GAME 75: UTA (45-30) @ DAL (46-29) | 114-100 win

[dirkfansince1998]

63% from 3 really help on a night where the defense tends to be a step slow.

[Hypermav]

Reggie's world

[SwisherPrice]

Bullock with another Klay Thompson-like performance tonight. When we get this version of him, we can make it to the WCF. When we get the version against Minnesota on Friday, we don't make it out of the first round. It's all about him giving us something in-between those extremes though

[Jason Terry]

Dorian and Bullock locked up Mitchell and Conley all night. Golden State lost again and are free falling down the stretch. Sole possession of 4th place. Just 2 games back from 3rd. 

3rd would be huge. Avoid Phoenix in the 2nd round. There’s even a chance Denver could fall into the play in and 6 could be Minnesota 

Let’s go mavs

[VintagePejav2]

Wonderful win. Thank you Mavs.

[Smitty]

I didn’t and won’t ever participate or look at the discord game chat again. Insanely better experience watching the game tonight without the inevitable negativity. Great win tonight. Luka was good enough. JB did his thing and Reggie hit some open 3’s. Shout out to Bertans… his effort on defense is sneaky good and his movement on offense is much of the same. If he gets hot for a stretch in the playoffs, could be a game changer. #HomeCourt

[BasketballJones41]

Perfect basketball night. Mavericks win and everybody we’re battling with for seeding lost. And the Lakers also blew a 20 point game to lose as a bonus. Doesn’t get much better than that for the regular season.

[Halfnir]

Speaking of tired.....I question whether Luka is in the kind of condition needed to get 8 playoff wins and get to a conference finals, much less the 16 needed for a championship. Really think his conditioning still needs to come a long way. His body has not been able to handle the grind of an NBA season yet.

That's such an unfair statement. Luka has the 2nd highest USG% in the list of players playing 30+ MPG, he's the sole superstar carrying his team into the top10 of NBA without the help of an established 2nd or even 3rd star player. He played 58/75 games which is pretty good for a player who has to play through so much contact. So i'd say he's handling the grind pretty well. 

There certainly is room for improvement with Luka's conditioning, but it's not like he's currently not on a competitve level. 
He's not a machine type freak athlete like LeBron or Giannis, but not every human being can get to this level. 

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanc...rt=USG_PCT&dir=-1&CF=MIN*G*30&Season=2021-22&SeasonType=Regular%20Season

[Hypermav]

-The Mavs are doing really cool things defensively, and I hope someone journalist/writer/analyst out there smarter than me will highlight it because I think it could revolutionize NBA defenses. They are doing some pre-rotating on drives against dominant scorers to get the ball out of their hands. When the ball crossed the three-point line, the closest big in the middle shades hard to the ball, the weak-side corner defender pre-rotates into the paint, and the above-the-break defender rotates corner. It's confusing and probably easy to crack in a 7-game series, because the defense is uber-compromised at the top of the key, but who cares really, if it's getting the ball out of Donovan's hands and you're not giving up layups? Royce isn't going to beat you.

Jazz fan posted this, thought it was interesting.

[dirkfansince1998]

-The Mavs are doing really cool things defensively, and I hope someone journalist/writer/analyst out there smarter than me will highlight it because I think it could revolutionize NBA defenses. They are doing some pre-rotating on drives against dominant scorers to get the ball out of their hands. When the ball crossed the three-point line, the closest big in the middle shades hard to the ball, the weak-side corner defender pre-rotates into the paint, and the above-the-break defender rotates corner. It's confusing and probably easy to crack in a 7-game series, because the defense is uber-compromised at the top of the key, but who cares really, if it's getting the ball out of Donovan's hands and you're not giving up layups? Royce isn't going to beat you.

Jazz fan posted this, thought it was interesting.

Remember the concerns when Kidd took over. That´s how he used to run the defense in Milwaukee. Worked for a few month but once teams figured out how to deal with agressive ball orientated pre rotations the Bucks defense went from top 5 to bottom 3.
I think Kidd learned his lesson and even though he still relies on the basic concept he made some adjustments. Most noticeable the front court rotation. If a big lacks the foot speed to defend on the perimeter, rotate and recover he isn´t going to play. KP is gone. Brown is gone. Boban is a full time mascot. DFS and Doncic played more minutes at center.

[embellisher]

Remember the concerns when Kidd took over. That´s how he used to run the defense in Milwaukee. Worked for a few month but once teams figured out how to deal with agressive ball orientated pre rotations the Bucks defense went from top 5 to bottom 3.
I think Kidd learned his lesson and even though he still relies on the basic concept he made some adjustments. Most noticeable the front court rotation. If a big lacks the foot speed to defend on the perimeter, rotate and recover he isn´t going to play. KP is gone. Brown is gone. Boban is a full time mascot. DFS and Doncic played more minutes at center.

I believe that if he has Cuban’s buy-in on this defense, we won’t see any non-switchable bigs pursued in the offseason.

[Chicagojk]

I think this is part of the slog to the end of the season mixed with the rush for final positioning.  Feels like a weird time.  Mavs have had a few stinkers, but for the most part have been playing  well.   

