GAME 10: DAL (6-4) @ BOS (8-1) | 106-116 loss

[LukTheShadow]

I am sad to write this but this L is on KP. The rest of the guys beside Curry an Jackson played what was expected from them.
Mavs are deep but quantity will newer overcome quality. KP is needed big time.
RC should do something. KP is to fragile, w/o energy, no focus, no power, bad movement, like he is not fit for nba.
He was much better few games ago, tonight he should be rested and now look...
It's on RC.

[TXBamanut]

Seth and THJ were also huge liabilities tonight, especially the former. When he doesn't make his 3's, he's pretty useless out there. We gave Barnes a lot of crap for being a 1-trick pony, same should apply to Seth.

You serious right?  Barnes was given grief because he's a 1 trick pony getting paid like and wanting to be treated like a #1 option...that's not Seth.  He's a shooter and that's pretty much it, except, he can give some pretty decent defense at times.

He runs the pick and roll well, and can score, but that's not what they are asking him to do.  Look at this offense...Seth is sitting in the corner 7 out of 10 plays trying to space the floor...

Now THJ is a one trick pony who thinks he's a 5 tool player.  He has NO sense of game feel it seems.  When you are crawling back into the game, and you need quality possessions, he has the WORST penchant to jack up some stupid contested 3 with 16 seconds left on the shot clock and DESTROY any momentum your team has right there.

I know Luka is conditioned to make the pass to the open guy, but as long as that guy is THJ, if he doesn't go on some fantasyland hot streak of decision making, it's NEVER going to work running THJ out there for long stretches in crunch time in a tight game.  He's more of a do-too-much guy than Wes ever was, and WMatthews could at least knock down the three at a high clip.

[jesusshuttlesworth82]

I am sad to write this but this L is on KP.  KP is to fragile, w/o energy, no focus, no power, bad movement, like he is not fit for nba.

It's on RC.

Mavs fans logic.

[dirkfansince1998]

On a positive note. Powell and Kleber dominated the offensive board. Bostons lack of a true starting center was obvious.
Both combined for 27/13/5. Not enough to win a game when KP has his worst game of the season but more than I expected prior to the game.
Kleber is shooting 40% from 3 for the season and Powell finally was able to get some easy buckets as the roll man.
Still prefer Kleber because Powell is a liability on defense but I am confident that the combination of both can make up for the lack of a real starter.

[TheSportyChannel]

Is there anyway we could aquire Draymond Green since the Warriors are tanking now? I know he's part of their future, but I wonder if all the injuries have changed their view on that at all.

Porzingis + THJ for Green might work

[LukTheShadow]

I am sad to write this but this L is on KP.  KP is to fragile, w/o energy, no focus, no power, bad movement, like he is not fit for nba.

It's on RC.

Mavs fans logic.

Of coarse. Looking off the context...This team does not need KP, Luka is enough ...

[BigDirk41]

Hopefully we smack the Knicks around next game and get back on a roll. I think we should go 4-1 heading into the Rockets matchup. The Raptors and Spurs are the only quality teams over the next 5. It would be awesome to win all 5. We need to do well. We start a really tough 4 game stretch starting with the Rockets, then Clippers, Suns and Lakers. Suns seem legit so far.

[SleepingHero]

Is there anyway we could aquire Draymond Green since the Warriors are tanking now? I know he's part of their future, but I wonder if all the injuries have changed their view on that at all.

Green would be the new Shawn Marion and be a perfect fit. But I'm like 100000% sure that they're just going to rest everyone this year and run it back next year with a rejuvenated Steph, Green, and Klay. 

Mavs need to find their own Green. Unfortunately its hard for those kind of guys to magically become available.

---

Where is Boban?? Celtics are so small. Bobi will destroy

Its what I suspected unfortunately.  Carlisle is not going to use Bobi because he would be worried about Brad Stevens and the Celtics getting the mismatch against Boban, going small ball 5-out etc.  
You might think when Celtics had a center on the floor he might but nope, its not in Carlisle's DNA to play the mismatch vs. mismatch.

