GAME 48: DAL (29-19) @ HOU (30-18) | 121-128 loss

[dirkfansince1998]

RC sucked in this game. Houston went mega small and instead of trying to take advantage of it he played into their hands and decided Bro could finally get his first start as our starting PF. Why did we acquire WCS again?

They already took advantage of any big the Mavs had in the game. Going big works when the opponent isn´t able to punish the Mavs from the perimeter but they buried the Mavs from the 3-point line. 21-45 makes 47% from 3 for the Rockets.

That’s not true. The Mavs has their best stretch of the game with WCS out there. He was a difference maker. In this case the +/- does tell the story because he was second on the team with a +8. 

He appears to be exactly what I hoped, Dwight Powell ++. He does everything Powell did on offense but he also brings rim protection and rebounding.

 
And he nearly fouled out in 11 minutes. So the option wasn´t available for more minutes. Playing Boban wasn´t an option because he cannot defend the perimeter. Maybe more Maxi because he was the only one that played good defense vs Westbrook. But the Rockets scheme heavily relied on forcing switches, driving and kicking it out to an open shooter. And it worked. I think the problem isn´t the lack of minutes for bigman. It is the lack of wing sized defenders. Without Luka the only real wing sized defender the Mavs have is DFS. I actually thought that Broehoff did a good job as well. But that´s it when it comes to wings.
Rest of the minutes go to guards (including 3 guards, 2 bigs, no wing lineups) and bigman. That´s not going to work in a switch heavy league. Mismatches all over the floor.

It worked because we played into their hands. If Boban could not have guarded anyone, no one could have guarded him either.  Why worry only about what your opponent can do? 

At the end of the day going small gave us zero advantage. They were able to score inside and outside.

21-45 on 3s makes 1.41 PPP. 70% + TS. No I don´t think the Mavs could match that with Boban in the paint. I also think that the Mavs defense would give up even more open looks with him on the floor. WCS was able to stay on the floor for 11 minutes and he has solid mobility for a bigman.
I worry because the Rockets were incredible efficient on offense with their scheme. Giving up more open baskets and completly giving up on perimeter defense wasn´t an option.