I feel a little uneasy on my thoughts on the Mavs heading towards the playoffs even with the good play.   Maybe I am just being overly critical or get too consumed during games.   Clearly, I think the mavs are missing a front court player...especially with Maxi's struggles on offense.   Mavs have been able to play around this shortcoming in a lot of games, but I just fear it is going to stick out like a sore thumb in the playoffs.   

During games my biggest groans are when we never push the ball on fast breaks.   It is almost like we are allergic to getting easy baskets.  I really hope we fix this moving forward in the Kidd tenure.   The other thing that bothers me is when we have no pass Luka possessions early in games.  Even if he makes them.  I just feel like the offense has no movement besides getting a switch on Luka on a defender he wants to go at.   I feel the ball movement is much better, most times, when he is on the bench.   But, at times I feel I am being too critical because how special Luka is and I should realize he will do some poor things but you have to give him freedom to get the really great stuff.   

The offense looks so much better when we are hitting threes.    It can't be counted on every game though.  I liked how we got to the Free thrown line last night and limited Utah to the line.  It is one of the really nice things about Dinwiddie's game with the baskets at the rim.

[Kammrath]

The other thing that bothers me is when we have no pass Luka possessions early in games.  Even if he makes them.  I just feel like the offense has no movement besides getting a switch on Luka on a defender he wants to go at.   I feel the ball movement is much better, most times, when he is on the bench.   But, at times I feel I am being too critical because how special Luka is and I should realize he will do some poor things but you have to give him freedom to get the really great stuff. 

Luka is the big glaring player that stands out when you look at the data. 

In the last 15 games (150+ mins played):

SD: +14.8
DB: +8.8
JB: +8.8
MK: +4.0
DFS: +1.4
RB: -1.7
DP: -2.9
JG: -9.6
Luka: -18.3

The Luka minutes have been REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad. The Mavs have gotten outscored by 6.2 points/100 possessions when he has played, but when he has been on the bench? The team has been AWESOME. Just AWESOME: +12.1. 

I am not saying that is all Luka, it is complicated, but the team is NOT playing well with him on the court right now. Period. 

1) His defense has been atrocious. As @"dirkfansince1998" said last night he is "coasting." I personally think he looks like he is laboring again. Is it injury? Is it worn down? Is it weight coming back, slipping back into bad diet?

2) The O is 1.8 worse with him playing in this stretch too. Ball movement is worse when he is playing. Him getting his three ball to go is GREAT, but it has led to more and more "no-pass" possessions. 

Everything hinges on Luka. He gets back in the groove and this team can be a contender. He plays like this and they will lose in the 1st round AGAIN.

[Mavs2021]

I didn’t and won’t ever participate or look at the discord game chat again. Insanely better experience watching the game tonight without the inevitable negativity. Great win tonight. Luka was good enough. JB did his thing and Reggie hit some open 3’s. Shout out to Bertans… his effort on defense is sneaky good and his movement on offense is much of the same. If he gets hot for a stretch in the playoffs, could be a game changer. #HomeCourt

LOL. And I don´t even have discord.   If it helps the site financially I´m happy for the people that provide us the platform, but I never cared about the discord chat.

[KillerLeft]

I didn’t and won’t ever participate or look at the discord game chat again. Insanely better experience watching the game tonight without the inevitable negativity.

This was our original intent for moving the game chat there. To keep the knee-jerk negativity off of here. I'd say that has worked, for the most part. 

What we didn't anticipate is that there would be people who would completely abandon this community and post there, exclusively. That has been really unfortunate, imo. We basically have two, separate communities now. But, it is what it is.

[ItsGoTime]

This was our original intent for moving the game chat there. To keep the knee-jerk negativity off of here. I'd say that has worked, for the most part. 

What we didn't anticipate is that there would be people who would completely abandon this community and post there, exclusively. That has been really unfortunate, imo. We basically have two, separate communities now. But, it is what it is.

Ya, I honestly don’t understand why Fish’s platform was a problem for those that want to post exclusively on that type platform.

[KillerLeft]

Ya, I honestly don’t understand why Fish’s platform was a problem for those that want to post exclusively on that type platform.

Sorry, I don't get your meaning.

[ItsGoTime]

Sorry, I don't get your meaning.

We moved here from the SI site because the site Fish moved to did not have the capability of a platform like this one. Instead their platform is more similar to Discord (a modern take on communication avenues). I don’t understand why those posters felt the need to come here if that is what they want anyway.

[Smitty]

This was our original intent for moving the game chat there. To keep the knee-jerk negativity off of here. I'd say that has worked, for the most part. 

What we didn't anticipate is that there would be people who would completely abandon this community and post there, exclusively. That has been really unfortunate, imo. We basically have two, separate communities now. But, it is what it is.

I can only imagine what that place was like when the Mavs were down 11 early. Sheesh.

I was unaware of the two separate communities part.. I for one will stick with the mavsboard side of things then...

I do like the tweetbot on discord, it can catch me up on things I missed - but some posters here do a really good job of keeping up with it also.

[KillerLeft]

I do like the tweetbot on discord, it can catch me up on things I missed 

Oh, for sure. The people running the discord have done a GREAT job with it.