For once I'm going to do my best to not pay attention much to this one. I thought we were done after game 1 of the OKC and Clips series only to wake the **** up and push their stool in after. Let's hold the panic for game 2 if we drop another

shack009 said:

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dave94 said:

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When we cut it to 8, I think it's fair to say we had a chance. STFU with this "we can't win this" bs

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Sure, we had a chance at 8. I never felt good about it. The Celtics had complete control of the game. Once they decided they didn't want the game to be close anymore, it wasn't.

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This is a very disingenous way to view that part of the game. It was 8 pts, we were getting everything we wanted and getting all the rebounds. We had the ball and Kyrie had a bad sequence of plays where he had that travel and bricked a wide open 3.
2nd and 3rd quarters were played a lot more evenly. You gotta give the "woe is me, we suck, they rule, this series is over" schtick a rest, its only been 1 game

dave94 said:

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When we cut it to 8, I think it's fair to say we had a chance. STFU with this "we can't win this" bs

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Agree. Terrible start. Kyrie missed open shots all night. KP crazy hot start. This was always going to be a crazy tough series to win but if Luka and Kyrie can deliver like stars, I thought they had a shot. Nothing that happened tonight changes my mind or makes me think it's completely hopeless

such a long wait for the next game too, all of the discourse is going to be so annoying

This was always gonna be a tough series. Boston has crazy skill and depth. Only shot at pulling out a win or two is to have Luka and Kyrie both drop 30+ a game

Which they are getting the looks to do that with how BOS is playing them IF they make open shots

Lively finally looked like a rookie tonight.

His travel and Kyries right after we cut it to 8 were back breakers.

No need to panic. Just gotta get a better Kyrie game in game 2 and not have KP go off and we'll be just fine.

Credit to joe mazulla. He figured out how to completely neutralize the lob threat/scoring in the paint and corner 3, probably our biggest strengths.

The celtics defense (jaylen brown and KP specifically) looks a million times better than at any point okc or minnesota did

Ugly game but Boston is supposed to win at home. Only need to steal one out of four to win the series. Luka and Kyrie can do it.

The frustrating part is Boston is not a good home team. They are a good road team. We need to get 1 of the first two in Boston. That makes game 2 a must win.

Hard to feel good about game 2 with the way they played tonight. Add in that Boston didn't even have a particularly good game.

We just put a ton of pressure on ourselves by not being up for it in the first game of the finals. It's just so annoying.

Guitarsoup said:

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Ugly game but Boston is supposed to win at home. Only need to steal one out of four to win the series. Luka and Kyrie can do it.

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Over the last few seasons they are barley over .500 at home in the playoffs and are lights out on the road. It's not quite as simple as you make it out to be.

That's probably the best I've ever seen Jaylen Brown play all around. Boston wasn't perfect tonight but they were really damn good.

I'm also not convinced Porzingas can stay healthy for an entire series

MAVERICKS IN SEVEN

Worst game we've played since everything started rolling in February. I don't see how we play as bad on Sunday as last night. How many times did our guys get their pocket picked like we're playing 3rd grade scrum ball?

Kidd got outcoached last night too. Adjust and move on.

Sloppy sloppy sloppy game. Between the turnover, out inability to get rebounds and loose balls, and horrible shot selection, it was out worst game a long time. But all of that can be cleaned up. And I wouldn't expect Prozingas to continue to look like an all star. One and done performance? (I hope). We got this!

This is probably the worst game the Mavericks have played in a while, even worse than OKC game 1. But the fact that it happened against the best team they have played in a while is probably not a coincidence. The problem is trying to figure out what adjustments there are even to make.

Defensively I don't really see any adjustments. Boston will take a lot of 3's and you can't stop that from happening. They shot the ball fine overall by their standards, but they weren't that amazing. They had an initial huge burst in the first quarter, but also had a long dry spell when the Mavs pushed the lead from 29 down to 8. The shooting stuff will likely average itself out considering their volume.

