Great defense down the stretch in this one

Huge

WTF they are getting and 1s on putbacks... That is such a dumb call...

Hardaway is the difference in this game

Never thought I'd say that in the playoffs

That probably wouldn't be overturned on replay, but the call makes absolutely no sense based on what is allowed on the other end

Ball don't lie...

That is not a shooting foul. Should be side out, not an And 1.

Touch fouls against us, hacks allowed for them

Yeah this is why Kidd plays him. He can win you a game when it's right. Props to him for the performance tonight. Look out everybody if this is what he will be the rest of the playoffs. He even made a great pass to PJ for a dunk that Chet blocked...

What a crazy game. We had to shoot really well, but we stole one in OKC.

Damn okc fouls so hard when they foul

Huge answer game, and we didn't even play perfect

"Bye Bye p-" from Kyrie to a fan while shooting FTs... Seems like their fans were very talkative all game.

Great win!

Phew, that felt good

Infection_Ag11 said:

---

Hardaway is the difference in this game

Never thought I'd say that in the playoffs

---

Without Kleber, they really needed him.

If someone was to tell me that PJ was tied as your leading scorer before the game, I say that would be an L.

It's interesting that Kidd went mostly with Gafford in the 4th. He was -8 on the night and Lively was +18.. Definitely felt like Lively was having the better overall game, despite being 1-7 from the field..

EastSideAg2002 said:

---

If someone was to tell me that PJ was tied as your leading scorer before the game, I say that would be an L.

---

And Kyrie only scores 9

shack009 said:

---

"Bye Bye p-" from Kyrie to a fan while shooting FTs... Seems like their fans were very talkative all game.

---

Toothless trailer park livin meth cookin Oklahomans tend to have big mouths.

I love the teams effort. I love the split.

Both games seemed poorly officiated in favor of the thunder. Hopefully that trend reverses at home, but I doubt it. I wish the team was healthier. Seems like over both series, everytime someone hits the deck and gets hurt it is one of our guys.

shack009 said:

---

It's interesting that Kidd went mostly with Gafford in the 4th. He was -8 on the night and Lively was +18.. Definitely felt like Lively was having the better overall game, despite being 1-7 from the field..

---

Lively had that tough stretch in the 2nd half and Kidd never brought him back in it felt like

Wild things happening in OKC.

Doncic’s initial postgame comments were interrupted by an, uh, interesting sound. pic.twitter.com/FMQYD9Dp7x

— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) May 10, 2024

hph6203 said:

---

Wild things happening in OKC.

Doncic’s initial postgame comments were interrupted by an, uh, interesting sound. pic.twitter.com/FMQYD9Dp7x

— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) May 10, 2024

---

"Hope that wasn't live" - Luka

hph6203 said:

---

Wild things happening in OKC.

Doncic’s initial postgame comments were interrupted by an, uh, interesting sound. pic.twitter.com/FMQYD9Dp7x

— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) May 10, 2024

---

Giddy taking advantage of Chet again

hph6203 said:

---

Wild things happening in OKC.

Doncic’s initial postgame comments were interrupted by an, uh, interesting sound. pic.twitter.com/FMQYD9Dp7x

— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) May 10, 2024

---

Reminds me of this :



Couple having sex during a tennis match.

GREAT game by the Mavs. Last night was the first time the offense as a unit performed above a C+ level.

The Goddess of shot variance was on our side, but that's what happens when OKC concedes NINETEEN corner 3pt shots. Making 18 3pt shots on 48% from beyond the arc is statistically way above their normal average HOWEVER, that's what happens when you generate clean, high percentage shots. The Thunder can roll their eyes and say "that won't happen again"....well I'd love to seem them double down on that wager because there was still meat on that bone.

Everyone contributed (except for our sweet prince Lively). THJ even managed to not cover himself in **** and dare I say...he won us that game?

Luka came out on fire. Absolutely NEEDED to see that. He had a couple blow bys on defense and lost his man a few times off ball, but overall I don't have much critique for his game. Despite getting absolutely battered without a whistle (2 free throw attempts is a joke, but at least SGA only had 4), he actually ATTACKED the paint and it helped a ton.

