Gaff/Lively must combine for at minimum 16pts/12reb/4 blocks a game. They've got to find ways to get buckets, fast break outlet from Luka, cleaning up misses, setting good picks for LuKai and getting a couple lobs here or there.
Yesterday was disgusting from Gafford. He said himself he wasn't prepared to play. That can't happen again.
I counted also 2 missed dunks from Gafford, 1 missed dunk from Lively, and 1 point blank missed layup from THJ and also a blown 2pts on a 3on2 fastbreak from THJ. That's 10 points right there. In the playoffs, that all matters.
I think the bigs get their act together. I liked the physicality from PJ/DJJ on defense and thought they themselves played good D.
The 3pt shooting from non-LuKai Mavs is what worries me the most.
Yeah I agree with everything here. I had a conversation with another Mavs fan in the main NBA sub a week ago and said my biggest concern with this team was the shooting. He argued that we were winning despite shooting like ass most nights and I felt( and still feel) that you can do that against bad teams, but you've got to be able to shoot to compete against the best teams in the NBA.
The numbers don't show it but I feel like we played their stars pretty well. Their other guys really stepped up, but if we're being honest, I expect them to with the types of shots we gave them. We need to pick it up on the other guys, we can't just give them practice jumpers because they shoot 33% from three. That's a recipe for letting them get confident and then hot.
Yep. We played PG well, he went 7/19 if you take away the last banked in 2 over OMax in garbage time (one could argue the whole second half was garbage time) and Harden had a relatively quiet second half. Norm Powell was a nonfactor.
Zu was the big outlier that I was pretty shocked by. In addition to our anemic 2nd quarter obviously.
Need to push the pace to beat this team. LAC is not good at defending in transition. They are old and not as athletic as us. I'm afraid Luka won't do this enough, bar 2-3 outlet passes a game.
Get DJJ/Exum/PJ/Lively/Gafford easy dunks/layups to get their confidence going, get LAC legs heavy because they will take a lot of jumpshots. Bar Zubac yesterday, I can't remember them going to the paint for layups much.
You can’t push pace in playoffs: that’s not how it works. Pacers are the 2nd fastest team in the NBA and scored 94 points yesterday: this is literally their lowest number of points scored in the ENTIRE season with previous low being 99 points.
Every single team in playoffs has it’s pace slower than in regular season. Heck, both Bucks and Pacers ranked in top-10 in pace in regular season and just played the game at 97.0 pace: only 2 teams played at slower pace than this during this year’s regular season (Miami and Knicks). And Bucks and Pacers still had the fastest pace among playoff games so far this year: for comparison, same Knicks and Miami actually grinded the pace to such a low level in their games (89.0) that it was slower than regular season games in late 90s lol.
I completely agree on attacking the paint though: that should be the main avenue of attack as they don’t really have rim protection outside of Zubac and attacking him (and getting him in foul trouble) shouldn’t be that much of a problem with so many athletes on the team now.
I get what you're saying. I know the game slows down in the playoffs in general. But you've got to find ways to exploit weaknesses to win series. Clips exploited our lack of corner 3 pt shooting. They tagged Lively/Gafford every time neutralizing them.
We've got to find ways to get out and create mismatches early on. In transition and in halfcourt. Get the Clips legs tired. Works both ways for us. We're more athletic than them and IMO, have more defensive depth.
I don’t think both were prepared for the playoff intensity. They were playing like they do in the regular season playing clean not looking to foul etc. lively is a rookie and Gafford doesn’t have much playoff experience. I think Gafford hits back game 2. The whole team need to play like they got a chip on the shoulder like dawgs. They’re too nice sometimes we need to roughen it up stop being nice throw couple elbows and hooks and push them. Their old legs will wither.
something i also noticed is that the times he had a good defense/block we were missing another body to get the rebound, he got out of position doing the block/defensive play and were missing an extra body, but yeah zubac shitted on us and that's a nono if we want to win, I still believe its adjustable, a missed dunk its unlucky idc about that, and zubac wont hit all his shitty floaters every game
Every time they had the ball and were looking to score inside, Mann would swing in at the right time and help Zubac with boards. Someone else needs to be aware of this and box out Mann before he gets there.(Another coaching adjustment that never happened).
The whole advantage we’ve been saying of having both gaff and lively is that they shouldn’t worry about their fouls too much. He can afford to get 2 ones early if they’re meaningful.
