PLAYOFF WCF GAME 3: GSW (3-0) vs. DAL (0-3) | 100-109 loss

[Kammrath]

Luka has to get in better shape and do better but he goes for 40 against Wiggins or Paul George or Kawhi, no one is blaming them. On this team Luka is supposed to be the PG, the scorer, the rebounder and now the blame is that even the teams defense is due to him?  

Scoring 40 points does not equal winning basketball (in fact the Mavs are 2-6 in the playoffs when Luka scores 40+).

In the three games against GSW....

-30 w/ Luka, +5 w/o Luka
-12 w/ Luka, +3 w/o Luka
-19 w/ Luka, +10 w/o Luka

TOTAL: -61 w/ Luka, +18 w/o Luka

Do the teammates bear some responsibility? Of COURSE! But to act like Luka just "needs better teammates" fails to account for his role and play in this three game embarrassment.

[Branduil]

I wish I could ban +/- from existence, dumbest stat in history.

Luka plays heavy minutes so you're talking about like 25 minutes at most which are incredibly noisy, of course +/- is gonna look bad when we're down 3-0 and no one can hit shots.

[cow]

Luka has to get in better shape and do better but he goes for 40 against Wiggins or Paul George or Kawhi, no one is blaming them. On this team Luka is supposed to be the PG, the scorer, the rebounder and now the blame is that even the teams defense is due to him?  

I have been saying now for 3 years how Maxi and Powell offer zero resistance to any team really willing to drive the ball hard at them.  They just back pedal and give anything to the other team.  We have done well with this roster and we know the style we want to play around Luka. The key is to get better players. This series might well be 2-1 in our favor if only we had another deadeye offensive player like Bane or a defensive presence like Bam. 

Let’s not overreact and co-sign off on the national narrative.  Get better players around Luka and let’s see.

Both things can be true though.  If Luka puts up better resistance on defense, the Warriors would get fewer easy looks at the rim and if you aren't rotating as much on defense to pickup the blow by, rebounding would also improve.  We certainly need better big men and someone that can get us 10 boards on a consistent basis.  The best thing that could happen to Luka is having his rebounding average drop by about four per game.  I'm just not sure how you get there quickly.  If we are "lucky", this team is going to look pretty much the same next year, save for a healthy THJ.

[hakeemfaan]

Scoring 40 points does not equal winning basketball (in fact the Mavs are 2-6 in the playoffs when Luka scores 40+).

In the three games against GSW....

-30 w/ Luka, +5 w/o Luka
-12 w/ Luka, +3 w/o Luka
-19 w/ Luka, +10 w/o Luka

TOTAL: -61 w/ Luka, +18 w/o Luka

Do the teammates bear some responsibility? Of COURSE! But to act like Luka just "needs better teammates" fails to account for his role and play in this three game embarrassment.

You ignored the obvious as usual 

Is he the best PG on the team? Yes
Is he the best scorer? Yes
Is he the best rebounder? Yes
Is he scoring consistently even when other teams are trying their best in the playoffs ? Yes. Note players like Harden and Westbrook have not always done that 

Your penchant with on off numbers to me are irrelevant when one guy is asked to do so much. Plus the on off numbers always seem a bit dubious in a team game where Luka does play a ton of minutes. If you just go by the logic of those numbers then are you saying that if Luka didn’t play a minute in this series the team would be in a better position? C’mon.

[Hypermav]

Maxi 0-5 and Bullock 0-10

Unless Luka is perfect, I don't know what more you can ask.  

Give us Curry and them Luka and see what happens.  Out of shape won't matter then.

[Jakeospikez]

+/- is not a good stat to pay attention to. The other team designs their entire rotation around his play minutes. Lets swap Luka with some bench guy and get him going against the other teams bench so his +/- goes up and other players +/- go way down. Pretty sweet idea based off of stats.

[Branduil]

Literally all +/- over 3 games can tell you is that the Mavs are losing this series. No shit Sherlock

[loki]

I've been as disappointed with Luka's defense as anyone. When know he's capable of more. At the same time, when the matchups dictate that he has to guard the other team's most athletic player....that's usually not going to end well.

[cow]

Out of shape won't matter then.

I don't think this series is a matter of Luka's shape, at all.  

GSW has four players making north of $25M.  Poole is up-and-coming.  Looney is a FRP.   The talent gap is large.  Kerr is a better coach.

The Mavs roster is making chicken salad out of chicken shit and credit to the team, they've made it to the WCF.  And more than likely, this team also isn't going to be a lot different next year.  

My major takeaway, beyond trying to figure out the five spot, is that we need to reinvent the offense.

[MaxiThreeba]

Luka is generational.  That can’t be argued. 

