2024 Playoffs- 4th Round: Boston Celtics - Dallas Mavericks

[Smitty]

Oh, sorry. I took your comment the wrong way. 

Yeah, I'd much rather the Mavs win than "be right." But, it's not just about the debate for me. I actually prefer the merits of their style, though not as much as I would've a few months back. Like I said, I've enjoyed this new style more than I used to, and I'm grateful the dunker spot is empty when they do the 1-5 ball screen thing. 

Part of my worry in this series is that when (not if, but when) they have to switch to Washington or even Jones as screeners, the center will be in the dunker spot, rather than on the bench in favor of Kleber. That's an assumption on my part, because we know Kidd isn't afraid to go with that Kleber/Washington lineup during important moments. I feel like 70% of Mavs fans will lose their minds if he does that, but I believe it's likely to be the right choice. 

And, I agree that Gafford/Lively/Kleber provides OPTIONS. I just kind of wish the SECOND option was the Kleber way so that the team was more accustomed to playing that way when they need to, but then again, a large part of why we haven't seen it lately is obviously because he has been injured. 

I'm just nervous, man. This week of sitting in our own anxiety was a borderline cruel trick by the NBA.

We’re on the same page with all of that. Gafford is the weakest link against 5-out Boston. No doubt about it. I think I even replied to one of your previous post a few days ago that Maxi will be the X-factor this series and that Mavs fans are going to freak out.

I’ve since listened to Jason Timpf and he highlighted a lot of what we talked about the last few days. The good thing about Luka being LUKA is he can get to what he wants to get to. If they want to put Tatum on Lively I don’t see him abandoning the 1-5 screen. He’s not scared of Tatum of Brown or any of their All-Defensive guys. In fact, he might call him up and try and punish him often. He’s a dawg!

But either way there’s more than one action, one screen, to get to what you want on offense. I’m not even a little worried about that side of the ball.