GAME 1: San Antonio Spurs (0-1) vs. Dallas Mavericks (1-0)| 119-126 WIN!

[Reunion Mav]

Amen!

[MarkAguirreWrathofGod]

Well said, KL. As regards THJ. He came in and kept us in the game last night. He is a difficult shot maker/taker that defenses have to respect. He seems to be playing harder in the defensive end all of last season and looked engaged last night as well. He is always well-conditioned. He took a couple of shots that were rushed or out of the flow last night, but he seemed to realize and pull back after the typical Tim “heat check.”

I don’t think Hardy is QUITE ready to assume Tim’s role yet. Maybe by next season or most certainly the season after that. Not sure if either will be here by then.

Side note; I would LOVE to know what Dallas honestly thinks Hardy’s best case upside is. And then what level of interest he has drawn from around the league.

[The Jom]

Observations:

1. Lively is rugged and competitive. His surge where he practically took over the 3rd quarter took place immediately (immediately) after Collins took a shot at him, knocking him to the floor and sending him to the free throw line rubbing his knee. Then in the 4th during Wemby’s spurt, right after the kid nailed a 3 in Lively’s face, Lively goes to the other end and rips down two monstrous offensive rebounds, slamming the second through the hoop for the highlight of the game.

2. THJ started out on fiya. Don’t think he missed a shot before the elbow to the head. Don’t think he made a single shot afterwards. I know better than to think he’ll be hot all year, but I’m pretty willing to cut him a break after that elbow.

3. Wemby looks like a unicorn. In a bad way. Those unusual bodies never seem to hold up. Good luck, young man. But I’m not gonna bet on the Spurs’ future.

[DanSchwartzgan]

I went back and watched the final 3 minutes again.  We were down 1 when Lively came in for Maxi at about 2:30.  Our next possession was a PnR with Luka and Lively.  Collins was helpless back peddling all the way to the rim basically.  This is the play where Luka didn’t throw the pass, but stopped short and got the and-one.  I mentioned this during the summer, but I don’t know how anyone defends that with Kyrie, Williams and Green on the floor.  You can’t leave anyone and you can’t guard Luka and Lively two on two.

Case in point…Next time down, San Antonio brought help.  This is the wide open 3 from Kyrie.

Next time down was a 3-on-1 fast break…bucket Irving.

Next time Irving misses a long 3, but Lively gets his fifth O-Rebound and Luka 3 and say goodnight.

I wasn’t a huge fan of those last two shots, but the clock was the most important thing at that point.  We won’t always have mediocre Johnson trying to do too much in the paint two possessions in a row either.  But, that closing lineup is encouraging.  

Given we played 36 games where we were +/- 3 points in the final 30 seconds (Credit Damaris), late execution can be a 10-12 game swing in the tight west.  Do it well and we could host a playoff round.  Do it poorly and we are hoping for ping pong balls again.  Part of picking 48 wins was the idea that we have two late game savants surrounded by good defenders who can either hit shots or create massive vertical gravity.  Hopefully, Kidd will design some actual plays to run the final play of the game this year.

[KillerLeft]

Given we played 36 games where we were +/- 3 points in the final 30 seconds (Credit Damaris), late execution can be a 10-12 game swing in the tight west.  Do it well and we could host a playoff round.  Do it poorly and we are hoping for ping pong balls again.  Part of picking 48 wins was the idea that we have two late game savants surrounded by good defenders who can either hit shots or create massive vertical gravity.  Hopefully, Kidd will design some actual plays to run the final play of the game this year.

Absolutely. Doesn’t get talked about enough. During the WCF season they won many of those. It felt like Luka was hitting a game winner once a week. Last season, any clutch game could almost be penciled in as a loss. We spent a lot of time blaming coach Kidd and his ATO’s, and I still happen to believe that was a problem, but the bottom line is that Luka’s clutch scoring wasn’t on par with the previous year. He was still a top 10 player, but I believe a statistical analysis might reveal that he wasn’t a top 10 CLOSER like he had been the previous year. (Not intended as a Luka bash, could be a plethora of causes)

As you say, if they fix that, they fix a lot.

[MarkAguirreWrathofGod]

I’m loving the injection of raw athleticism (and size) that first Josh Green and now Lively are bringing to this team. And Omax should eventually help in that regard too, though I don’t think he is in the same tier of athlete as the other two. He’s more DFS level. Coupled with the bruising nature of Grant Williams play style, we should be a far more formidable team defensively— even though there were some rough patches in game 1. 

I know we have all talked about this ad nauseum but OG just makes too much sense if we have the opportunity. And think he is open to extending for in the neighborhood of Jerami Grant money.