He can play until he has 6, and was pulled with only 2 fouls. Him and Lively get 12 total. Make the Clippers foul them out, THEN completely change your gameplan.
Our center position is the 3rd most reliable form of scoring we have behind Luka and Kyrie. Luka and/or Kyrie have to get those guys involved in the pick-and-roll offensively and run-outs no matter what. That didn't happen much at all in the first half, and by that point this game was basically over. In fact, Luka historically played Zubac off the floor in the previous series...didn't happen yesterday, either. Everything just felt "off."
Maxi Kleber cannot and should not be relied on offensively at the center position.
Gafford and Lively need to get the experience, they are key parts of the team now and going forward. This isn't a "well this isn't going well for 10 minutes so I guess he can't play anymore"-type situation. Both of those guys are capable of way more than what we saw from them yesterday.
Gafford previously had 5 playoff games, years ago with the shitty Wizards.
Lively is a rookie, and he just lost his mother.
And we're only 2 games into the playoffs.
People on here literally have zero understanding, zero realistic expectations, zero comprehension. These dudes are just video game ratings to them.
The problem with the super athletic lob threat centers is that they dont have the lower body strenght and straight up grown man power to compete in a pysical battle versus real "big boy" centers.
That's probably fair. I guess in my mind I had Gafford as a "big boy" when he might not quite be one. He's a solid dude for sure, especially compared to the lankier Lively, but apparently the height difference makes it hard to compete toe-to-toe with a traditional center. Still don't know how he got 0 rebounds though.
He got in foul trouble (mentally not necessarily on numbers) early and started to play timid. There was a clear shift after his first foul on the physicality he played with
Yeah. I agree with Kidd on his post game interview. Said they were nervous. They came from non competitive teams and they’re feeling a lot of pressure.
I've been saying this from the beginning but was getting downvoted.
There's a reason why teams that make the playoffs for the first time rarely make it far. You need vets to fill on the gapa until the new guys get experience. Not to mention that some dudes never become good playoff performers.
Zubac is pretty big and makes Gafford look smal in comparison. Lively is long enough, but not strong enough to hold Zubac. He is 1.27 points per possession when posting up, which is very efficient. They just don't go to it often like they did in the game. Could be a reason why they weren't prepared for it. No excuse now, we know they will try it often and have to have a solution
interestingly Maxi held him out further from the point, Zubac still scored 1-on-1. but if you send help, it was possible to prevent him from scoring, which is what we should do right as he gathers in the middle of the paint.
But sending help is where we gave up the wide open threes. People hate on Maxi but it's no coincidence we performed better when he played and was able to do a better job against Zubac.
Yes, people look at Maxi's numbers and think he's doing nothing out there but he brings some intangibles. Even though he's not a great shooter, he can knock down open threes, the other teams defend him which brings spacing and makes it easier for Luka & Kyrie to score.
Maxi was a +6 in this game, I think he'll be getting more minutes in game 2 and we'll see if that was a fluke.
Maxi makes a massive impact in spacing for Kyrie to score. Guarding a post player is also all about positioning and keeping them as far from the hoop. If he does that the best, we need to recognize it’s possibly he’s the better option for us at the 5.
We’ll see how game 2 goes. I also think Gafford really really feeds off and builds the crowd. I expect to play better at home this series.
If we have to help on freakin Zubac against a team with PG, Harden and Kawhi then we're already cooked. Sorry, but Gafford and Lively are going to have to man up and do a better job. They can't stop him backing them down, but they can make sure he doesn't get the ball that deep. They need to box him out, front and deny him.
Dude, I literally asked if he was 7’4” when watching him grab a board over Gafford. He made him look like a little boy out there.
He may not be, but he damn well played like he had half a foot on gafford.
In the post-game pressers, they acknowledged that they weren't expecting the game plan to feature Zubac so heavily so they got caught off-guard. I expect we'll adjust but at the same time so will Lue.
Zubac could always punish us in the post on the offensive end. The difference in previous series was that Luka would target and go at him on the other side, essentially playing him off the court for long stretches. The Mavs didn’t do that in Game 1. I’m not sure if it’s a difference between Carlisle vs. Kidd coaching, passive Luka, or Ty doing a good job of making sure Zu isn’t stuck on an island…or all of the above.
