Game 56: Phoenix Suns (33-22) vs. Dallas Mavericks (32-23)

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

So I heard the last time we won seven in a row was....

They actually had one last season but the last time they had 8 in a row it was championship season.

Fun fact, in 06/07 the Mavs had THREE different 15+ game win streaks. Still one of the crazier Mavs facts about the Dirk era in my opinion.

[surfpuckmd]

I agree with all of that, but none of that is what I’m talking about. I think Kleber is FAR superior at PLAYING DEFENSE. I don’t mean just on the perimeter, I mean, positioning his body in order to make it difficult on the offense IN GENERAL.

I care way more about that than rebounding, and I always have.

It's a philosophical debate.  Does it really matter if you contest the shot when the offense gets the rebound anyway?   

I do think Gafford commits some dumb fouls.  I think his rim protection is useful though when we have multiple bad perimeter defenders on the floor who make it easy to get to the rim.  I also like his energy and toughness.  We signed Markieff Morris for toughness even though he's useless.  Gafford brings toughness, intensity and some strong rebounding and elite finishing.  

I'll concede Maxi is better overall defensively if rebounding doesn't count.

[omahen]

Huge win and Mavs continue to impress. Stars delivered offensively and defense is solid if not great at moments. Mavs really have lots of line-up options now. Luka playing much better defense than ever in his career. It really shows how much pressure takes another star off him, leaving him energy for both ends. Stupid technical though. He needs to stop now or he will break his personal record

[Chicagojk]

Both teams need to stay healthy and have some things to work out, but both teams can be really dangerous playoff matchups.  A healthy Beal just allows them to have two very good offensive players on the court at all times.

I found it interesting Nurkic was invisible in the second half.  I mentioned what would happen if Dallas played him off the court.  Tonight Dallas won that matchup.    Gafford was good in spurts as was Maxi.  PHX couldn't really make Dallas pay in these lineups.

Interesting the Suns put KD on Lively.  I think Iztok has said this is happening more.   Tonight Lively didn't have much of an impact but if teams do this is may limit the rim running but it also opens up other opportunities.

[surfpuckmd]

Huge win and Mavs continue to impress. Stars delivered offensively and defense is solid if not great at moments. Mavs really have lots of line-up options now. Luka playing much better defense than ever in his career. It really shows how much pressure takes another star off him, leaving him energy for both ends. Stupid technical though. He needs to stop now or he will break his personal record

Kidd should have done his job and shared his thoughts on the terrible officiating.  Kidd should have screamed at the officials until he earned that technical.  There were some really terrible calls in this game and they were tilted toward Phoenix.  Luka shouldn't have to do Kidd's job.  Kidd really does just watch the games.  

Agree on the win though.  Pure awesomeness from Luka and Kyrie.  All the role players except for THJ played their part well.  

I hate that there was no real basketball for a week but this made up for it.  

Nico looking like a mastermind right now as well-  Kyrie, Lively, PJ and Gafford.  Wow.  Take a bow.

[Luka77]

I don't get it, I thought the narrative was players didn't want to play with Luka bc he was too ball dominant. So how are Kyrie and Brunson before him scoring so well?

[MFFL]

Mavs lost the rebounding battle. I'm sure it was because Lively/Gafford only played 33 minutes combined. It was a bad matchup for them.

[SleepingHero]

Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth)
Jason Kidd on Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving combining for 70 points against the Suns: "I think it answers the question that they work. Those two co-exist quite well. I think it just shows again, our health, our energy, everything's in a positive way right now."

[SleepingHero]

https://streamable.com/tp0cyg

KD got called a bitch before the game and confronted the fans. Led to a pretty awkward and humorous encounter imo.

Am I the only one that thinks when NBA players respond to stuff like this it makes them look exceedingly soft? KD, Westbrook, Lebron, heck even Luka had a moment with that treadmill dude.

Fans should be allowed to talk shit. Of course there are lines not to be crossed but calling a dude a bitch isn't one of them. KD soft as hell.

[RGP1981]

Nico Dennis Lindsey looking like a mastermind right now as well - Lively, PJ and Gafford.  Wow.  Take a bow.

