Game 59 Now A Game Thread: Mavs(31-27) at Lakers(34-21), 9:00 PM Central Time

[Chicagojk]

These past two games were both long shots to win with our depleted roster. Time to move on. I would venture to say the next two weeks or so are the key to the season. We play 5 of 6 at home. Some against good teams, some against bad/average teams. They need to make their move now. After that they have some road games but against teams they should be competitive with. Being short handed will mean no easy wins, but they need to find ways to win. If they stumble with these 5 of 6 at home, I fear they are going to have a one game playin type run.

[SleepingHero]

I say again: After watching the replay, I thought it was an amazing call, I thought PJ dislodged the ball BEFORE contact was made with the arm, just as the ref indicated. Don't think he makes that call if it's not Luka, however.

Yeah I thought PJ got solid ball contact. But Luka did a very savvy move with the rip through causing PJ’s arm to basically rake Luka. If anything there should be a jump ball before the shooting motion, but there was a lot of contact when Luka went up.

So my order of preferences are:

1) No Call given PJ made contact with the ball first 
2) jump ball. Given he was holding the ball before Luka started his shooting motion
3) shooting foul, given Luka did do a great job at creating the contact.

Ref did a good job, but I could see a case for all 3 options.

[Smitty]

What a miserable viewing experience for me. I stayed away from the chat, for good reason. My biggest take away is that Kidd was more worried about game planning to keep Luka's scoring numbers down than to win the game. Why blitz and double Luka when he can't get by anyone one on one right now?! Maddening. Just switch or go under ball screens and let him take the step back. Live with the results.

Yes, we're missing the strength of this team, and we have Kidd game planning for the wrong things, still, if PJ plays average offensively the Mavs win.

I was so impressed with Kyrie man. He understood the moment and stepped up. Who says that man can't play defense?! He's a dawg.

I really need to see this team healthy! The pain still lingers because I have to watch Luka play and get no AD to offset it.

[FireNicoHarrison]

They have a bunch of big strong wings capable of guarding centers and they will provide problems for opponents on offense a lot. I think they will have way more problems against "small" quick teams than against teams with more traditional centers.

Fakers are not going no where this season, their back court defense is putrid and with no bigs the can't stop no one in PO.

But it's not a problem for them, they have 10 years for build a contender.
This year is just a free ride for them.

But, like i said, yesterday... "If we were healthy..." will be the most used phrase in Mavs universe with Kyrie&AD(and Lively) lead the team.

Healthy is a skill, maybe the most important one.
I'm not sure we have it.


However we need a floot general next summer, we are really bad at the end of the game with this roster... But after a "trade" who can kill even an elephant it's normal.

PJ is good but his career spoken for him, he always lacked in consistency. He is a good role player with some great offensive games.

I will not trade him for KD because i don't think KD-AD-Lively can't play together and probably they can play 80 games in total every season.

[Reunion Mav]

https://streamable.com/nmve51

Every single Mavs player came up to Luka and gave him a hug and congrats.

It seemed a little extra sincere too.

[Reunion Mav]

What a miserable viewing experience for me. I stayed away from the chat, for good reason. My biggest take away is that Kidd was more worried about game planning to keep Luka's scoring numbers down than to win the game. Why blitz and double Luka when he can't get by anyone one on one right now?! Maddening. Just switch or go under ball screens and let him take the step back. Live with the results.

Yes, we're missing the strength of this team, and we have Kidd game planning for the wrong things, still, if PJ plays average offensively the Mavs win.

I was so impressed with Kyrie man. He understood the moment and stepped up. Who says that man can't play defense?! He's a dawg.

I really need to see this team healthy! The pain still lingers because I have to watch Luka play and get no AD to offset it.

Amen on Kyrie. Klay showed his competitive class too. We have a good and talented bunch of guys to root for. I really liked AD in New Orleons until he became a hated Laker. Overall I enjoyed that very high energy basketball game and I too feel we could have won.

[david75090]

I say again: After watching the replay, I thought it was an amazing call, I thought PJ dislodged the ball BEFORE contact was made with the arm, just as the ref indicated. Don't think he makes that call if it's not Luka, however.

The timing of PJ's touching of the ball, to me, had no effect on whether it was a foul or not. PJ came down across a player's arm, hard. That, to me, is a foul. It was the amount of contact. Also, I think PJ intended to foul him, and did.

[Chicagojk]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGhqKRdRF...hare_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Chicagojk]

The big mavs are interesting. I just think they need one more really good connector/creator to help even things out, I think. Exum and Dinwiddie are fine. One should be back, but not in the role I am envisioning. I also don't know who this player is either. Against the real good teams you can't have just Kyrie and other probably trying to play above their skiis. I think the player needs to be bigger too. Because, he will need to play some with Kyrie.

[Scott41theMavs]

I'm actually impressed that the Mavs made a game of this. Very impressed. Especially how jittery they seemed on offense. PJ and the others aren't so bad at basketball as to miss as many gimmes as they did. Not sure if it was the nerves of playing their former superstar, or the effort on defense, but it was genuinely weird how many easy-peasy shots the Mavs missed.

[MarkAguirreWrathofGod]

It seemed a little extra sincere too.

And not a Kidd in sight.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

What a miserable viewing experience for me. I stayed away from the chat, for good reason. My biggest take away is that Kidd was more worried about game planning to keep Luka's scoring numbers down than to win the game. Why blitz and double Luka when he can't get by anyone one on one right now?! Maddening. Just switch or go under ball screens and let him take the step back. Live with the results.

Yes, we're missing the strength of this team, and we have Kidd game planning for the wrong things, still, if PJ plays average offensively the Mavs win.