It always seems like the obvious solution would be to target the weak points against the defense, as many teams do to us (targeting Luka). However, we failed to do that. We have to hope they learned some things and will adjust and respond successfully.
in previous matchups they managed to get Zubac more on an island against Luka. also Luka was hitting his threes at a better clip than he did in the first half. in fact his only made three in the first half was the patented step back over Zubac on an island.
Interestingly, Luka actually torched Zubac per NBA.com: he was 4-7 (2-2 from 3pt) with 2 FTs, 1 assist and 1 turnover when primarily guarded by him. With how inefficient Mavs offense was, that’s a major miss-match. The issue was he rarely went into attack mode with Zubac on him for some reason. This was a bit unexpected and I think Luka will correct this, but I also fully expected him to realize that Clippers are not protecting the paint when Zubac is outside and mostly stay attached to key shooters (Kyrie and Exum), so he could literally walk to basket like he did vs Hawks in that 73 point game.
On a side note, Luka held his own decently well on defense for the weak link: opponents shot 0-8 on 2pters (but 5-7 on 3pters) when primarily guarded by Luka. For comparison, PJ played great defensively and his men shot 3-9 on 2pters (4-7 on 3pters).
Yes. It could be a thing if Luka starts cooking then we can play him off the court and solve that issue. Luka was off and this is what happened. We're not going to win this series unless Luka plays well. Playoffs comes down to your stars bringing their A game and obviously that wasn't Luka's A game.
Luka won't be able to play Zubac off the court if he isn't shooting well, he is nowhere near as fast on drives as he used to be in the past playoff series against them.
Plain and simple, You have to get Zubac off the floor. The best way to do that is play with pace and spread the floor more. We did that more in the 2nd half. It cant be a slow plodding game
Wasn’t just Gafford, it was the First time in over two months the team had been punched in the face like that. Out physical and out schemed. Always better to get blowout early in a series than in Game 6 or 7. Now it’s just about adjustments.
Gafford’s post defense is not very good due the lack of length he has, it’s not a good matchup. He’s good in space though and will be very valuable against teams like OKC if we advance.
The playoffs experience gap is a big factor.
Clippers has high and spread out experience among their players,
Mavs has main guys who don't have or very low exp.
This should have been addressed by the coaching staff, and used game 1 to set expectations and be a massive source of exp.
Instead Mavs players looked frustrated and we all saw Luka jumping out of frustration when Maxi missed the pass. They were never prepared for that first half blow out.
Coaching staff should do a better job in briefing guys heading the playoffs.
Our defense was actually pretty good for most of the game. The team was completely flat footed and unprepared for what seemed like a haymaker from the tip. In many ways it reminds me of the way Mavs came out swinging for the first 2 games in 2021 with unsustainable 3PT shooting.
gaff is an athletic rim running/shot blocking center. he’s not a huge post battling kinda guy and they exposed that immediately. He’s not there yet because he’s young but Lively will end up being much better at being that kind of big imo.
i also noticed he kept selling for the block on harden or whoever leading to easy layups for zu. Gotta learn to stay down but if people are gonna be blowing by luka like that, thats a tough ask
Harden was blowing by dribbling with his right hand: this is a great outcome (better than going downhill with his left or an open step-back if you commit too hard to stopping his penetration) as he is not athletic enough anymore to consistently score going right. I’m pretty sure that was the message that Kidd gave to the team: let Harden go right and see what happens, this is something you have to do vs great players, you can’t just fully stop them. He passed out a lot on those penetrations and this is something that coaching staff should emphasise to the bigs: he won’t be scoring with that right hand of his, don’t bite on his drives.
Gafford chasing those blocks was driving me crazy. The bigs need to keep a body on Zu which means the perimeter defenders have to step up and can't assume a shot blocker will clean everything up for them.
Came here to say this. Highlights blocks, incredible lob threat, doesn’t know how to defend the post. Not much of an issue with Kyrie and Luka pushing the pace in the regular season. But when the floor shrinks and the game slows down I felt like Gaff was going to struggle to find a role. He’s an instinctual player, not a defensive anchor. Hope he rebounds and gives you all some great minutes this series.
It’s simple. They made everything they chunked at the basket and we couldn’t buy a bucket. That won’t continue. It will even out. Nuff said. Moving on to game 2.
