Game 24: Minnesota Timberwolves (18-5) vs. Dallas Mavericks (15-9)| 119-101 loss

[rocky164]

Looking at the schedule for the rest of the month…at the end of the month when we play Minnesota again it will again be the 3rd game in 4 nights. Difficult enough to play the T-wolves but playing them at the back end of 3 games in 4 nights TWICE is brutal.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Bottom line, Mavs have to make shots to compete with bigger more athletic teams. Shooting comes and goes. At least with size, you have other ways to score by pounding the ball inside.

[Chicagojk]

My hope by year end OMAx gains confidence in coaching staff to be able to play in these games when our shot isn’t falling and we need a spark.

[dirkfansince1998]

Perfect scenario for Gobert. Opposing team has no stretch big and the guards/wings are ice cold form 3. Allowing him to camp in the paint or shadow drives without any concerns for open shooters.
That said. I have seen a Gobert-lead defense collapse too many times to buy into it. Needs to show it in the playoffs.

[Chicagojk]

Perfect scenario for Gobert. Opposing team has no stretch big and the guards/wings are ice cold form 3. Allowing him to camp in the paint or shadow drives without any concerns for open shooters.
That said. I have seen a Gobert-lead defense collapse too many times to buy into it. Needs to show it in the playoffs.

I agree.  Minny fans need to be happy right now.  Good for them.

But Gobert has had some tough playoffs.  Towns may have even bigger questions in the playoffs.  But they have surrounded the team with a real nice roster led by Edwards and good veterans.  Can they win a championship though if they don’t get A level play from Gobert and Kat though?

[Jason Terry]

Perfect scenario for Gobert. Opposing team has no stretch big and the guards/wings are ice cold form 3. Allowing him to camp in the paint or shadow drives without any concerns for open shooters.
That said. I have seen a Gobert-lead defense collapse too many times to buy into it. Needs to show it in the playoffs.

5 out may be the way to beat them. It would need to be a big 5 out

[The Jom]

You can’t convince me Minny is good. Fools’ gold. Seen it too many times. They’re the Timberwolves. It’s what they do.

[sefant]

Hardaway is such a sieve.  Hate watching him play

Luka / Tim 401 min
-5.23 net rating

no Tim 443 min
+8.63 net rating

Defense 13 pts worse from 111 DefRtg to 124 DefRtg. Offense unchanged

[ThisIStheYear]

It was a predictable loss. I expected a blow out but had hopes raised by Luka’s early dominance. Unfortunately, no one else could shoot straight. Partly, they’re a tired, depleted team, partly the Wolves have a lot of length on defense, partly, the refs were ridiculous again. Win or lose, the refs are the story this year. All in all, it would have been fine if not for the sorry ass technical by a ref who can’t see straight to begin with.

[omahen]

I think Mavs played well, created a ton of open looks, but shots just didn't fall this time. I think DJJ played excellent defense on Ant and GW on Towns. Reid killed us with his shooting. There is not much you can do shooting 21 % against a team shooting 45 %.

I don't think this technical was so bad as a couple of previous ones. Luka did overreact to a wrong call and ref decided to quickly send a message that he is not willing to tolerate that. I can accept this.

[MrGoat]

When you're getting hosed by the refs like that you can't afford to shoot that poorly. I wasn't overly impressed with Minnesota

[Chicagojk]

I think Mavs played well, created a ton of open looks, but shots just didn't fall this time. I think DJJ played excellent defense on Ant and GW on Towns. Reid killed us with his shooting. There is not much you can do shooting 21 % against a team shooting 45 %.

I don't think this technical was so bad as a couple of previous ones. Luka did overreact to a wrong call and ref decided to quickly send a message that he is not willing to tolerate that. I can accept this.

Probably a good way to look at it.  Against the Lakers, Exum hit 6 threes.   We got that same medicine with Naz last night.   With our roster construction and current injuries we just aren't going to win many games when we don't hit our threes and the other team does.   That is true for most teams but I hope as we continue to build the roster we aren't so tied to make or miss threes.

