Game 60: DAL (31-29) vs. DEN (41-18) | 109-118 Loss

[KillerLeft]

Couldn't start watching until the 4th...Wood looks like he's having a decent night out there. Has he played more tonight?

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Jeff Green is playing out his mind.

[Mavs2021]

Is it a problem, if the rest of the players seem to hate playing with Luka right now? They all look so much better, when he sits.

[KillerLeft]

Jeff Green is playing out his mind.

Rusillo will be glad.

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Whoah, where's Kidd? Did Cuban wise up and fire him?

[SwisherPrice]

Nooo Lawson. Hope it's just a hyperextension

[KillerLeft]

Wow, Bullock with the corner 3 block??? Not bad.

[BigDirk41]

Is it a problem, if the rest of the players seem to hate playing with Luka right now? They all look so much better, when he sits.

No matter what level of basketball, nobody enjoys playing with a ball hog. Luka is amazing, but the ball sticks with him. When the ball moves, the team hustles more because they are all involved. As great as Luka is, he really needs to find a happy median to keep his teammates happy.

[KillerLeft]

I miss DFS.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

They fall to the 8th seed with this loss tied with Minnesota. Maybe the AS break is much needed.

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Wow, Bullock with the corner 3 block??? Not bad.

About the only good thing he did tonight. He was M.I.A. with 3 freakin pts in 30 minutes.

[ItsGoTime]

I miss DFS.

Posted it in the Kyrie thread, but wish that trade could have been SD/Bertans/2 FRPs instead. DFS would be a really stabilizing player on this team right now.

[SwisherPrice]

Need the All Star Break and need players to get healthy. The roster has problems but a big issue is that they are going into games always missing 2 players in the rotation, not even including Kleber (and usually different players each week). No consistency, no chemistry, and the defense suffers.

[ItsGoTime]

Need the All Star Break and need players to get healthy. The roster has problems but a big issue is that they are going into games always missing 2 players in the rotation, not even including Kleber (and usually different players each week). No consistency, no chemistry, and the defense suffers.

AND THEN LAWSON GOES DOWN. What the CRAP!

[cow]

No matter what level of basketball, nobody enjoys playing with a ball hog. Luka is amazing, but the ball sticks with him. When the ball moves, the team hustles more because they are all involved. As great as Luka is, he really needs to find a happy median to keep his teammates happy.

Kyrie's first few games without Luka are a stark contrast to this game without Kyrie.

[WildArkieBoy]

Kyrie's first few games without Luka are a stark contrast to this game without Kyrie.

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Do the Mavs, by any chance, have a coach?

[cow]

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Do the Mavs, by any chance, have a coach?

That's my other gut reaction.  Maybe the "need" for a defensive minded coach was the wrong direction to go.  You are only going to be so good in that area with Luka's obvious shortcomings.  No idea who the right person is for the job, but it is weird that both Carlisle (eventually) and Kidd just let Luka run this take-the-air-out-of-the-ball offense.  And it's not like Luka isn't coachable.

[BigDirk41]

When I watch Luka on the national team, he plays team basketball and doesn't do this. I think he needs a strong coach that will actually COACH him.

[donzingis38]

What a crappy week. I got all hyped up for nothing.

Hopefully post-ASG will be different.

[Mavs2021]

Need the All Star Break and need players to get healthy. The roster has problems but a big issue is that they are going into games always missing 2 players in the rotation, not even including Kleber (and usually different players each week). No consistency, no chemistry, and the defense suffers.

All teams miss players.

Minnesota has been without KAT almost the whole year. Pelicans have been without Ingram or/and Zion all year. Warriors have been without Curry and Wiggins for large parts of the season. Phoenix has been without Booker for a large part of the season. Jokic/Gordon/Murray have missed at least nine games each. Kawhi/PG13 have missed 50 games combined.

And that´s just the recognisable names. Injuries are not a Mavs exclusive problem. This is once again a talent problem.

The Thunder have as many losses as the Mavs and the easiest SOS left. They started their rebuild in 2018/2019 and build a young roster that is as good as the Mavs roster, while adding about 200 first round picks.

That´s why we always end up with crazy f**** in our trades like Kyrie, Rondo or Wood, because nobody will outbid us to them. It´s not like any other team could not have done it, but with the exception of the Lakers, nobody wanted to even try.

[SleepingHero]

Hard to win games with no defense at all.

First, Luka is obviously still hurt. He is laboring out there. He's grimacing with every move. I have no idea why the team is letting him play through an injury. Despite his injury and lack of ability to move, he can still put up a near 40 point game on good efficiency. That's just because he's Luka.

The bad:

He has decided to stop play defense. He just doesn't care nor can he move well enough to keep up. He's a massive hole right now.

The team is playing so uninspired with him on the court. I've never seen anything like that before with a Luka led team. The ball seems to be stuck in molasses. No one but Luka seems to be able to score when he's the lone guy out there. Everyone is hesitating, or overpassing to the point where they just seem disconnected from the play. 

It carries over to defense, with lackluster effort. It's easy to blame this on Luka, and I am not fully absolving him here, but this falls squarely on the coach. I don't understand what Kidd is trying to do. This team looks so out of practice and out of shape. It's the small shit that's killing this team. Simple stuff. No one boxes out. No one seems to know where to rotate consistently on defense. Players are forgetting plays on the offensive end. The spacing is all out of whack.

That stuff is basketball 101, and for a former HOF player, Kidd should be better at this. It's quite disgusting. 

I don't really know where the Mavs go from here if they put forth this kind of Jekyll-Hyde performances. The team was badly hampered tonight. It's obvious we have to rely on THJ badly now that DFS is gone. Before we could weather the storm if THJ was out because DFS was good enough to cover it. Now with no DFS we're relying on Theo Pinson and G-leaguers. Massive difference there. 

So while I want to admonish the team, they all seemed to be huffing air and almost half the roster had some sort of ailment. I really really really really hope they use this all-star break productively. Get healthy and get fucking polished. Absolutely embarrassing performances from them.

[BigDirk41]

Green's performances since Luka came back are depressing. He was thriving prior to last 2 games. Hopefully it's unrelated, but it's possible it could be.