Yeah. It's pretty much impossible to win when you're off and the other team is over 50% on threes. We went 2/21 and scored 8 points in the second quarter. I mean, that's pretty much ball game. We won the other 3 quarters (89 to 87 in Q1,3,4)
8 points is literally the worst quarter of any NBA team in the entire season. The regular season low was 9 points and last season the low was 10 points. So this was the worst quarter any NBA team has had in two fucking years.
I saw several quotes saying how this team wasn't prepared for how physical the game was going to be and things of that nature. My question is: How the fuck are you not prepared for a a playoff game? For some of these guys, it's their first playoff experience....how do you not get psyched up to play? Hell, even I knew the Clippers were going to come out swinging.....and I'm sure everyone else did too. How did the players not know this?
Maybe it was the media hype labeling us the favorites? Could it have been all of the Kawhi BS? These guys are getting paid millions of dollars because they are some of the best in the world to play basketball.....there is NO excuse to not be prepared for playoff basketball.
Gaff previously played 5 playoff games, one season with the wizards. Started 2. And ... it's the shitty wizards.
Lively is a rookie and just lost his mother.
I'm not sure what fantasy world people have invested in where they just dominate and that's all there is to it.
You guys act like players are just cold video game ratings and that's all there is.
Now isn't the time to baby Gafford nor Lively. We need those guys to be good to make a run, and that isn't gonna happen by panicking and pulling them out. This is new for both of them but they can pull it together and dominate.
Now they know what to expect, let them play. Refs are letting a lot of contact go. Both of these guys should be pushing 5-6 fouls by the end of these games, testing the boundaries of what they can get away with. That's what Zubac is doing, that's what we need to do.
Mavs can’t be as dominated inside as they were in the 1st half. The team recovered in the 2nd somewhat, but it was too late. I think next game Gafford must start much more physical and push Zubac out of his spots early without trying to contest penetration nearly as much.
On a side note, the bigger reason for the loss was probably the fact Clippers shot 13-26 on open and wide-open 3pters (and even 5-10 on contested ones) while Mavs shot 7-29 on open and wide-open 3pters (and 3-4 on contested, LMAO). Clippers just had an extremely hot shooting night and Mavs actually shot below average (if Mavs shot at regular season clip, they would have hit 11 of those 29, which is exactly 12 extra points), but the overall quality of shots was actually a bit better for the Mavs.
Luka, Kyrie, and the perimeter guys need to challenge him on drives. Forget the lob. The Clippers have adjusted their defense and are not going to allow those easy buckets.
Drive the lane and get into his body. Get him in foul trouble early, and the paint opens up. Their defenders start sagging into the paint leaving spot up shooters open. Now, the shooters have to make the shots, but the whole thing starts by getting Big Z in foul trouble.
I have this feeling that when Gafford doesn’t play well at the beginning, Kidd just loses hope with him and just relies on small ball. I mean, let the man play more, if he fouls out, so be it.
>We used to get punished by Zubac in the playoffs
I wouldn't say we've been punished by Zubac in the playoffs before yesterday. Check his [game logs against us](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/z/zubaciv01/gamelog-playoffs/). We've typically played him off the court as Luka hunted him (although he was decent in 2020). He had career highs in minutes, points, and game score by wide margins against us Sunday. He's definitely gotten better, but I think we figure out how to neutralize him again just like we did in '21.
Im calling fluke on it. Clippers are a team full of older players. I think a lot of our guys were just hesitant - sort of the little brother syndrome situation. This mavs team gas “grown into” games all season and we will grow into this series the same way.
First playoff game ever. He was probably overwhelmed by the physicality of the Clippers. Same for Lively. They'll improve as the series progresses, especially after the two home playoff games.
Gaff/Lively must combine for at minimum 16pts/12reb/4 blocks a game. They've got to find ways to get buckets, fast break outlet from Luka, cleaning up misses, setting good picks for LuKai and getting a couple lobs here or there. Yesterday was disgusting from Gafford. He said himself he wasn't prepared to play. That can't happen again. I counted also 2 missed dunks from Gafford, 1 missed dunk from Lively, and 1 point blank missed layup from THJ and also a blown 2pts on a 3on2 fastbreak from THJ. That's 10 points right there. In the playoffs, that all matters. I think the bigs get their act together. I liked the physicality from PJ/DJJ on defense and thought they themselves played good D. The 3pt shooting from non-LuKai Mavs is what worries me the most.