DJJ, Green, PJ and Kyrie are absolutely bringing the energy on defense. These dudes are dawgs. I wish Kyrie would stop deferring to DJJ and be a little more selfish, but I think there's a method to his madness and I trust he knows when to activate 'Kai-time.'

Kidd continues to struggle with when and how to use timeouts, but i'll give him credit on 2 things:
The defense was solid and he continues to dominate the use of coaching challenges lol. It's baffling how good he is at getting foul calls overturned.

Lastly, on OKCs side...wtf are they doing playing Giddey? Every time the Thunder made a run, it was ended because Giddey came into the game. I'm told he had a good series against the Pelicans, but I have no earthly idea how that's possible. He's borderline useless without the ball in his hands and it makes playing defense SO much easier for Dallas when he's on the court. It was crazy sitting on my couch as a fan of the other team, and being guffawed when Dagenault put Giddey BACK INTO THE GAME in the second half when the 5 out offense with Wiggins or Wallace at the SG spot just erased Dallas' 14 pt lead in like 3 minutes. And then literally instantly the Mavs get 2 easy stops and 2 easy transition buckets because Dallas can basically play 5v4 on defense. Lol I hope he keeps that up.

Interesting strategy playing out. OKC over-helped and gave up a bunch of open corner 3's. Ironically, the Mavs didn't shoot well from the corner, most of the hits were above the break. I think it is fair to assume that the Mavs shooting will regress given the same looks, but I think they should still expect to hit at an above average 38%+ based on those looks.

Assuming the 3-point shot variance drops then there is still one area of improvement that they need to exploit to win this series. The Mavs are just bigger and more physical that OKC. But so far Gafford and Lively have shot poorly around the rim and haven't exactly dominated the boards. They've done OK, but this is the edge that the Mavs need to exploit to win this series. OKC has played this to a draw so far which tilts everything else in their favor since they are the better shooting team.

Things I'm looking for on Saturday:

1) How is Luka's knee looking after less than 48 hours rest? He is gutting through it, and after 7 poor shooting playoff games he finally found his touch. Bottom line, Luka has to maintain his touch and continue to be efficient for the Mavs to have a realistic chance against OKC. They are too explosive offensively.

2) Can the Mavs bigs get back to being efficient and stronger on the boards versus a smaller team? At one point Gafford made like 33 straight shots this year. Gafford and Lively have been great on the boards all season. If the Mavs find something to press an advantage in the paint it can turn this series for the Mavs.

3) How will the home crowd impacts the refs? The Mavs want to play physical and OKC doesn't. The way the game is officiated changes from game to game. The first 5 games of the Clippers series were violent, neither team was getting a call. Clippers game 6 and OKC game 1 were pretty soft, which was a jarring change from the first 5 games. OKC game 2 was pretty balanced I though. So what do we get for OKC game 3 and 4? If the refs swallow their whistles like the first 5 games then that is a big Mavs advantage. If the refs give a soft whistle like Clippers game 6/OKC game 1 that is a big OKC advantage.

On Lively... His box score isn't great, but he contributed. I thought he had a really good game, particularly defensively. The 1/7 hurts but he was clearly fouled on at least a couple of those misses. Needs to be stronger finishing through contact but he'll learn and get stronger as he gets older.

There is a reason he was +18, though.

Quote:

---

Kidd continues to struggle with when and how to use timeouts, but i'll give him credit on 2 things:

The defense was solid and he continues to dominate the use of coaching challenges lol. It's baffling how good he is at getting foul calls overturned.

---

His ATO plays have been great all postseason also. Seems like we always get a very good look after a break. Two that stick out to me in the second half yesterday: Thunder took the lead for the first time and after the Kidd TO he gets PJ for an open above-the-break 3 that PJ hits. Later, OKC called a TO and we got a stop on defense and then we ran a play to get PJ a block touch on a smaller guard (I think JWill, but can't remember for sure) and PJ got a bucket but the guard flopped and tricked the refs in to calling an offensive foul. It was a great play call.