He can be better at some pretty controllable things.  That’s true…and also terrifying for the rest of the NBA. 

I have a lot of confidence that this offseason is going to be a big one for Luka.  There’s just a lot in his favor with the easier international load, the NBA schedule getting back to normal and him getting his first taste of a deep run and seeing a championship team/players up close and personal. 

Its okay to throw some blame his way at times.  It’s not diminishing his greatness.  It’s actually realizing just how transcendent he can be.

[MrGoat]

+/- is deceptive in this series. The -30 in game 1 is Kidd's fault for leaving Luka in the game for way too long so Luka smartly took most of the 2nd half off to save energy for game 2. GS also brings in the clown car when Luka is out

What's even more annoying is KP finished the season with Washington healthy. We certainly could have used his rim protection. Our defense fell off a cliff after his last game. Our defense isn't as good as we think it is because we traded one of our only rim protectors for 2 defensive liabilities.

What's happening here is what I thought would happen against Phoenix. I just didn't see CP3 suddenly aging 15 years after a birthday coming. The 2-1 without him isn't even all that impressive because it was just a team getting hot from 3 against a Utah team with no perimeter defense. Luka needs more help.

Obviously we need to upgrade the center position in the offseason

[loki]

Scoring 40 points does not equal winning basketball (in fact the Mavs are 2-6 in the playoffs when Luka scores 40+).

In the three games against GSW....

-30 w/ Luka, +5 w/o Luka
-12 w/ Luka, +3 w/o Luka
-19 w/ Luka, +10 w/o Luka

TOTAL: -61 w/ Luka, +18 w/o Luka

Do the teammates bear some responsibility? Of COURSE! But to act like Luka just "needs better teammates" fails to account for his role and play in this three game embarrassment.

Seems a little overly simplistic. Curry and some of the other GS starters are usually off the court when Luka sits.

[cow]

What's even more annoying is KP finished the season with Washington healthy. We certainly could have used his rim protection. Our defense fell off a cliff after his last game. Our defense isn't as good as we think it is because we traded one of our only rim protectors for 2 defensive liabilities.

It's the what-if question that's been in my head.  If KP were here would we be better, worse or the same?  /runs

[hakeemfaan]

I am an unabashed Dirk fanboy. He improved a lot on defense over the years.  Yes his on court off court numbers were always great. But the reality is if Dirk played in this age with an open offense where the other team was constantly looking to hunt for the weakest defender, Dirk too would have been hunted time and again and looked just as bad regardless of his shape or desire to play better defense. 

Yes Luka has to commit to be in shape and try harder but that is the least of the issues IMO. Most offensive studs don’t play great defense. Steph doesn’t. Kyrie doesn’t. Booker doesn’t. Luka is doing so much on this team. Give him a legit all star type player as a teammate. i am not even asking for 2. Let’s give him at least one who can complement him either as bonafide scorer or as a defensive stud and let’s see.

[Branduil]

KP was a cancer on this team's chemistry and we would have lost in the first round because he'd pout and refuse to stand in the corner like Maxi did and he'd kill a bunch of possessions shooting mid-range bricks or just getting in the way of Luka and Brunson.

[SwisherPrice]

With KP, the Mavs don't even make it out of the 1st round because they probably don't get the 4th seed. Dinwiddie helped them win some big games that helped edge out the Jazz for home court advantage. KP's rim protection wouldn't have mattered when teams would have had him exposed on the perimeter. If the Mavs could make Gobert a liability then the Jazz/Suns would have done the same

[Jakeospikez]

There's no Dinwiddie if KP was here. If KP was here he'd be wasting possessions on his trash post ups. I think the move was good. The team shouldn't have gotten this far. Just need to fix the 5 position in the offseason since they couldn't do it at the trade deadline.

[cow]

There's no Dinwiddie if KP was here. 

And there's been mostly no Dinwiddie in the playoffs.  /zing

[DrMav]

Scoring 40 points does not equal winning basketball (in fact the Mavs are 2-6 in the playoffs when Luka scores 40+).

In the three games against GSW....

-30 w/ Luka, +5 w/o Luka
-12 w/ Luka, +3 w/o Luka
-19 w/ Luka, +10 w/o Luka

TOTAL: -61 w/ Luka, +18 w/o Luka

Do the teammates bear some responsibility? Of COURSE! But to act like Luka just "needs better teammates" fails to account for his role and play in this three game embarrassment.

Guess it would have been nice if Luka only scored 20 tonight so we could have been blown out instead. 

There have been a lot of bad takes on this board, and I know I am responsible for my fair share, but damn if this crusade isn’t some of the dumbest shit I’ve seen.

[cow]

Give him a legit all star type player as a teammate. 

We seem really, really far away from this being a reality.