I was so impressed with Kyrie man. He understood the moment and stepped up. Who says that man can't play defense?! He's a dawg.

I really need to see this team healthy! The pain still lingers because I have to watch Luka play and get no AD to offset it.

Totally agreed on Kidd.  He was coaching to prevent a 40 point game from Luka to avoid the optics.

Even disagreeing with the philosophy though I felt the defense should have been enough to win the game.  Just really awful offense two straight games now.  AD will help a lot but there is a lack of creation and shot making outside of Kyrie that needs to be addressed at some point.

Also agree on Kyrie, his defensive playoff performance last year really made me realize he can get a lot done on that side of the ball when necessary.

[KillerLeft]

The timing of PJ's touching of the ball, to me, had no effect on whether it was a foul or not. PJ came down across a player's arm, hard. That, to me, is a foul. It was the amount of contact. Also, I think PJ intended to foul him, and did.

reasonable people can disagree. If the ball was dislodged first, before the arm contact, and I believe that it was, I think the correct call was made. I 100% don't believe it was an intentional foul. Maybe as a secondary "in case I miss the ball" intent, but he was going for ball, 100%.

[Scott41theMavs]

Totally agreed on Kidd.  He was coaching to prevent a 40 point game from Luka to avoid the optics.

Even disagreeing with the philosophy though I felt the defense should have been enough to win the game.  Just really awful offense two straight games now.  AD will help a lot but there is a lack of creation and shot making outside of Kyrie that needs to be addressed at some point.

Also agree on Kyrie, his defensive playoff performance last year really made me realize he can get a lot done on that side of the ball when necessary.

During their post-trade run of winning games, the offense looked fine, with all the cutting and ball movement serving as shot creation. Not sure if that's just not good enough to be a real offense, or if other teams are figuring out how to gameplan them. I don't think Kyrie turning into a heliocentric poor man's Luka is the answer.

[RasheedsBigWhiteSpot]

I'll say it again: The Mavs at full strength destroys this team.

Kyrie
Christie
Klay (to start and spread the court)
ADavis
Lively

Bench of Exum, PJ, Naji, Gafford,

Also, I'll say again: I'm not even a little mad that Luka was traded. He frustrated the hell out of me because he somehow could be so much better if he weren't so immature. I'm just pissed that every asset wasn't extracted from the Lakers. If the trade had included Gafford for Reeves, Knecht, 2030 swap and 2031, then, hey, I'm good. I'm just dumbfounded that Reeves wasn't in the deal. And I will go to my grave trying to understand why the Jazz got a recent #1 pic in JHS AND they had to get TWO 2nds, including the prime 76ers pic. Just wacky negotiating.

At least with Knecht and another pick, the Mavs could get Coby White to be PG.

[Scott41theMavs]

I'll say it again: The Mavs at full strength destroys this team.

Kyrie
Christie
Klay (to start and spread the court)
ADavis
Lively

Bench of Exum, PJ, Naji, Gafford,

Also, I'll say again: I'm not even a little mad that Luka was traded. He frustrated the hell out of me because he somehow could be so much better if he weren't so immature. I'm just pissed that every asset wasn't extracted from the Lakers. If the trade had included Gafford for Reeves, Knecht, 2030 swap and 2031, then, hey, I'm good. I'm just dumbfounded that Reeves wasn't in the deal. And I will go to my grave trying to understand why the Jazz got a recent #1 pic in JHS AND they had to get TWO 2nds, including the prime 76ers pic.  Just wacky negotiating.

At least with Knecht and another pick, the Mavs could get Coby White to be PG.

I'm still somewhat mad that Luka was traded in itself (million percent agree with you on the return), but not having him does highlight some of the frustrations (ref complaining, *his* evident resistance to moving on from heliocentrism, injuries, conditioning, etc.) that I was willing to ignore while he was here. A decent return would have made the absence of those frustrations a great deal more refreshing.

[DallasMaverick]

There was a stretch of really great Mavs defensive plays in the fourth quarter, followed by a string of bad ones. Lots of layups and dunks and offensive rebounds by the Lakers, which might have been mitigated by a Dallas big.

I was disappointed that they lost, but not discouraged.

[mvossman]

During their post-trade run of winning games, the offense looked fine, with all the cutting and ball movement serving as shot creation. Not sure if that's just not good enough to be a real offense, or if other teams are figuring out how to gameplan them. I don't think Kyrie turning into a heliocentric poor man's Luka is the answer.

I don't think we have enough playmaking in the starting lineup to run a high level ball movement offense against a focused high quality defense in a playoff setting.  Won't know for sure until we see the team full strength in such a setting (hopefully this year) but I'm afraid in those conditions we are going to see a lot of Kyrie and AD ISO.

[david75090]

reasonable people can disagree. If the ball was dislodged first, before the arm contact, and I believe that it was, I think the correct call was made. I 100% don't believe it was an intentional foul. Maybe as a secondary "in case I miss the ball" intent, but he was going for ball, 100%.

PJ was definitely going for the ball, but was not worried about how much arm he got, from my view. Looked like he was going to stop Luka from making the shot. The ref, who was standing right there and saw it clearly, agrees with you. It's the refs call and he called a tech on Luka for disagreeing, so, case closed.

[FireNicoHarrison]

I'll say it again: The Mavs at full strength destroys this team.

Kyrie
Christie
Klay (to start and spread the court)
ADavis
Lively

Bench of Exum, PJ, Naji, Gafford,

You are right, i totally agree with you (even if you can't bench PJ for Christie. Come on).

But destroy the Fakers this year is useless, they are not a contender and probably we will not even face them in PO.

Are we in better position to win now? Nico said it.
We will see. Very soon.