lebron was in god mode and had something to prove. Luka had a great game, KP was invisible down the stretch unfortunately. Was pretty cool to see Lebron say to Luka "that's a bad motherfucker right there" Oh well, learn from it and on to the next one.

[bartlettbear]

That game was an instant classic. Tough break for the Mavs but Lebron was in god mode and had something to prove. Luka had a great game, KP was invisible down the stretch unfortunately. Was pretty cool to see Lebron say to Luka "that's a bad motherfucker right there" Oh well, learn from it and on to the next one.

Lebron only in god move because he gets every call he should have fouled out 2 times over, I could care less if Lebron thinks about Luka, , Lebron onlys says that stuff to be liked he does not mean.  He his as fake and is as self centered as humane that as roamed this planet in a long time

[Mavs2019]

That game was an instant classic. Tough break for the Mavs but Lebron was in god mode and had something to prove. Luka had a great game, KP was invisible down the stretch unfortunately. Was pretty cool to see Lebron say to Luka "that's a bad motherfucker right there" Oh well, learn from it and on to the next one.

Lebron only in god move because he gets every call he should have fouled out 2 times over, I could care less if Lebron thinks about Luka, , Lebron onlys says that stuff to be liked he does not mean.  He his as fake and is as self centered as humane that as roamed this planet in a long time

Right now Luka is just supposed to be the supporting actor that puts on a master class performance, but doesn´t outshine the star of the movie. I guess we have to hope that once the league has played out the Bron/Lakers resurgence and Clippers rivalry (2-3 year window), that their next leading actor will be Luka.  Unless of course their scripts calls for a swift move to the land of Zion.

[robillionaire]

That game was an instant classic. Tough break for the Mavs but Lebron was in god mode and had something to prove. Luka had a great game, KP was invisible down the stretch unfortunately. Was pretty cool to see Lebron say to Luka "that's a bad motherfucker right there" Oh well, learn from it and on to the next one.

Lebron only in god move because he gets every call he should have fouled out 2 times over, I could care less if Lebron thinks about Luka, , Lebron onlys says that stuff to be liked he does not mean.  He his as fake and is as self centered as humane that as roamed this planet in a long time

Yeah I don't really like him especially since 2011 when he mocked Dirk but personal feelings aside he made some big plays in that game and really carried the lakers team and put up a monster stat line and it was a really fun duel between the old guard and the new guard