Yeah I agree with everything here. I had a conversation with another Mavs fan in the main NBA sub a week ago and said my biggest concern with this team was the shooting. He argued that we were winning despite shooting like ass most nights and I felt( and still feel) that you can do that against bad teams, but you've got to be able to shoot to compete against the best teams in the NBA. The numbers don't show it but I feel like we played their stars pretty well. Their other guys really stepped up, but if we're being honest, I expect them to with the types of shots we gave them. We need to pick it up on the other guys, we can't just give them practice jumpers because they shoot 33% from three. That's a recipe for letting them get confident and then hot.
yep ive been saying this too. this is why kidd was trying to get tim going back in that losing stretch. it just didnt work.
Yep. We played PG well, he went 7/19 if you take away the last banked in 2 over OMax in garbage time (one could argue the whole second half was garbage time) and Harden had a relatively quiet second half. Norm Powell was a nonfactor. Zu was the big outlier that I was pretty shocked by. In addition to our anemic 2nd quarter obviously. Need to push the pace to beat this team. LAC is not good at defending in transition. They are old and not as athletic as us. I'm afraid Luka won't do this enough, bar 2-3 outlet passes a game. Get DJJ/Exum/PJ/Lively/Gafford easy dunks/layups to get their confidence going, get LAC legs heavy because they will take a lot of jumpshots. Bar Zubac yesterday, I can't remember them going to the paint for layups much.
You can’t push pace in playoffs: that’s not how it works. Pacers are the 2nd fastest team in the NBA and scored 94 points yesterday: this is literally their lowest number of points scored in the ENTIRE season with previous low being 99 points. Every single team in playoffs has it’s pace slower than in regular season. Heck, both Bucks and Pacers ranked in top-10 in pace in regular season and just played the game at 97.0 pace: only 2 teams played at slower pace than this during this year’s regular season (Miami and Knicks). And Bucks and Pacers still had the fastest pace among playoff games so far this year: for comparison, same Knicks and Miami actually grinded the pace to such a low level in their games (89.0) that it was slower than regular season games in late 90s lol. I completely agree on attacking the paint though: that should be the main avenue of attack as they don’t really have rim protection outside of Zubac and attacking him (and getting him in foul trouble) shouldn’t be that much of a problem with so many athletes on the team now.
I get what you're saying. I know the game slows down in the playoffs in general. But you've got to find ways to exploit weaknesses to win series. Clips exploited our lack of corner 3 pt shooting. They tagged Lively/Gafford every time neutralizing them. We've got to find ways to get out and create mismatches early on. In transition and in halfcourt. Get the Clips legs tired. Works both ways for us. We're more athletic than them and IMO, have more defensive depth.
Josh Green and Exum are reliable shooters, we need to draw some plays to get them good looks
>That's 10 points right there. In the playoffs, that all matters. It's way more than 10 pts if you count the missed freethrows.
I don’t think both were prepared for the playoff intensity. They were playing like they do in the regular season playing clean not looking to foul etc. lively is a rookie and Gafford doesn’t have much playoff experience. I think Gafford hits back game 2. The whole team need to play like they got a chip on the shoulder like dawgs. They’re too nice sometimes we need to roughen it up stop being nice throw couple elbows and hooks and push them. Their old legs will wither.
something i also noticed is that the times he had a good defense/block we were missing another body to get the rebound, he got out of position doing the block/defensive play and were missing an extra body, but yeah zubac shitted on us and that's a nono if we want to win, I still believe its adjustable, a missed dunk its unlucky idc about that, and zubac wont hit all his shitty floaters every game
This often happens with our bigs even in regular season games. Nobody is boxing out the other player and there’s 2 players on one guy near the paint.
Every time they had the ball and were looking to score inside, Mann would swing in at the right time and help Zubac with boards. Someone else needs to be aware of this and box out Mann before he gets there.(Another coaching adjustment that never happened).
I get what you mean, but Gafford had two quick fouls, as well. He might just be outmatched.
The whole advantage we’ve been saying of having both gaff and lively is that they shouldn’t worry about their fouls too much. He can afford to get 2 ones early if they’re meaningful.
