Game 57: Dallas Mavericks (33-23) vs. Indiana Pacers (32-25)

[loki]

Hardaway is a total black hole

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[HoosierDaddyKid]

Exum can't be back soon enough. Hopefully he's taking all of THJ's minutes before long.

I doubt he ever takes minutes away from THJ. As mercurial of a player as he is, they need his streaky scoring.

[hakeemfaan]

To me the biggest reason for optimism going into the break was the play of Hardy and Green. They were combined giving consistent points. Not sure why Hardy has suddenly been an afterthought. I know they don’t play the same position but I would give much more minutes to Hardy and see if Josh can fill in some of Hardaway’s minutes.

Also Gafford is probably better as a starter than Lively at this point in their careers.

I had a feeling this would be a loss because Indy scores a lot of points. That is their identity. Mavs are still trying to find theirs. The recent additions should make them better defensively but it is a team effort and it takes time. A beatdown like this is good once in a while for all the players to take defense a bit more seriously.

[loki]

I doubt he ever takes minutes away from THJ. As mercurial of a player as he is, they need his streaky scoring.

If they really need someone to start launching shots I'd rather give the minutes to Hardy. Otherwise I feel they're better with Exum's playmaking or DJJ's defense.

[Scott41theMavs]

Gafford -23 in 19 minutes 
Kleber -9 in 25 minutes
Lively +9 in 14 minutes

Did Lively get injured?

There's zero legitimate excuse of a "short leash" or "doghouse" or whatever you want to call it. He objectively played better than the other options. Either Lively was injured (e.g. his nose got jostled or was otherwise hurting him), or Kidd deserves a severe beating.

[Radical Mavs]

I think PJ will thrive here, but he looked like he didn't care today. I didn't like his effort or body language today. Hopefully he corrects that.

You said it all. Can't agree more with this comment.

[surfpuckmd]

One more thing, that a reason we lost but let’s be careful with the maxi at center thing.  He may very well close important games at center.  He has had a good stretch.  But his role needs to be mostly PF, I believe.  Dallas front office (with the coach influence) have a lot invested in two centers (lottery pick and a future pick swap).  Lively deserves a lot of room and Gafford needs at least
20 minutes.  Maxi could see minutes at center but the organization made a big decision that they want to be biggger.  Can’t fall in love overplaying the maxi at center.

I'd also rather have Maxi play mostly at PF.  His defense is good but he's too futile at rebounding to play center for us.

[surfpuckmd]

We had a bad game on the road against a really good team.  It happens.  

My astutest observations:  

PJ looked like he forgot how to dribble.  

Maxi is afraid of rebounds.  

JKidd doesn't realize the guy in the mask is Dereck Lively.  That's why he won't play him more.  

Something seems wrong with THJ right now.  I would like to see a few more Hardy minutes and a little less THJ.  I'm a THJ supporter but when he's not hitting his shots, we're losing his minutes badly.

[myconsumerclub]

Very upsetting game and it was mostly due to coaching if you ask me. Exum hopefully comes back and stays healthy so we can count on him as a third PG behind Luka and Ky.

Green Hardy and Derick need to play more than THJ who should be getting benched. They can at least play defense if and when they go cold.THJ is the 11th man on this team if you ask me but I also understand we have to play him so his game can get showcased but its not looking good after today so we might want to do some damage control and rest him more so he is able to preserve his trade value for the offseason. I would not resign him if he was to play out his contract here. I would send him out for a lesser player that has upside and youth if possible but in truth a couple second round picks might be all we can get at this point if that.

Lively and Gafford need to be the center. We may need to draft another in the 2nd if they fail to show they can hang and produce and you cannot tell what you even have unless you play them.

I get teams go small and you can sometimes need to go small with them but there is really not that much of a reason to try Kleber at any position other than PF and PJ will be a better option when we see him start to fit in more.

With a couple high seconds we could do some good in the draft so I hope we make a move to grab a few and upgrade that last pick of the draft we have. Its a worthless 2nd rounder to me we need to upgrade our team still with additional size and this draft has the most size I have seen in a long time so we could benefit from taking on a pair of rookies.

https://www.tankathon.com/players/zach-edey

https://www.tankathon.com/players/zvonimir-ivisic

One of the guys if not both would be a great move to add the needed size. Both can shoot and that is needed from our bigs plus it doubles your odds that you can find someone to matchup with agains Wemby since he is looking like a future monster we will have to address and size matters if that happens.

Lively needs to start hitting the 3 more and showing that as an option so he can pull out the other teams bigs away from the basket. He demonstrated a decent shot once before so I know he can do it.

[SleepingHero]

This was the first bad game from PJ. And by bad I mean really bad. Basically every single choice he made was incorrect. Everything he did on the court didn't work. He couldn't hit a shot. He couldn't hit a layup. Several defensive lapses. Horrific.

No one could dribble tonight aside from Kyrie and Luka. Green bobbled. THJ bobbled. PJ bobbled.

The overall shot diet was horrific. How many contested mid range two's can a team stomach before they try something else? Timmy really threw up horrible look after horrible look. He couldn't make a simple pass. His defensive rotations were non-existent. He made a couple of okay threes, but overall just bad. Lively got outplayed tonight. He was by far our best center though. I felt when he was on the court the Mavs actually built momentum. Upon seeing the box score he played 15 minutes. That is totally unacceptable. Fireable offense imo. He's proven time and again he's fine with 30 minutes, and the Mavs did good things on the court with him. Insane choice by Kidd there. Gafford had some nice moments but also got outplayed. Luka had so many just heat check shots in the 3rd I felt like I was going to pull my hair out. Don't get me wrong, he can make these consistently, but are they really the best shot the Mavs can get? Especially when the Pacers were just building momentum and riding the hot Turner? It felt like pure iso-ball tonight and the Mavs could never capitalize on any transition attempts.

