05-11-2022, 01:37 PM
(05-11-2022, 12:19 AM)LifeAquatic Wrote: Had to work and didn't get to see the game. I heard ball movement was bad. Was that true? Was it great defense by PHX or Luka pounding the ball in to the floor and going 1 on 5 too much?
Hi, Life. I wish I had worked rather than watched. Here’s my take, fwiw:
1. Mavs were fine in Qs 1, 2 & 4. Last night was all about Q3. And even then, the defense was fine. We gave up 33 that quarter because of the offensive end, not the defensive end.
2. What happened in Q3 is the Suns upped the physical intensity, holding on every drive, bumping on every shot, and hacking on every pass. They turned it on like a switch, as if they knew in advance the refs would give them that quarter. In the 8+ minute middle of the period, the Suns outscored us 27-4. It was 51-50 at the 10:27 mark and then 78-54 at 2:03. In that stretch, the Mavs had 8 missed shots (nearly all of which could have been free throws) and 9 turnovers (several of them offensive fouls). A couple of out-of-bounds calls went the wrong way too. The Suns got an iffy flagrant on Doe-Doe. And the Mavs used (and lost) their challenge on a questionable, bucket-erasing call.
I have quit reading game threads during the game, because the ugly negativity only makes me feel worse. But the reactions I have seen blaming Luka don’t seem right to me. He scored the only points we got in that stretch, and the drive-and-kick strategy just doesn’t work when guys get to jump you. We’d have been better off just jacking up 3s from half court. All I know to do differently is hope game 7 doesn’t get officiated the same way.