(06-02-2024, 01:30 AM)Dundalis Wrote: Dallas players are young and not going anywhere, but neither are Boston's guys, and they already have the best roster in the league. Unless you lost in devastating fashion to where it became psychological, you'd feel very comfortable running it back and getting back to the Finals pretty comfortably again.
Dallas still has a clear overall talent deficit just within the west alone, and will have a way way tougher time getting back to the Finals moving forward than the Celtics will. I know there's huge expectation for the Celtics to win a title, but it's a way easier road for them to get more chances if they don't win it than it is for the Mavs. If the Mavs do lose, I'm not looking at the West and the improvements other teams will definitely make and feeling particularly comfortable about our ability to get back here, especially if we aren't making improvements also and end up sitting on our hands a bit.
I agree with most of that. Although I don't think Boston can just bank on getting back to the finals. I do agree though that Dallas in the West is a bigger problem with the competition.
On another track, looking at the regular season games against Boston is not terribly helpful in this upcoming series.
The first game in Dallas, Josh Green started. He was fine in that game, but the players coming off the bench (Hardaway, G. Williams, and Kleber) were logging big minutes and we were experimenting with small lineups. Lively was still a work in progress and there was no Gafford or PJ Washington. G. Williams was lousy going 1-5 and scoring only 2 points. Porzingas didn't play, but Horford picked up the slack going 3-6 from the perimeter.
The second game was in Boston after the trade deadline. Josh Green again started. Dallas was coming to Boston in the middle of that terrible losing streak (losing five-out-of-six). Josh Green was bad (2 points), Hardaway was bad, Kleber was bad, Exum was bad, and Dereck Jones Jr came off the bench but only played 7 minutes! Kyrie Irving wasn't very good either for that matter. Doncic was OK, but had a terrible +/-. We truly sucked in this blowout. And to top it off, Porzingas lit us up from the perimeter. Dallas shot 26% from perimeter while Boston shot an ungodly 48% from the 3-point line. Hardy was an afterthought in both games and only logged 4 minutes in each.
It's safe to say, Dallas is different team than the one playing Boston in mid-season even if you account for the trades. Our rotations were entirely different.
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