Fixed your post! These moves were made after Dennis Lindsey joined the Mavs. I think it's more likely that Lindsey is responsible for the young signings, while it's probably more apt to credit Nico for the Kyrie, Javale McGee, Seth Curry and Markieff Morris signings (i.e., the older, known name signings).

[omahen]

https://streamable.com/tp0cyg

KD got called a bitch before the game and confronted the fans. Led to a pretty awkward and humorous encounter imo.

Am I the only one that thinks when NBA players respond to stuff like this it makes them look exceedingly soft. KD, Westbrook, Lebron, heck even Luka had a moment with that treadmill dude.

Fans should be allowed to talk shit. Of course there are lines not to be crossed but calling a dude a bitch isn't one of them. KD soft as hell.

On one hand "hackling" by fans has always been a part of sports culture, including yelling some things that are not really nice as in this KD example. But, real fans are emotionally involved and sometimes emotions get the best of you, even if one is generally a very nice person. Especially in areas where large groups of people merge sharing similar feelings (direct translation from Slovenian would be a herd instinct, but I am not sure if a different term is used in English to describe this). I was really surprised Luka reacted to that fan, because he grew up in areas where this kind of hackling would be considered as extremely mild. He played in arenas where 5000 or 10000 people is basically yelling you "death threats" in most colourful language possible for the whole game and which is considered as normal part of sports events. 

So in principal we want either players to be able to block-out any fans words thrown at them or we want the fans to be a very polite and emotionally controlled audience. But I think, the best case scenario would be both.

Players are playing the game for the fans. They are paid the money they are paid because of the fans. That is why it is never a nice look if they are the ones throwing the fans out of arenas. Imho they should be able to either accept or ignore the fans while always showing respect to them. I think KD reaction was quite ok. He expressed he doesn't like their behaviour (which is his right) but it doesn't seem he went any further than that (asking for them to be thrown - out, that imho would be wrong). 

I think arena security is the one that should monitor fans behaviour and act according to accepted rules. 

From team perspective. Most emotionally involved fans care most about their team winning and will try to contribute. By being loud, by cheering and so on. This kind of things (if whole arena is buying in) do impact players performance and that is why home court advantage is a thing. On the other hand, emotionally involved fans also cause most problems to the teams when their emotions get out of control. They might also drive other fans, who are not so emotionally involved, away from arenas. 

Looking from average European perspective. Atmosphere in NBA arenas looks "artificial" (as in not geniuine) to European audience. In European arenas real emotions are on display and most of the fans attending really do care for the team and winning is hugely important for them. Thats why European arenas are on average very loud and the atmosphere itself is a lot of time the reason that drives fans to games. Looking at US arenas from our perspective, it looks like the game is almost of secondary importance to the attendance. They clap and cheer when the big screens are saying them to do so. Otherwise they are there to have fun in the whole event, not just the game and result itself.

On a personal note. I attended games both in US and Europe. Not a fan of the loud atmosphere and herd instincts, although you can easily get drawn in the atmosphere and join the chorus. Especially when you have a drink or two   I was in the nose bleeds areas in US, so game experience was not great. Interesting, different then what I was used to, definitely nice memories. But, the most important thing for me is the game itself, not what is happening around it. That is why I actually prefer watching on TV. Which of course includes yelling at TV when players don't do as I think they should

[GATA]

If Luka plays another 10 years he will go down as the best player ever. Kidd is an idiot. Hardy needs to be playing 16 plus minutes

[meistermatze]

Another quality win. I really think we are just good now.

PJ is rounding in nicely, playing very good defense. I read somewhere that Josh is overrated on D which I could not disagree more. He is anchoring the defense with his hustle and energy which can not be understated. The Maxi and PJ lineups look great and I am very comfortable, throwing any combination of Green, PJ, Maxi, Lively, Exum with Luka and Kyrie against ANY opponent. if you need some bulk, use Gafford.

Once Exum is back, I doubt Timmy will see much playing time unless his 3-point-shot comes back big time.