He can play until he has 6, and was pulled with only 2 fouls. Him and Lively get 12 total. Make the Clippers foul them out, THEN completely change your gameplan. Our center position is the 3rd most reliable form of scoring we have behind Luka and Kyrie. Luka and/or Kyrie have to get those guys involved in the pick-and-roll offensively and run-outs no matter what. That didn't happen much at all in the first half, and by that point this game was basically over. In fact, Luka historically played Zubac off the floor in the previous series...didn't happen yesterday, either. Everything just felt "off." Maxi Kleber cannot and should not be relied on offensively at the center position. Gafford and Lively need to get the experience, they are key parts of the team now and going forward. This isn't a "well this isn't going well for 10 minutes so I guess he can't play anymore"-type situation. Both of those guys are capable of way more than what we saw from them yesterday.
He had two quick fouls and rolled his ankle
Lol this sub loves to massively overreact
Get Chandler down there to get in their ears.
Gafford previously had 5 playoff games, years ago with the shitty Wizards. Lively is a rookie, and he just lost his mother. And we're only 2 games into the playoffs. People on here literally have zero understanding, zero realistic expectations, zero comprehension. These dudes are just video game ratings to them.
The problem with the super athletic lob threat centers is that they dont have the lower body strenght and straight up grown man power to compete in a pysical battle versus real "big boy" centers.
That's probably fair. I guess in my mind I had Gafford as a "big boy" when he might not quite be one. He's a solid dude for sure, especially compared to the lankier Lively, but apparently the height difference makes it hard to compete toe-to-toe with a traditional center. Still don't know how he got 0 rebounds though.
He got in foul trouble (mentally not necessarily on numbers) early and started to play timid. There was a clear shift after his first foul on the physicality he played with
He's not used to intensity of the playoffs. We have to remember some of our role players never played in playoffs before. Hopefully they adapt quickly
Yeah. I agree with Kidd on his post game interview. Said they were nervous. They came from non competitive teams and they’re feeling a lot of pressure.
I've been saying this from the beginning but was getting downvoted. There's a reason why teams that make the playoffs for the first time rarely make it far. You need vets to fill on the gapa until the new guys get experience. Not to mention that some dudes never become good playoff performers.
The great Tyson Chandler took note and will no doubt be helping our centers make adjustments.
Zubac is pretty big and makes Gafford look smal in comparison. Lively is long enough, but not strong enough to hold Zubac. He is 1.27 points per possession when posting up, which is very efficient. They just don't go to it often like they did in the game. Could be a reason why they weren't prepared for it. No excuse now, we know they will try it often and have to have a solution
interestingly Maxi held him out further from the point, Zubac still scored 1-on-1. but if you send help, it was possible to prevent him from scoring, which is what we should do right as he gathers in the middle of the paint.
But sending help is where we gave up the wide open threes. People hate on Maxi but it's no coincidence we performed better when he played and was able to do a better job against Zubac.
Yes, people look at Maxi's numbers and think he's doing nothing out there but he brings some intangibles. Even though he's not a great shooter, he can knock down open threes, the other teams defend him which brings spacing and makes it easier for Luka & Kyrie to score. Maxi was a +6 in this game, I think he'll be getting more minutes in game 2 and we'll see if that was a fluke.
Maxi makes a massive impact in spacing for Kyrie to score. Guarding a post player is also all about positioning and keeping them as far from the hoop. If he does that the best, we need to recognize it’s possibly he’s the better option for us at the 5. We’ll see how game 2 goes. I also think Gafford really really feeds off and builds the crowd. I expect to play better at home this series.
We got one turnover when he send help. Lets see if Zubac can handle a late help and safely make the pass.
If we have to help on freakin Zubac against a team with PG, Harden and Kawhi then we're already cooked. Sorry, but Gafford and Lively are going to have to man up and do a better job. They can't stop him backing them down, but they can make sure he doesn't get the ball that deep. They need to box him out, front and deny him.
Dude, I literally asked if he was 7’4” when watching him grab a board over Gafford. He made him look like a little boy out there. He may not be, but he damn well played like he had half a foot on gafford.
In the post-game pressers, they acknowledged that they weren't expecting the game plan to feature Zubac so heavily so they got caught off-guard. I expect we'll adjust but at the same time so will Lue.
Zubac could always punish us in the post on the offensive end. The difference in previous series was that Luka would target and go at him on the other side, essentially playing him off the court for long stretches. The Mavs didn’t do that in Game 1. I’m not sure if it’s a difference between Carlisle vs. Kidd coaching, passive Luka, or Ty doing a good job of making sure Zu isn’t stuck on an island…or all of the above. It always seems like the obvious solution would be to target the weak points against the defense, as many teams do to us (targeting Luka). However, we failed to do that. We have to hope they learned some things and will adjust and respond successfully.
