Game 16: Los Angeles Clippers (7-8) vs. Dallas Mavericks (10-6) | 88-107 loss

[omahen]

Kudos to Lue and Clippers stars. Very quickly he set the rotation right, players accepted their roles and Clippers look like a much different team. Getting Theis and his energy from the bench was also huge for them.

[omahen]

Mavs have a really tough schedule now. All games against West until 27th of December (Cleveland), followed by two more games against West till New Year. Houston 2x, Minny 2x, Denver, LAC, LAL, GSW, Pho, OKC, Cle will all be very difficult games.

[Chicagojk]

Green get dinged? Why only 9 minutes for him? Another 0 point game. What a strange season from him so far. One step forward, one step back. When we have a game when we don’t have it, I would like to see some positive signs form our youngsters. No Lively though. Hardy and Omax little impact and Green is invisible. Ouch.

[Jym]

Kudos to Lue and Clippers stars. Very quickly he set the rotation right, players accepted their roles and Clippers look like a much different team. Getting Theis and his energy from the bench was also huge for them.

Yeah everyone was crapping on them but that's a team I absolutely do not want to face in the playoffs if they're healthy
Way scarier than PHX or the Wolves

[Mavs2021]

I said before the season no idea how many wins and I kinda feel the same now. If the Grizzlies go on a huge run with Morant, the Knicks fans might have another nailbiter on their hands.  

The Grant Williams/DJJ honeymoons are over. The other teams have basically decided that you allow Luka/Kyrie to score 60-70 points and the rest won´t do much.

Why Green only got nine minutes? -15 and refusal to do anything I assume?

How they are not trying to sign every available big under the sun is also a mystery to me. Starting two years ago at multiple stages these centers were available for virtually or literally nothing....Mo Wagner, Hartenstein, Thomas Bryant, Jalen Smith, Mo Bamba, Bitadze, Theis, BolBol, Biyombo and now Kai Jones. I know not all of them work out and not all would have signed here, but our drawing card was/is strong: We have Luka and look how shit our centers are. They signed Javale McGee. Out of all these players that´s who they came up with.

And let´s be honest, if Lively II wasn´t literally the best +/- rookie, we´d be a lock for another Knicks lottery pick nailbiter.

Morris, Powell and Curry were bad signings in the sense that they were already too committed to shorties. Size matters.

[MrGoat]

Wow, this team is trash without Lively.

Although we also need to start hitting open 3s again

[Chicagojk]

The Mavs lack many plus defenders but to add insult they also seem not to be very connected on defense. Their rotations can be sporadic and they also appear to lose guys on rotations and when players are going for the offensive rebound. Luka and Grant are two that stick out to me, but I think everyone has had issues. How do they clean this up ? They have no shot if they miss rotations, slow rotations or half hearted rotations. Losing guys by watching the ball is also easy to see.

5 Iztok thoughts

https://x.com/iztok_franko/status/172879...92663?s=61&t=-aAylloVlVRI2-DRvoajoA

[Jym]

The Mavs lack many plus defenders but to add insult they also seem not to be very connected on defense.  Their rotations can be sporadic and they also appear to lose guys on rotations and when players are going for the offensive rebound.  Luka and Grant are two that stick out to me, but I think everyone has had issues.  How do they clean this up ?  They have no shot if they miss rotations, slow rotations or half hearted rotations.  Losing guys by watching the ball is also easy to see.

5 Iztok thoughts

https://x.com/iztok_franko/status/172879...92663?s=61&t=-aAylloVlVRI2-DRvoajoA

How in the hell did DFS not get a spot on the All-Defense team back in 21-22?
The robbery is looking even more glaring now

[BigDirk41]

As others have mentioned, teams have figure out to let Luka and Kyrie go off while shutting everyone else down is the recipe to beating the Mavs. Lively is a huge difference maker, more than some realized, but overall this team isn't going anywhere without some moves. I'll be curious to see if they do anything or wait until the summer. The good thing is the Mavs beat the teams they should this year so they may have a chance to have a decent amount of wins at the end, but they can't win a playoff series as constructed unless Luka goes nuclear.