Offensively is really where the biggest problems really are. The Mavs will need to be scoring 105-110 points per game to push Boston to clutch time and ultimately win games. Boston played Luka and Kyrie straight up 1v1 pretty much all night. Luke played well but didn't have a massive volume game shooting. Kyrie played like ***** If Boston is going to play you like this (and they will) then Luka/Kyrie are going to need to score 65+ points. They are capable of doing it, but I just don't see any other way. Luka has to come in next game with the mindset to score 40+.

I didn't really watch the game until the 4th quarter - was Dallas that physical the entire game, or was it a "we're down 20 and this one is out of reach so we're going to bang you guys around a bit and see if your bodies hold up the entire series" type situation?

Just saw us go hard at Porzingis no less than 3 times in the final quarter with some intent and didn't know if we played like that the entire game or just strategically when it was out of reach.

I saw a couple of things worth noting.

(1) That was the first time I've seen Lively look like a rookie. It's easy to forget he's 20 years old and a key contributor in the NBA finals. I'm not surprised he had a tough time on that stage, and I expect he will improve as the series goes on.

(2) Dallas needs to rethink its pick and pop defense. They were content to switch (either in zone or not), and it ended up with Porzingis shooting over short players on the wing. I think they went into that game thinking he was going to be rusty and he wasn't. Dude looked like the player he was supposed to be here before his knee gave out, and that's uniquely frustrating.

(3) On the subject of Porzingis, dude sure looked healthy. I am skeptical he'll have the legs after 30 days without playing to do it an entire series.

(4) Very Small Ball doesn't work. We don't have the roster to play Boston's game. We need to try and force them to play ours. Have to be better on rebounds, and we have to score inside. Going to be hard if Porzingis can play like its 2019 before the miniscus, but we have to body him early and often inside. Tax him there and hope it translates when he's shooting on the wing.

(5) Gotta watch the travels. Refs are looking for it. A couple of back-breakers after cutting the lead to 8 in the 3rd.

Good thoughts!

For as bad as Lively played, he was the only person that stood a change guarding KP. Everyone else was either too small or too slow. Anytime they switched on KP the defense was a joke.

Maxi needs to hit some 3s. They were leaving him wide open so his defender could clog the paint, and he kept passing out of wide open shooting looks. If he can't stretch the floor, then there's no point playing him. Shoot the ball!

That goes for all the role players. I saw everyone but Luka, Kyrie, and YOLO Hardy passing out of open looks. Then Luka or Kyrie would have to jack up a bad shot or drive a crowded lane. Shoot the ball if you're open!

Wasn't a huge factor in the end, but the officiating was weird. Anytime a big touched a guard or wing it was a foul, but the bigs were basically in a boxing match down low with no calls. Maybe I missed the memo during the Wolves series, but since when it hitting people in the face with your elbow perfectly cool and not a foul?

Celtics played well, and the Mavs made a lot of unforced errors (along with some forced errors due to good defense). Cleanup the unforced errors and hit a few more shots and I think the Mavs are back in this.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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Wasn't a huge factor in the end, but the officiating was weird. Anytime a big touched a guard or wing it was a foul, but the bigs were basically in a boxing match down low with no calls. Maybe I missed the memo during the Wolves series, but since when it hitting people in the face with your elbow perfectly cool and not a foul?

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Unfortunately, that was how they called the Pacers/Celtics series. Absolute dogfights inside and touch fouls outside. I will say I was getting irritated at it, but the mavs were hacking and slashing inside too without getting whistled.

It seems like quite a few times in the NBA, when there is a blowout of two fairly evenly matched teams in game 1, the other team wins game 2.

Mavs win Game 2.

Brown has been incredible the playoffs. Only saw the last series vs Indy, but he has been best player. Tatum has taken back seat to him

I still think we can win in 6 or 7. Kristaps will regress. This will be his best game of the series.
That said, Kyrie and all the role players need to step up.

