03-17-2022, 12:10 AM
(03-16-2022, 11:59 PM)Arioch Wrote: DFS and Kleber both did a good job on Durant, but they split the time AND both got plenty of team help as well while neither was a major factor on the offensive side.
DFS, in particular, had 3-4 really clutch stops on KD 1-on-1 throughout the game. Luka had one great one late, too.
But, as you say, this doesn't compare to the job he did on Tatum the other night because the game plan was clearly to double KP as much as humanly possible. I think they basically chose not to down the stretch a few times, randomly, just to confuse and disrupt Brooklyn.
Still, it might sound silly, but I was pretty pretty impressed by how effectively the entire team was able to double team Durant, tbh. He's like Dirk, in that he's tall enough that good defense (even double teams) don't really matter much to him most of the time. The fact that they frustrated him so much in the first half, as evidenced by him push Kleber after a great ball denial, tells me that the Mavs doubled him tonight better than other teams do.
Credit to coach Kidd and the amount of defensive buy-in he's getting from this team, imo.