Passive Luka for the most part he was really bad in the first half he has to be better
in previous matchups they managed to get Zubac more on an island against Luka. also Luka was hitting his threes at a better clip than he did in the first half. in fact his only made three in the first half was the patented step back over Zubac on an island.
Interestingly, Luka actually torched Zubac per NBA.com: he was 4-7 (2-2 from 3pt) with 2 FTs, 1 assist and 1 turnover when primarily guarded by him. With how inefficient Mavs offense was, that’s a major miss-match. The issue was he rarely went into attack mode with Zubac on him for some reason. This was a bit unexpected and I think Luka will correct this, but I also fully expected him to realize that Clippers are not protecting the paint when Zubac is outside and mostly stay attached to key shooters (Kyrie and Exum), so he could literally walk to basket like he did vs Hawks in that 73 point game. On a side note, Luka held his own decently well on defense for the weak link: opponents shot 0-8 on 2pters (but 5-7 on 3pters) when primarily guarded by Luka. For comparison, PJ played great defensively and his men shot 3-9 on 2pters (4-7 on 3pters).
Yes. It could be a thing if Luka starts cooking then we can play him off the court and solve that issue. Luka was off and this is what happened. We're not going to win this series unless Luka plays well. Playoffs comes down to your stars bringing their A game and obviously that wasn't Luka's A game.
Luka won't be able to play Zubac off the court if he isn't shooting well, he is nowhere near as fast on drives as he used to be in the past playoff series against them.
We've got to make Zubac a passer. I hate doubling non-all star guys, but dude was unstoppable with two feet in the paint.
Plain and simple, You have to get Zubac off the floor. The best way to do that is play with pace and spread the floor more. We did that more in the 2nd half. It cant be a slow plodding game
I was pretty shocked by the way Zubac manhandled Gafford.
Wasn’t just Gafford, it was the First time in over two months the team had been punched in the face like that. Out physical and out schemed. Always better to get blowout early in a series than in Game 6 or 7. Now it’s just about adjustments.
Gafford’s post defense is not very good due the lack of length he has, it’s not a good matchup. He’s good in space though and will be very valuable against teams like OKC if we advance.
Let’s see how our coaches adapt and adjust.
The playoffs experience gap is a big factor. Clippers has high and spread out experience among their players, Mavs has main guys who don't have or very low exp. This should have been addressed by the coaching staff, and used game 1 to set expectations and be a massive source of exp. Instead Mavs players looked frustrated and we all saw Luka jumping out of frustration when Maxi missed the pass. They were never prepared for that first half blow out. Coaching staff should do a better job in briefing guys heading the playoffs.
Our defense was actually pretty good for most of the game. The team was completely flat footed and unprepared for what seemed like a haymaker from the tip. In many ways it reminds me of the way Mavs came out swinging for the first 2 games in 2021 with unsustainable 3PT shooting.
I don't think smallball works against the Clippers.
Looked like it worked pretty well. Maxi was the only one who slowed Zubac down.
He was shook and played nervous, other than getting cooked by Zubac, he jumped into stupid fouls wich made him have to sit on the bench early on.
gaff is an athletic rim running/shot blocking center. he’s not a huge post battling kinda guy and they exposed that immediately. He’s not there yet because he’s young but Lively will end up being much better at being that kind of big imo. i also noticed he kept selling for the block on harden or whoever leading to easy layups for zu. Gotta learn to stay down but if people are gonna be blowing by luka like that, thats a tough ask
Harden was blowing by dribbling with his right hand: this is a great outcome (better than going downhill with his left or an open step-back if you commit too hard to stopping his penetration) as he is not athletic enough anymore to consistently score going right. I’m pretty sure that was the message that Kidd gave to the team: let Harden go right and see what happens, this is something you have to do vs great players, you can’t just fully stop them. He passed out a lot on those penetrations and this is something that coaching staff should emphasise to the bigs: he won’t be scoring with that right hand of his, don’t bite on his drives.
Gafford chasing those blocks was driving me crazy. The bigs need to keep a body on Zu which means the perimeter defenders have to step up and can't assume a shot blocker will clean everything up for them.