Quote:

---

Lastly, on OKCs side...wtf are they doing playing Giddey? Every time the Thunder made a run, it was ended because Giddey came into the game. I'm told he had a good series against the Pelicans, but I have no earthly idea how that's possible. He's borderline useless without the ball in his hands and it makes playing defense SO much easier for Dallas when he's on the court. It was crazy sitting on my couch as a fan of the other team, and being guffawed when Dagenault put Giddey BACK INTO THE GAME in the second half when the 5 out offense with Wiggins or Wallace at the SG spot just erased Dallas' 14 pt lead in like 3 minutes. And then literally instantly the Mavs get 2 easy stops and 2 easy transition buckets because Dallas can basically play 5v4 on defense. Lol I hope he keeps that up.

---

One of those plays was a set play and he passed it right to Luka and I think it ended in the DJJ alley oop. Their next move is to not play Giddey at all. He's been terrible.

jeffdjohnson said:

---

Interesting strategy playing out. OKC over-helped and gave up a bunch of open corner 3's. Ironically, the Mavs didn't shoot well from the corner, most of the hits were above the break. I think it is fair to assume that the Mavs shooting will regress given the same looks, but I think they should still expect to hit at an above average 38%+ based on those looks.
1
Assuming the 3-point shot variance drops then there is still one area of improvement that they need to exploit to win this series. The Mavs are just bigger and more physical that OKC. But so far Gafford and Lively have shot poorly around the rim and haven't exactly dominated the boards. They've done OK, but this is the edge that the Mavs need to exploit to win this series. OKC has played this to a draw so far which tilts everything else in their favor since they are the better shooting team.

Things I'm looking for on Saturday:

1) How is Luka's knee looking after less than 48 hours rest? He is gutting through it, and after 7 poor shooting playoff games he finally found his touch. Bottom line, Luka has to maintain his touch and continue to be efficient for the Mavs to have a realistic chance against OKC. They are too explosive offensively.

2) Can the Mavs bigs get back to being efficient and stronger on the boards versus a smaller team? At one point Gafford made like 33 straight shots this year. Gafford and Lively have been great on the boards all season. If the Mavs find something to press an advantage in the paint it can turn this series for the Mavs.

3) How will the home crowd impacts the refs? The Mavs want to play physical and OKC doesn't. The way the game is officiated changes from game to game. The first 5 games of the Clippers series were violent, neither team was getting a call. Clippers game 6 and OKC game 1 were pretty soft, which was a jarring change from the first 5 games. OKC game 2 was pretty balanced I though. So what do we get for OKC game 3 and 4? If the refs swallow their whistles like the first 5 games then that is a big Mavs advantage. If the refs give a soft whistle like Clippers game 6/OKC game 1 that is a big OKC advantage.

---

Apparently OKC leaves the corner 3 open on purpose, I cant find the article now but I remember reading that before the series started.

1) Luka continues to work his way into the paint and feasts from 10 ft, then knocks down open 3s when he is off ball
2) OKC seems to be going all out to ensure an off ball small flies into the paint to get in between Gafford/Lively and the rim anytime they roll to teh basket. So they are catching it further out than they did in the regular season. They are also often fouling and getting away with it.

PatAg said:

---

Id like to understand why he has suddenly decided to cut Exum's minutes in half.
Besides the obvious of Luka suddenly shooting better and being more effective/efficient, the path to getting wins is probably in this order.
Kyrie balls out for 4 games
PJ scores more
Other players shoot above their average from 3s (which OKC has been doing this whole post season so far), will they regress

We can win this series, but without Luka elevating back to near 100% form, multiple things will have to go right from above I think. Which is possible, and why I dont really agree with just mentally giving up on the series after one game. I dont know that I would bet on it happening, but its not impossible

---

1 win down

I think a big reason for Gafford and Lively struggling so much at the rim is that we are giving them the ball so high up. They are doubling the ball handler, and Luka/Kyrie will split the double with a pass so that Lively and Gafford receive the ball near the 3 point line and then drive into the paint. So the shot is near the rim, but it's not the near-rim shots they have been getting and making all season (where they catch a lob or catch the ball in the paint and go up).

Both of them are driving the basket and taking contested layups which have no shot at going in. That is not their game. And even though the shot chart will show a shot at the basket, those shots are vey low percentage.