That's my problem with RC. Why can't Mavs dictate a game for once? Why are the Mavs always the one to make the adjustment? They sign Boban for a reason. Fucking use his height advantage.

It's frustrating.

This was my main point with the Boban sub. Mavs have 2 of the tallest players. When the Celtics went 5 small with Grant Williams at the 5, putting Bobi out there would've slowed everything down. If the Celtics want to try to force 3's while the Mavs get easy buckets and rebounds then thats fine by me. The Mavs were forcing 3's the entire game, and needed to go inside. 

It frustrates me to no end.

[hakeemfan]

This team lives and dies by the 3. Luka’s brilliance is masking one of the poorest coaching jobs by RC in a while.

I don’t care about substitutions and giving rest for Luka . That’s fine. I care that this team runs poor offensive sets and just tries to win by jacking up 3s.

Also before one blames KP he is coming off a year and half of rust. Plus he has shown that he is a bit more free when Boban is on the court manning the 5. Why not 5-10 mins every night for that combo?

[SleepingHero]

  Luka’s brilliance is masking one of the poorest coaching jobs by RC in a while.

[TATU]

Marcus Morris, Draymon Green, Marcus Smart....these are the tough gritty players Donnie and Cuban refuse to bring to this franchise. They'd rather fill out the roster fan-friendly goofballs.

[Mavsfan12]

So what's it going to take to bring back the mute function?

I had watched the game separately with friends and came home to read the chat on a highly contested game (until the end when the Mavs got Kemba'd).  Man, I can't make it through this game chat lately.  It's toxic in here.  You'd think the Mavs were the worst team and every player on it was trash.  I am not even going to finish the chat.  Some of these posters are trash and don't know how good they have it. 

After years of rebuilding and going through vagabonds, the mavs have a legit team that is young and growing together and all you (the people I am referring to) can do is call out every bad play - no matter if it was actually a bad basketball play or good defense or idk chance - and call for the head of the player who made it.  I feel dirty having read as much of this as I did.  We were playing the team with the best record in the League on their home floor and despite enduring some admittedly off nights, still were fighting to be in the game.  It took an epic second half shooting performance from a perennial all-star (who we coveted in FA) to finally end our night.  Be better Mavs Forum.  Be better.

[j0Shi]

Bullets:

• Although it's a loss, some positive aspects from the game. It was the third game in four nights on the road against a great team. So I guess being right there halfway through the fourth is a plus. And then I guess you can't expect to win when two of your starters are having off nights.
  
• Defense decided the game imho. Celtics are a good team on that end and I'm not sure why we weren't trapping Kemba more when he got hot late. This is still a major work in progress and I'm not sure this team can even get to a decent level to be honest.
  
• I hoped for a good KP game based on matchup and rest, and it turned out to be the complete opposite. He was awful on both ends, the Celtics specifically targeted him on pick and rolls.
  
• Luka is Luka. Not sure what else to add at this point. He was in a special place in the third once again.
  
• DFS is now shooting 9-for-30 from three for the season.
  
• I liked our rotation a lot. These are pretty much the ten people that should see the floor. I'd still like Jackson to get more minutes and THJ less.
  
• Ten games into the season I think it's fair to say that the most consistent guys outside Luka have been Maxi and Wright. I think both should get 30 minutes for now. They simply do not make many mistakes and Maxi's three point shot is rock solid as well. Closing in on .400 including tonight.
  
• Told ya I was concerned about THJ giving himself confidence. That dude recognizing when he's not having it and taking a step back would make this team infinitely better. But it'll never happen of course.
  

[JamesConway]

A road game in Boston is always tough, but it still sucks to see Kemba go bonkers on us. That’s the guy we should have signed but could not get once again.

Still, another „good“ loss. Great reminder that this team is not a finished product and that there is no need to fall in love with this roster full of role players.

The FO has plenty of work over the next years. No team can start three dudes of the caliber of Seth/DFS/Maxi/Powell/Wright on a regular basis and expect to be more than a contender for the 8th seed even with Luka on board.