By the end, their defense just gave up and the Pacers poured on the points. Unfortunate and winnable game lost. Disappointing play. But to be fair it was bound to happen. This game had a feel that the Mavs could sleep walk the whole time and figure out a way to win it at the end.

I really hope the Mavs wake up and figure it out cause this road trip is big for the season.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Gafford -23 in 19 minutes 
Kleber -9 in 25 minutes
Lively +9 in 14 minutes

Lively was terrible tonight.

[OBX Maverick]

The Mavs are 9-12 @ Indy over last 10+ years. This is always a tough place to play for Dallas, just like Toronto. Was a game that we coulda won, but I’m not surprised that we didn’t. Not enough defensive intensity and rebounding, we missed a lot of makeable shots, and Indy shot 56% from the field including Turner who shot 66%. Turner got some open looks from 3, but he’s only a 33%’ish shooter this season. I, too, wonder where Lively went in second half…weird.

---

Although I just saw Turner only listed as making 2/7 threes. Felt like a lot more than that. Perhaps a couple were long 2’s.

[meistermatze]

This was a weird one. Played really supid for the whole game but somehow stayed in it, come back within 4 early in the fourth just to get totally steamrolled after. If felt like Kidd got outcoached big time. I am no expert, but letting Timmy play for so long was an obvious headscratcher. Not only was he missing shots, he was missing rotations, turning the ball over several times... just horrible. If his shot is not dropping, you can not play him. I hope his minutes get cut once Exum comes back. DJJ looks like a non factor when he's not playing heavy minutes.

Worst of all was the center rotation: I can not understand how you play lively only 14 minutes. I think that is what cost us the game in the end, and Timmy's play, of course.

[Chicagojk]

Indy shot the ball well. Mavs just didn't provide much resistance. Disappointing because they had been playing ok/good on defense lately.

I missed almost all of the third quarter, but it looks like a game where Kyrie and Luka did their part in scoring. Mavs just needed our front court to defend, compete and make some plays. Josh was also good. It was the front court that really hurt. 8 turnover from PJ and THJ is another thing that really hurt. I said last game I am fine with Hardaway being a wild card if the team is defending as a whole good. When the team is not defending, I don't think the negatives outweigh the positives of giving Hardaway minutes.

[omahen]

Offensive and defensive ratings are team indicators, it doesn't mean a certain player is a sole contributor to good or bad index. Just trying to get some context.

Mavs offense was bad for most of the game and no matter who was in. Interesting, it was worst in 32 minutes with Kyrie on the floor as team offensive rating with him on the floor was only 94 in this game. Best offensive rating was in 14 minutes Lively played.

Defensively, Mavs defense was beyond awful in minutes Gafford was on the floor, as defensive rating was 161 in those 20 minutes. Second worst defensive rating was not surprisingly in 23 with THJ on the floor at 132, but 32 minutes with Green was only slightly better (131 def rating in those minutes). Defensive rating was by far the best in 14 minutes Lively played.

I really wonder why Kidd played Lively in so limited minutes.

Looking at single game on/off ratings, which of course have limited value. Mavs offense didn't improve with THJ but defense took a big hit. Mavs offense was better with Gafford (but worse than with Lively), but defense just fell apart in his minutes. Defense was ok in Maxi minutes, but offense was really bad.

Team defense took a hit whenever Doncic or Kyrie didn't play, which could be explained by THJ entering in those minutes and contributing less on defense.

Starting unit did really well on both ends, but only played 11 minutes together. Majority of other lineups just didn't work yesterday.

[rocky164]

Besides not giving Lively enough minutes, the biggest coaching error to me was the last 5 minutes of the first half. Kidd had Luka, Kyrie, PJ, and Maxi which has been great. But the fifth guy was THJ instead of Green. Having our best 5 on the floor to close halves is crucial and I’m sorry THJ is not one of them. An argument could be made for Lively over Maxi, but Maxi and PJ have played well together so I have no problem with that. We were down five at the time and ended up down 7. Green over THJ could have easily made the difference between leading or trailing at the half. For me these kinds of things are inexcusable and demonstrate clearly that Kidd is not a good head coach.

[SwisherPrice]

THJ's style just isn't good for this team. This offense needs team players and connectors who know how to move the ball around. There's a reason why they played better in the 2022 playoffs without him because they had 3 players who could score AND pass to open up shots for DFS, Bullock, and Kleber. THJ would have limited them with his greenlight to take any shot.

Exum should help in that capacity but probably not enough for them to write off THJ completely. Just imagine if we had someone like Brogdon instead of THJ, that would be perfect

[Jason Terry]

Mavs starting lineup: 11 total minutes together

Pacers: 27 min

Mavs starting lineup has played only 27 total minutes together

Unacceptable. Kidd must change this or get fired

[SleepingHero]

Really confused why Lively has suddenly the shortest leash on the team. Sure the 3rd quarter wasn't great, but it's not like Gafford or Maxi really stopped anything.

[KillerLeft]

Really confused why Lively has suddenly the shortest leash on the team. Sure the 3rd quarter wasn't great, but it's not like Gafford or Maxi really stopped anything.

It might not have had to do with anything he did wrong. Keeping up with the Pacers (running constantly) might've just gassed the kid quickly.