Doncic day to day with a sore shoulder. Probably from when crowder pulled him down. You could tell he was wincing after it for a while

Such a fun (and much needed) win. For the first time this season this felt like a complete team chemistry win. The bench unit was phenomenal as always but just seeing the general camaraderie amongst the players was amazing.

Crazy that we put up 118 pts with a 50 pt margin of victory and no player scored more than 20 pts and the none of the starters played more than 26 min.

Just a great game. Hopefully the start of something beautiful. And I'm glad it was the Jazz we annihilated. *****the Jazz.

12-2 on Seats for Soldiers nights

Yeah, we are way too good for a top 5 pick.

Street_Cred_Norm said:

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Yeah, we are way too good for a top 5 pick.

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lol why tf are you sad about that?

Dreams of Zion Williamson in a Mavs uniform.

Street_Cred_Norm said:

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Dreams of Zion Williamson in a Mavs uniform.

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That would require the #1 pick lol. I'm over the lottery. Luka is our guy and we'll be building around him from here on out. There's no reason to believe we cant go on a run and push for a playoff seed. Lets go take Houston's spot.

Rick is too good a coach and the backups are too good of a bench to squander on another losing season. Let's get 70 wins!!!

Street_Cred_Norm said:

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Yeah, we are way too good for a top 5 pick.

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I'm a big fan of tanking (Luka) but this isn't a good situation for the Mavs to tank in. They don't have their pick and the lottery odds have changed. The most important thing this year is for Luka and Dennis to play well and be a part of winning basketball. Also to develop the bench (see Kleber, Finney-Smith) and determine which players are worth keeping long term. Ironically the new lottery odds will help them out if they play out the season honestly.

The two big prizes this year are Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett (maybe Cam Reddish as well). The very worst record in the league only gets a 27% chance to draft in the top 2. The 8th worst record gets a 12% chance to draft in the top 2. Basically the odds aren't great no matter where you land. I could maybe see a situation where the Mavs (if they are eliminated mid-March) try to play "developmental guys" in the last 10 games in an attempt to boost their odds from say 3% to 12% for a top 2 pick. But that is a very long way off.

http://www.tankathon.com/pick_odds

They've got enough of their future core in place that I want no part of tanking. I just think that's a really bad approach to let seep into your locker room for very long at all, especially with a young team, because then you get stuck there as it becomes more of a culture vs. strategy. I look at this as the 1999-2000 season, where many parts for long-term success are in place. Keep driving development of a winning culture.

If the Mavs continue playing well above .500 ball, those losses to ATL, NYK, and PHX are going to come back to haunt them. I think they are much better than a 6-8 record would indicate.

yea man, it's total bs for any of them to be wearing non-mavs jerseys.

Not a huge DSJ fan

Ag's beat LSU and Mavs get back to .500 after beating Boston! night for the books

No Green or Paul for Houston tonight. Everyone but Dirk is available for Dallas. Lets get this W!

Do we all agree this may just be a playoff team?

This bench unit is elite. If Doncic and DSJ are going to play like this, yes, this is a playoff team.

Just peeked at the rockets thread and people bashing Doncic. I guess being good is offensive to houstonians.

At first I thought Followil said "the bich loved it"

This mavs bench unit

ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL BALLLLLLLLLL

Ringer article yesterday about the Mavs

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/27/18114406/dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-dennis-smith

Quote:

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Their starting five is a mishmash of players at different stages in their careers. Harrison Barnes, at 26, is the only one in his prime. Their primary ball handlers (Doncic and Dennis Smith Jr.) are still establishing themselves, and they are flanked by veterans (Wesley Matthews and DeAndre Jordan) in the last seasons of their contracts. The five have not clicked this season, with a net rating of minus-8.8 in 150 minutes together, one of the worst figures among all starting lineups. The Mavs bench has been winning games for them.

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Quote:

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the Mavs backups have still been blowing teams off the floor. J.J. Barea, Devin Harris, Dwight Powell, and Maxi Kleber all have net ratings higher than plus-10.

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Quote:

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It might not be possible for the Mavs to prioritize Doncic and Smith at the same time. Doncic has a net rating of minus-5.5 in 405 minutes with Smith and plus-10.3 in 202 minutes without him. One solution that a lot of NBA teams use is staggering the minutes of their two lead ball handlers to give each time to run the offense unimpeded. The problem for Dallas is that giving Smith more time with the second unit would mean playing him next to another point guard (Barea) who needs the ball even more than Doncic. Smith and Barea were like oil and water last season, with a net rating of minus-7.7 in 395 minutes together.

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Jeeze, there's times when i think the bench unit might be better than the starters. They have great chemistry

Is it possible...that Doncic was UNDERhyped?

rsf0626 said:

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Jeeze, there's times when i think the bench unit might be better than the starters. They have great chemistry

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The trick that I think Carlisle has the knack for, is knowing when to pull the bench unit back off the floor. So the leads they build up arent squandered

This was a total game. From everyone. This team is good, boys.

I don't like that clumsy challenge from Salah, cut his legs with low contact

I hope dirk coming back doesnt ruin their mojo. Mavs have been playing great recently

Beat GSW (without Curry or Draymond)
Beat Jazz (healthy)
Beat Memphis (healthy)
Beat Celtics (without Hayward)
Beat Rockets (without CP or Gerald Green)

Qualify it all you want, but these are quality wins by this team. Incredible

Well, well, well... Dirk may have a bit of a team after all.