If KP plays like this around game 40 I’ll be concerned, not now.

[MrGoat]

Post game thoughts:

-Boban couldn't even get a single minute in this one?!?
-Because of the low quality of the rest of the roster LD and KP need to both be on most of the time
-Our defense just isn't very good. Memphis had a bottom 3 offense and scored 122 against us, are you really surprised our defense failed late in this one despite a 1/18 night from Tatum?
-Did resting him on the back to back actually break KP's rhythm? Way too early to worry about him yet though
-The +/- results from this game are hilarious on our end. Good proof that single game +/- means very little
-Luka is an MVP candidate
-We only turned the ball over 6 times yet our offense had one of our worst showings of the year, figure that one out
-11/42 from deep might have something to do with that. Incidentally Ryan Broekhoff currently has an eFG% of 150% and yet again didn't get a single minute
- When Luka whacked Marcus Smart in the groin that might have been the first time ever Marcus Smart had a moment he didn't like playing against the Mavs
-No reason to panic, we were supposed to lose this one

[omahen]

-The +/- results from this game are hilarious on our end. Good proof that single game +/- means very little

Well written, I agree with your takes. Just like to philosophically elaborate on this. Luka is having monster games, he also assists a lot. However, whenever he is in, rest of the guys seem totally affraid to take the ball and create something on their own. Everyone is looking at Luka and waiting for him to create. I believe this is not always resulting in positive team result, as guys don't get involved. When Luka is playing, their is not a single action where Luka would receive a catch and shoot opportunity. 

Do you think this is because of Luka (he wants ball all the time?) or because of "the other guys" being too affraid to take responsibility and create on their own when he is in?

[ClutchDirk]

I just love this board. After a win we have the best depth in the league. After a loss half of the roster needs to be traded. RC only gets mentioned after a loss anyway.
But the dynamics are changing. We still have the RC out crowd preparing pitch forks and torches but we also have the newly arrived Luka bandwaggon crowd that not only hates the coach but also the management, teammates and probably even equipment manager + janitor.

Truth...

[SportPsychMav]

I just love this board. After a win we have the best depth in the league. After a loss half of the roster needs to be traded. RC only gets mentioned after a loss anyway.
But the dynamics are changing. We still have the RC out crowd preparing pitch forks and torches but we also have the newly arrived Luka bandwaggon crowd that not only hates the coach but also the management, teammates and probably even equipment manager + janitor.

Truth...

Well that's not mutually exclusive.

We are deep but lack starter material. In order to get a starter we need to trade depth in case no incremental transcendence happens.

[Hypermav]

If KP plays like this around game 40 I’ll be concerned, not now.

[SleepingHero]

Do you think this is because of Luka (he wants ball all the time?) or because of "the other guys" being too affraid to take responsibility and create on their own when he is in?

This is a really good question, and honestly looking at the guys Luka plays with, you have 

Curry- Best as a spot up shooter, but can create in limited opportunities
DFS- Dude can't put the ball on the floor without getting it stripped. Can only spot up, and even then he's streaky. But hey great rebounder!
ActionJax- Barely gets any chances to create, and I think that might be for the best.
Powell- Yeah....
Kleber- yeahx2

Kristaps is the only other dude that can kinda "create" but even then that's not his strongsuit. He needs to be set up, and have plays ran for him. Something Carlisle has yet to do well imo.

Wright is the only other legit playmaker on the team. Brunson as well but he's less consistent. 

This isn't the first game I'm left thinking we need another creator and more importantly a perimeter defender. The only one that is really available AND is still pretty elite is none other than everyone's favorite CP3. His contract might be top 5 worst in the league, but he really does fill a desperate role this team needs. And it might just be why we could get him for just Lee and tank commander THJ. 

If we had CP3 this game I'm convinced we would've won. He's smart enough to know how to guard Kemba on the perimeter. I'm just wary that he'll clash with Carlisle and we'll be stuck with Rondo 2.0 except for 3 years.