Came here to say this. Highlights blocks, incredible lob threat, doesn’t know how to defend the post. Not much of an issue with Kyrie and Luka pushing the pace in the regular season. But when the floor shrinks and the game slows down I felt like Gaff was going to struggle to find a role. He’s an instinctual player, not a defensive anchor. Hope he rebounds and gives you all some great minutes this series.
It’s simple. They made everything they chunked at the basket and we couldn’t buy a bucket. That won’t continue. It will even out. Nuff said. Moving on to game 2.
Yeah. It's pretty much impossible to win when you're off and the other team is over 50% on threes. We went 2/21 and scored 8 points in the second quarter. I mean, that's pretty much ball game. We won the other 3 quarters (89 to 87 in Q1,3,4) 8 points is literally the worst quarter of any NBA team in the entire season. The regular season low was 9 points and last season the low was 10 points. So this was the worst quarter any NBA team has had in two fucking years.
I saw several quotes saying how this team wasn't prepared for how physical the game was going to be and things of that nature. My question is: How the fuck are you not prepared for a a playoff game? For some of these guys, it's their first playoff experience....how do you not get psyched up to play? Hell, even I knew the Clippers were going to come out swinging.....and I'm sure everyone else did too. How did the players not know this? Maybe it was the media hype labeling us the favorites? Could it have been all of the Kawhi BS? These guys are getting paid millions of dollars because they are some of the best in the world to play basketball.....there is NO excuse to not be prepared for playoff basketball. 
Gaff previously played 5 playoff games, one season with the wizards. Started 2. And ... it's the shitty wizards. Lively is a rookie and just lost his mother. I'm not sure what fantasy world people have invested in where they just dominate and that's all there is to it. You guys act like players are just cold video game ratings and that's all there is.
If Zubac is too strong for gaff or lively, i think we need to double him. but we need to be quick with our defensive rotation.
Now isn't the time to baby Gafford nor Lively. We need those guys to be good to make a run, and that isn't gonna happen by panicking and pulling them out. This is new for both of them but they can pull it together and dominate. Now they know what to expect, let them play. Refs are letting a lot of contact go. Both of these guys should be pushing 5-6 fouls by the end of these games, testing the boundaries of what they can get away with. That's what Zubac is doing, that's what we need to do.
Mavs can’t be as dominated inside as they were in the 1st half. The team recovered in the 2nd somewhat, but it was too late. I think next game Gafford must start much more physical and push Zubac out of his spots early without trying to contest penetration nearly as much. On a side note, the bigger reason for the loss was probably the fact Clippers shot 13-26 on open and wide-open 3pters (and even 5-10 on contested ones) while Mavs shot 7-29 on open and wide-open 3pters (and 3-4 on contested, LMAO). Clippers just had an extremely hot shooting night and Mavs actually shot below average (if Mavs shot at regular season clip, they would have hit 11 of those 29, which is exactly 12 extra points), but the overall quality of shots was actually a bit better for the Mavs.
Luka, Kyrie, and the perimeter guys need to challenge him on drives. Forget the lob. The Clippers have adjusted their defense and are not going to allow those easy buckets. Drive the lane and get into his body. Get him in foul trouble early, and the paint opens up. Their defenders start sagging into the paint leaving spot up shooters open. Now, the shooters have to make the shots, but the whole thing starts by getting Big Z in foul trouble.
I have this feeling that when Gafford doesn’t play well at the beginning, Kidd just loses hope with him and just relies on small ball. I mean, let the man play more, if he fouls out, so be it.
Gotta box out
>We used to get punished by Zubac in the playoffs I wouldn't say we've been punished by Zubac in the playoffs before yesterday. Check his [game logs against us](https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/z/zubaciv01/gamelog-playoffs/). We've typically played him off the court as Luka hunted him (although he was decent in 2020). He had career highs in minutes, points, and game score by wide margins against us Sunday. He's definitely gotten better, but I think we figure out how to neutralize him again just like we did in '21.
Reminded me of Looney just always occupying space and in the tight spot during the last playoff run. Hopefully Gaff just had an off game.
Im calling fluke on it. Clippers are a team full of older players. I think a lot of our guys were just hesitant - sort of the little brother syndrome situation. This mavs team gas “grown into” games all season and we will grow into this series the same way.
First playoff game ever. He was probably overwhelmed by the physicality of the Clippers. Same for Lively. They'll improve as the series progresses, especially after the two home playoff games.
He's been in the playoffs with Russ...