Mavs 113, Nuggets 117

[mavsluvr]

This loss is on both bigs: KP and WCS. The lack of rebounding is clear and scary. They're afraid to go up there and rebound. And when they try (and don't succeed), it leaves their man wide open for the easy put back offensive rebounding. I counted at least 12 EASY points given on that end. Their perimeter defense is laughable. Our best defender right now is probably Luka. Are you kidding me?

RC, listen bud your PnR defense is by far the worst in the league. We just switch and get scored everytime. Very rare we fight through screens or force bad decisions. It's their guard just cruising on one of our bigs, or their bigs posting up our guards, or their bigs wide-open for 3. Also, do not agree with Green not having minutes instead of Iwundu.

That being said, I'm very confident we make the playoffs (at least the play-in) because we get our guys back (overall game should be way better without 2nd and 3rd stringers getting huge minutes) and our schedule should be one of the easiest on the second part (after the PHO games we'll have had the 2nd toughest). Actually we have the expected W-L (8-9). We just have to survive this brutal early matchups (tonight is a game I didn't expect to win, but with the circunstances of the game we should have won).

Yes, if we're pointing fingers, KP and WCS would be big targets. Just a miserable performance.

For a team that is supposed to have such a defensive foundation, you wouldn't necessarily know it to watch. Before the game, one of the Mavs media (maybe Coop?) posted that the Mavs are 25th or below in points allowed, 3-point percentage allowed, and defensive rating. They allowed 70 points in the first half. I don't know how many open shots they allowed MPJ, but Rick cited those as an example of their "mistakes." If this is what they gave up their electric offense for, I'm not too sure it's all it's cracked up to be. 

I have been writing for many games that the ship should right itself once the whole crew gets back, and I actually still believe this, but a fourth of the season has gone by, and things haven't really gotten better. I do think things will substantially improve simply by right-sizing the second and third stringers' roles. But I have to question how much ground they will be able to make up if this goes on much longer.  

Maybe you are right, and making the play-in game represents a realistic level of expectation now. If that's the case, it involves a certain amount of adjustment for fans who probably mostly expected better. But if that's the case, that's the case. 

Hopefully, if they can keep treading water until this brutal stretch is behind them, they can get it together and we can see who this team really is. I truly believe they could surprise us, but they'll have to play better than this, and they probably will.