Mavs 111, Jazz 103

[mavsluvr]

Great writeup ML.

A playoff game, played in regular season. A rare one for the fans.

Something different about the Mavs this year. A lot of this (I think) iscoming from JRich and the defensive mentality he has contributed mightly establishing in Dallas. You will never find this stat or anything like this in the stats. Spreads like a good virus. Everyone is more tough, everyone plays better D. Everyone figths for every posession, no breaks. Jazz were not bad at 3. This is how you shoot when you are well defended. You are not comfortable. And Melli that is a great defender, fits immediately in this style of basketball.

Gobert praising the Mavs physicality in his interview? Wow. Thats something new. There is something completely new about these Mavs. Last season we were beat out of playoffs on pure physicality, not skill.

Reminds me a bit of the Jordan Netflix series. First years his team got punished on physicality, but never again in the years after. This year, the Luka led team is punishing teams on defense and physicality. Love to see this. Love wathcing the defense, and the all defense starting lineup. On every posession, it's like they want to rip the ball out of the offense and score. Jazz looked scared to play against them.

Also something new about defensive positioning and schemes. I dont understrand basketball at this level and defensive schemes etc.. But its clear to me intuitively they all move differently on defense. They trap offensive players in some areas of the court on the sides, which they were not doing previously at all. Cant explain it, but I know something is going on, completely different than before, and its working. But in analogy with all other sports, it takes players to do this. Having JRich, Kleber, DFS, Luka, Melli etc. that understand defensive movements and physicality, helps a lot.

There is a certain element of that the sum is far greater than the individual parts, to this Mavs team, right now. A machine that works. Love seeing this.

After this game, Rick echoed your observations about the team improvement in physicality and attention to defensive detail. 

He suggested that the defensive surge originated with the week of practice time that the snow emergency allowed. I have also heard comments from the New Orleans end that Melli is known for lighting a fire under his teammates with respect to high-effort defense and rebounding, and the eye test would support that.