Game Debrief: What Went Right And What Went Wrong?

i don't like that our lone playable center is hayes, but yeah, we've got the talent and have shown the ability to play on both ends at a playoff level.

 

I like our chances in the first round if we get Houston

after that, only God knows.

 

The offense was disorganized for most of the game.Still figuring out the Luka gravity.Defense was fine.Dallas only has two shooters and no inside presence so a good team should hold them under 100

 

I believe that Lebron and Luka, can get us two series wins. The WCF outcome, depends on the matchup.

 

I just don’t understand the insanity level of chucking threes when they aren’t falling all night.
Just let success be your guide.
JJ needs to work on this aspect.

 

ok, so i finally got a chance to catch the second half, and it wasn't that bad? based on the talk it seemed like we would have been disappointing, but tbh, the mavs just made some tough shots.

luka's defense was also...pretty good?

 

Nah man that’s crazy talk … take off your purple tinted glasses.

 

We’re one more serviceable big from being a real contender in the playoffs.

 

I agree.Even another Jaxson Hayes type player would be great for this team

 

Early on thought maybe Koloko might wind up the better player plus he has 20lbs on Jax I “think”. But now I guess not with the way Hayes has stepped his game up this year. Hey that’s another feather in JJ and the staff’s hat.

 

yeah, didn't have time to explain earlier, but yes, kyrie dusted him twice near the end of the game, but...as slick said, kyrie is definitely going to cook your forward in isolation. and on the first one, luka clearly was expecting help, as he hedged middle and looked confused when kyrie waltzed to the hoop.

i'd argue the mavs hunted reaves both more often and more successfully, but because he doesn't "smoke hookah" nobody cares.

anyway, both of those guys were in on a key late steal, and both of those guys just punished dallas on offense with surgical precision throughout the game.

having attended to luka's defense in the second half, one thing i really noticed was that he was very good about helping the helper after he gave up drives. DFS is great at this, too, and it's something we'd been missing with guys like gabe and vando out. just keep trying to find somebody to cover, even if you've blown your assignment initially.

finally, as (i think it was) pioneer said: luka's great on the defensive boards. like lebron, he knows where it's going and has great hands and a strong body. i'd argue luka has more of a propensity for boxing out than lebron, though, so he just gobbles up boards down there. and those are possessions. this is why his defensive metrics look better than the eye test, imo. he's a guy who saves possessions on both ends. and his teams struggle most when he's not doing that--even moreso than when his shot is off.

that's my longer version.

koloko has an even weaker base than jaxson, imo. but it is weird to me that we haven't just leaned into having a hayes/koloko on the floor all the time.

then again, someone else noted that rui has become something of a vertical threat--or semblance thereof, in that you can throw it over the top to him and he can convert in traffic. and it's also fair to say rui isn't a bad weakside shotblocker, either. add in that he's knocking down threes, and he's basically your backup center, minus the rebounding. but with luka and lebron, you should be able to board.

 

This seems much more complicated than we'd think. All these guys missing wide-open 3s hit them in practice. They're told, "If you have a good look, take it." They have good - sometimes warm-up-level open looks - and just missed them.

Plus: we're talkin' JJ Redick here: he clearly believes in the Mystical Powers of the Almighty Three.

When Luka hit AR with that sick over-the-neck pass for a wide-open 3: AR hit it. That's not in the highlights on ESPN unless AR completes the majesty of that pass by knockin' it down. Our guys - I'm looking at your shots in particular lately, DFS! - need to just cultivate the relaxed zone of unconsciousness when they're standing alone at the arc with the ball, a defender rushing toward them in desperation to contest. I think they will.

And when they do - like we hit 18-22 3s in a game - we'll blow out teams and Luka and Bron rest a lot in the 4th.

 

yeah, he's getting a lot more rope than gabe around here, but he's got to be better there, too.

 

It wasn’t bad at all. I don’t get the doom and gloom. First of all we won, and just out executed them in the 4th via LeBron - something we’ve lacked for years because he had been gassed out.

Second, we never really got out of middle gear, the whole game we just kind of took their hits and kept plodding along and kept them below 100.

Lastly, if we hit at 33-34% from deep, we convert three more threes and win by 17.

I don’t really get it. I think people expected the showing against Denver every night - but that’s just not the way life works. Otherwise we’d go 82-0.

 

I think the sentiment is mostly because mid Q2 we were up 15pts or so and the game was leaning to a blowout, Dallas weren't hitting anything. But then it reversed, Kyrie got going, they started hitting 3s and we weren't, to the point the game was tied in the 2nd half.

But I'm much more comfortable with this team and it seems we have extra gears. Hell of a job by JJ and Luka fits us much better than AD in the sense that he can really control the game and let Bron be the player he's supposed to be at his age, while with AD we needed 30 year old Bron.

For instance, we have Minny, Clippers and Knicks in 4 of the next 5 and I'm pretty confident we win all of them. Haven't felt like this since the year after the title before the injuries.

 

Wow … you too? Even with fat completely washed Marc Gasol?

 

Ahahaha indeed!
We were 21-6 before AD went down btw

 

We would have won again that year.

 

Fugly again
Another great 1st half that gets wasted by bad end to the half. Team gets confidence and lose a potential blowout

Luka shooting or lack of shooting is mucking up the offense

Hope Rui knew is ok. Air kind of went out of the arena when he went to the locker room

Also Gabe f***ing sucks again. Not having a competent backup PG when you don't have a traditional PG is a problem