[dirkfansince1998]

I think Mavs played well, created a ton of open looks, but shots just didn't fall this time. I think DJJ played excellent defense on Ant and GW on Towns. Reid killed us with his shooting. There is not much you can do shooting 21 % against a team shooting 45 %.

I don't think this technical was so bad as a couple of previous ones. Luka did overreact to a wrong call and ref decided to quickly send a message that he is not willing to tolerate that. I can accept this.

Over the last few games the Mavs have really struggled with stretch bigs. The pick and roll defense is an invitation for any pick&pop big. Seems like a shot that they are willing to give up.
Blazers starting center attempted 10 threes (2/10). Grizzlies JJJ was 6/10 from. Against the Thunder Bertans and Williams combined for 7/8 from 3.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

THJ/GWill/DJJ combined 2-20 for three. There's your ball game.

Nearly all the way out on Hardy. His defense last night was egregiously bad. Doesn't matter how much of a bucket you are, you can't be that much of a liability on the other end.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

When you're getting hosed by the refs like that you can't afford to shoot that poorly. I wasn't overly impressed with Minnesota

Bad take. So it's the ref's fault for Dallas shooting poorly?  Is it always the referee's fault when things don't go as planned? They make mistakes, I get it. But to constantly blame them is not right either. Minnesota seems legit to me. The defense has taken a quantum leap. And their best player had a bad game, and they still ran away with it.

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THJ/GWill/DJJ combined 2-20 for three.  There's your ball game.

Nearly all the way out on Hardy.  His defense last night was egregiously bad.  Doesn't matter how much of a bucket you are, you can't be that much of a liability on the other end.

He hasn't been a bucket lately either.

[Chicagojk]

I want to add that Lively was good again last night. Sure there are some things he needs to improve. But at least for last night, I left the game thinking Lively vs Gobert was a push. Not too shabby.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

I want to add that Lively was good again last night.  Sure there are some things he needs to improve.  But at least for last night, I left the game thinking Lively vs Gobert was a push.  Not too shabby.

Was very interested to see how he showed up last night vs when we first saw him in preseason vs Gobert.  The kid coming along this quickly has been so insane to watch.

In 25 games we've basically watched him learn how to:

play defense without fouling
screen without fouling (remember how awful this looked early on?)
score out of the short roll
develop a right handed jump hook (where the hell did this come from???)

Excited to see what's next.

[Scott41theMavs]

Was very interested to see how he showed up last night vs when we first saw him in preseason vs Gobert.  The kid coming along this quickly has been so insane to watch.

In 25 games we've basically watched him learn how to:

play defense without fouling
screen without fouling (remember how awful this looked early on?)
score out of the short roll
develop a right handed jump hook (where the hell did this come from???)

Excited to see what's next.

Sorry to be repetitive, but I've been pounding the drum since SL and PS - his greatest asset, even bigger than his physical gifts, is his native intelligence and ability to flatten that learning curve very, very quickly. 

Who knows, maybe by next season he'll be shooting and making threes.

[sefant]

Sorry to be repetitive, but I've been pounding the drum since SL and PS - his greatest asset, even bigger than his physical gifts, is his native intelligence and ability to flatten that learning curve very, very quickly. 

Who knows, maybe by next season he'll be shooting and making threes.

He keeps on rising in EPM too. +0.4 away from Kyrie. Now top 20 in D-EPM. He is basically in the same tier as Franz Wagner/Brunson/Jimmy Butler right now.

Higher on defense than Bam, McDaniels and OG. Its basically 95 % allstars, former allstars, future allstars in front of him.

[The Jom]

Bad take. So it's the ref's fault for Dallas shooting poorly?  Is it always the referee's fault when things don't go as planned? They make mistakes, I get it. But to constantly blame them is not right either. . . .

Dude, other sports aren’t like this. Only the NBA (and CFB championship games when the conference stands to lose a lot of money if the favored team gets upset). If you don’t see it, I can’t help but think you’re biased against believing. 

Sure, call me a conspiracy theorist if you like. But there’s something about the human brain, it seems, that just makes us want to laugh at people who say (a) something’s up with the reffing or (b) damn, that’s a lot of pilots/military folks saying they’ve seen UFOs.