GAME 68: DAL (42-26) vs. BOS (41-28)| 95-92 WIN!

[DanSchwartzgan]

And no other player can do that while adding better gravy.

Edit: also, Dan was JUST talking about in the playoffs, they take away your first move. After pick and roll, where does Powell go?

It is a good cliche, but we should probably all hope it doesn't apply here.  The team is 20-4 (.833%)when Powell scores 10 or more points.  16 of those 24 double digit games have come since 12/31.  Meanwhile, the team is 9-14 (.391%) when Powell scores 5 or fewer points.  We are 13-8 (.619%) when Powell scores 6-9 points.  Besides the scoring, Powell is ranked 17th in the league in screen assists which generate another 8 points per game.  

If Powell can't stay on the floor in the playoffs, a huge part of our offense vanishes.  It isn't just a matter of Powell being effective at the rim or not.  "Taking Powell away" also impacts Luka's ability as a PNR ball handler.  Good defenses can force you into things you may not want to do.  The playoff theory regarding a roll man like Powell is you can clog the lane and take away the lob while also being able to recover to the three point line.  In the regular season Luka can score himself, hit Powell for the lob or throw a laser to the corner for a three.  It works.  Powell has the highest TS% of any two man combo with Luka among regulars.  Powell is vastly superior to the other options when Luka gets doubled.  He provides a good outlet in the middle of the floor and generally makes good decisions once he receives the ball with a 4 on 3 advantage.  Maxi provides better D, but teams don't have to "take away Maxi" in the playoffs.  We are playing four on five offensively with Maxi on the floor right now.

We don't really know what will happen once the playoffs get here.  I'd be really worried if all of Powell's good games came against bad competition.  But Dallas counts wins against the following playoff teams when Powell has scored 10 or more points:  UTA (2), MIN, DEN, PHI, MEM, GSW, CHI (2), MIL, TOR and BRK.  We can theorize the larger stage will also kill our three point shooting in the playoffs (it isn't hard to imagine given what we've seen from Bullock, Bertans and Maxi lately).  But, we won't know until we know.  It isn't like Powell and the shooters lit the world on fire last year when we almost beat what was arguably the best team in the west.  We forget how good Hardaway was in that series (especially the wins), but we got nothing from a whole bunch of people besides just Powell.  Dinwiddie replaces THJ (hopefully) and we need to get the current versions of Brunson, DFS and Powell rather than the versions we got last year against LAC.  The D was really the biggest issue last year.  We gave up D-Ratings of 120.3, 124.9, 139.1, 116.1, 109.6, 109.4 and 136.9.  The average is 122.3.  I'm hopeful we won't see anywhere close to those numbers this time.  Since 12/31, we've given up a D-Rating of 122 or more twice in 24 games (a bad loss against GSW and a win against NOP).