Game 31: Cleveland Cavaliers (17-13) vs. Dallas Mavericks (18-12)

[KillerLeft]

Not much of a plan to get a good shot off at the end.

For some reason, lively was in the Dunker’s spot. Completely and totally useless in that situation. That basically allowed two guys to guard Luka without consequence of any kind.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

They went 5 minutes without scoring a point. That's a lifetime in the NBA. That's what did them in and Levert got hot

[KillerLeft]

Kidd still drawing up the same predictable play that the entire league has seen for the last 3 years

I think you have to take Lively off the floor for that situation.

[ThisIStheYear]

That was a shock loss. Luka lost his concentration for a good deal of the 2nd half and couldn’t adjust to the defensive changes, but the Mavs should have buried them early. They just couldn’t shoot straight. The last play gave me flashbacks to last season. Kidd had a bad game.

[IamDougieFresh]

Sweeny drew up an actual inbound play for Kidd. Open look for Luka. 3 points.

After seeing this, what do we do for the next inbounds?

Pray for a Luka double teamed 360 fadeaway no scope.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

That one hurts. Cleveland was missing their three best players, and they blew a 20 pt lead.

[IamDougieFresh]

And why is Lively in the game down 3 points???

[donzingis38]

im in shock.

[Chicagojk]

Well flush that game. Yuck. One of the things that I dislike about Luka is when he is rolling he tends to lose focus at times. especially against a team he doesn't really scare him. It is a couple of heat check shots (he makes plenty), a few please the crowd difficult passes, slow closeouts, giving up getting back on defense. An aggressive team can attack and pickup 6, 8, 10 points in a matter of minutes. Oh well, this one will hurt.

---

I’m curious why you feel that way. There was really only one stretch of Williams at center, unless I missed one. I thought he played well, and they won that stretch decisively.

Just now, as I was typing this, Grant came up with a huge offensive rebound.

---

To be clear, the decision to go small after the past time out has gone pretty far towards shifting the momentum back in Dallas’s favor.

We are getting open shots again, they are just missing them. The defense looks fine to me. Better than it was last five minutes, even.

I will need to go back and re-watch.  Scratch that.  Yuck.

I thought Powell was much more impactful.  He is a lob threat and better getting rebounds.  Right now Grant is not a lob threat or a real threat from three.  Doesn't rebound well and struggles guarding the perimeter or protecting the rim.   Maybe it could look better with someone like Maxi, but I think that lineup with no other big will bleed points more often than be productive.   Maybe I am wrong though.

[Chicagojk]

Lets not let Lively off the hook. He has been great this year and everyone has stinkers. But 4 rebounds in 25 minutes when your counterpart gets 23 is the game right there. He plays like how he has been playing this year and the Mavs win this game even with all the other stuff that was lacking. Getting out rebounded by 20 is the game. Mavs had plenty of opportunity to put the game away even with poor three point shooting. Cavs hit threes and destroyed the Mavs on the boards. That the game.

[IamDougieFresh]

If you thought this was embarrassing wait until we end the Pistons’ 60 game loss streak

[F Gump]

Stat of this game -

Mavs "3-D" wing shooters (THJ, Exum, DJJ, Green, GWill) were a combined 2-18. Abysmal shooting on the shots their offense is designed to create. If they only went 4-18 (22%) they win.

Not sure why that happened, but that's underwater. Playing at home, it's odd or bad or not ready or something.

[MFFL]

We were fucking CRUSHED on the boards. That was terrible.

[KillerLeft]

We were fucking CRUSHED on the boards. That was terrible.

There was one stretch in the 3rd when they looked like the Keystone cops out there trying to rebound. It was pretty sad.

[sefant]

Up 9.

5:40 Derrick Jones Jr. enters the game for Dante Exum
5:40 Luka Doncic enters the game for Josh Green

season numbers:

Luka/Exum (no Tim) +16 net (107 DefRtg)
Luka/Tim (no Exum) -7 net (126 DefRtg)

Game right there.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Now they go to Minnesota. They will probably get crushed on the boards again.

[dirkfansince1998]

Porter Jr should have been a Mav. Undrafted rookie looking better than the best version of Josh Green.

[Chicagojk]

Man, that loss still hurts. It is a bad feeling when you root for a team that comes out hot and you just feel them take their foot off the gas and the lead just keeps creeping down. Most times, they will sneak by with a win. There are times though that you just feel helpless and the other teams gets all the momentum and there is nothing you can do. Even with that, I think there were several stages where if they secured an offensive rebound, hit an open three, or Cleveland missed a three that the ending could have been different. Oh well.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

Stat of this game -

Mavs "3-D" wing shooters (THJ, Exum, DJJ, Green, GWill) were a combined 2-18. Abysmal shooting on the shots their offense is designed to create. If they only went 4-18 (22%) they win.

Not sure why that happened, but that's underwater. Playing at home, it's odd or bad or not ready or something.

This same group (minus Green) wasn't really much better on Christmas either, 7-23.  9-51 shooting around Luka isn't going to get it done (9-53 if you include Lawson on Christmas).  

I was assuming we were going to win despite all the bad shooting and come in here and mention it's either a good thing that we've found ways to win despite the bad shooting or it's a bad thing because a lot of these guys may be regressing to the mean (and then we lose anyways so I didn't even get to take that angle).  DJJ and Exum never found homes in the league for this very reason so I'm really hoping what we saw early on this season keeps up and these are just some bad shooting nights otherwise this new starting 5 that everyone is excited about is going to end up hitting some harsh realities in the playoffs.

[omahen]

Shots didn't fall, it happens. Unlucky for Mavs, whole team couldn't buy a three for most of the game. Mavs perhaps became a bit too relaxed after that early lead. It also showed they are tired - Luka didn't move right the whole game, which especially showed on defense.

Stranded and Dan the other day made great points. This team will live or die with Exum and DJJ ability to hit open threes. I am sure we will see games like yesterday, where shots just don't go in. Lets hope there won't be too many of them.