[omahen]

Offensively, Mavs are a legit problem when healthy and locked in. Luka is almost a guarantee for a 30+ (if not 40) efficient points when guarded individually. Kyrie is almost a guarantee for efficient roughly 30 points. If you double any of them, Mavs have the quality to punish any team in 4 vs 3 situations. I don't even remember when was the last time opponents were aggresively doubling Luka since Kyrie returned. Phoenix for example chose to use "fake" doubles instead, by which I mean players stepping a bit towards Luka but still keeping their player in check. Those doesn't really bother Luka. As long as the rest of the guys are buying into their limited offensive roles, I don't see much of a problem for Mavs to score a lot. I would wish that THJ would take less shots and guys like Green and PJ take a few more. Especially on nights when he is not particularly on fire, as was the case against Phoenix. This could also be solved by just playing him less minutes.

How serious Mavs are will be decided on defense. Early returns look great, although they did play only two serious teams in last 4 games (OKC and Phoneix). Luka is playing best defense of his career. Phoenix was trying to attack him (as did teams in some previous games), but he held his own and was very solid. Of course he will always have problems against skilled quick guys like Booker, but he is far from a big liability lately. Interesting enough teams don't really attack Kyrie with bigger guys or Mavs successfuly prevent him to get into such situations. Phoenix rather chose to attack Gafford when he was on the court and to an extent Maxi.

Main defensive reserve is at the point of attack, where Green is not elite. At least not yet. PJ looks much better getting around screens, for example. Really surprised by his defense so far.

Looking forward to rest of the season and what this team can do in the offseason.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

Kidd has been showing some real creativity at times with all his new toys. Having two lob threats on the floor when PJ is playing with another big opens up a lot of opportunities. I thought the coolest play of the game was when Kidd decided to run the spain pick and roll with PJ instead of Lively and Hardaway because Vogel put KD on Lively and Kidd wanted to find a way to force Nurkic into the action. That led to KD stunting to help in the paint off Lively in the corner which led to that big dunk. Very curious if we see more variations of using Lively to space and trusting he can attack from the corner (and in the future potentially just knock down the corner three ball).

[Jakeospikez]

Im not sure why Hardy didnt get any minutes at all, but THJ was alright yesterday I thought. Not great by any means but he caught a lot of grenades with 2-3 seconds left on the shot clock and chucked a bad shot but there was no other option really other than maybe the guy passing it should have just taken a shot earlier.

[meistermatze]

Offensively, Mavs are a legit problem when healthy and locked in. Luka is almost a guarantee for a 30+ (if not 40) efficient points when guarded individually. Kyrie is almost a guarantee for efficient roughly 30 points. If you double any of them, Mavs have the quality to punish any team in 4 vs 3 situations. I don't even remember when was the last time opponents were aggresively doubling Luka since Kyrie returned. Phoenix for example chose to use "fake" doubles instead, by which I mean players stepping a bit towards Luka but still keeping their player in check. Those doesn't really bother Luka. As long as the rest of the guys are buying into their limited offensive roles, I don't see much of a problem for Mavs to score a lot. I would wish that THJ would take less shots and guys like Green and PJ take a few more. Especially on nights when he is not particularly on fire, as was the case against Phoenix. This could also be solved by just playing him less minutes.

How serious Mavs are will be decided on defense. Early returns look great, although they did play only two serious teams in last 4 games (OKC and Phoneix). Luka is playing best defense of his career. Phoenix was trying to attack him (as did teams in some previous games), but he held his own and was very solid. Of course he will always have problems against skilled quick guys like Booker, but he is far from a big liability lately. Interesting enough teams don't really attack Kyrie with bigger guys or Mavs successfuly prevent him to get into such situations. Phoenix rather chose to attack Gafford when he was on the court and to an extent Maxi.

Main defensive reserve is at the point of attack, where Green is not elite. At least not yet. PJ looks much better getting around screens, for example. Really surprised by his defense so far.

Looking forward to rest of the season and what this team can do in the offseason.

Great observations, man!

[SkenfromLMF]

One confidence I have is when Washington catches on the right wing and attacks on the dribble. He goes in left handed and is going to get inside for the lefty layup OR he jump stops in front of the cup and scores. There is a reason several of us liked what PJ would bring as a forward (a bigger DFS to put it simply). There are differences to be sure, but overall PJ + DJJ is much better than DFS + Bullock in the small sample.

[ItsGoTime]

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