NoahAg said:

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I still think we can win in 6 or 7. Kristaps will regress. This will be his best game of the series.
That said, Kyrie and all the role players need to step up.

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Game 1 will be known as the KP game. He's not going to do it every night for sure. If he does, the dude must have had some hardcore motivation to own luka.

KP had an above average game efficiency wise, but yall realize he was great all year right? He's played great in Boston (and played well in Washington last year). He scored 20 points and got 6 rebounds game 1. He averaged 20 points and 7 rebounds on the year. Yes, he did it in only 20 minutes or so in game 1, and he averaged around 30 minutes on the year so he had a very good game. But let's not act like he dropped 40 on us. KP scoring 20+ is somewhat expected going forward imo but hope im wrong.

He really had a great 1st qtr. 18/20 pts were scored in that 8 min stretch. Mavs figured him out a little better with pre switches but ya, his face up game is annoyingly better since his days in Dallas.

mavsfan4ever said:

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KP had an above average game efficiency wise, but yall realize he was great all year right? He's played great in Boston (and played well in Washington last year). He scored 20 points and got 6 rebounds game 1. He averaged 20 points and 7 rebounds on the year. Yes, he did it in only 20 minutes or so in game 1, and he averaged around 30 minutes on the year so he had a very good game. But let's not act like he dropped 40 on us. KP scoring 20+ is somewhat expected going forward imo but hope im wrong.

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What he did in the 1st half was not "average" , lol

You are a somewhat of a maddening poster. Someone else pointed it out recently and I agree.

You constantly just post snippy one liners and misconstrue what posters say or put words in their mouth. It's ridiculous.

Nowhere did I say what he did this game was average and I certainly didn't say what he did in the first quarter was average. He obviously had a great first quarter. And his game was ABOVE average. But his totals are around his averages so, like I said, let's not pretend like he dropped 40 on us.

I expect his shooting to regress a little. But he shot 52% on the year (and we don't really have anyone to guard him) so I won't be surprised if he keeps having good games.

And I didn't even mention his shot blocking and rim protection in my initial post. I doubt that will go away.

M.C. Swag said:

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He really had a great 1st qtr. 18/20 pts were scored in that 8 min stretch. Mavs figured him out a little better with pre switches but ya, his face up game is annoyingly better since his days in Dallas.

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Agree. I blame a lot of that on Carlisle. But he does seem better.

Did anyone else think the game was tonight? Just me?

mavsfan4ever said:

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You are a somewhat of a maddening poster. Someone else pointed it out recently and I agree.

You constantly just post snippy one liners and misconstrue what posters say or put words in their mouth. It's ridiculous.

Nowhere did I say what he did this game was average and I certainly didn't say what he did in the first quarter was average. He obviously had a great first quarter. And his game was ABOVE average. But his totals are around his averages so, like I said, let's not pretend like he dropped 40 on us.

I expect his shooting to regress a little. But he shot 52% on the year (and we don't really have anyone to guard him) so I won't be surprised if he keeps having good games.

And I didn't even mention his shot blocking and rim protection in my initial post. I doubt that will go away.

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I didn't misconstrue anything, you wrote that

Please point out where I said that what he did in the first half was average. Thats literally what you said in your "drive by snippy one liner" and added a lol on the end. Never said that.

On top of that, I also said that he had an above average game efficiency wise and had a very good game (so if I think he had a very good game, obviously that means his first half was great bc he did most of his damage in the first half).

I'm done responding to you. Wouldn't be a big deal at all if this was a one off thing. But these dumb "gotcha" posts where you aren't even correct most of the time seem to be your schtick. Not sure how it's even enjoyable to constantly make those posts.

Alright let's see the adjustments for tonight. I've heard different opinions- don't collapse on the driving player but stay home and prevent open 3's. Obviously we gotta do a better job with on the ball defense rather than just letting them slip right past us 30 ft from the hoop.

Kyrie should have a better game. I expect to see our team much less rattled than we were Thursday night.