05-16-2024, 11:51 AM
What a game. I only managed now to watch it after getting home. Lots of potential Dirkie winners for this one, which is my favorite type of dirkie thread.
PJ had a quiet game compared to the previous 2. He barely looked for his shot and the Mavs went away from really running any post ups for him. Interestingly that coincided with the Thunder moving Shai off of PJ and onto DJJ for the majority of the game. Hmmmmmmm! Even though PJ didn't have an offensive explosion, the points he did score came at probably the best time. After the Mavs went up 18, the Thunder stormed back and had all the momentum. The game was cut to 7 and PJ hits the clutchest 3 to stave off any Thunder come back! He then bricks the next three but rebounds his own miss and dunks it! HUGE. Further his defense all night was fantastic. Just a great game from PJ but I thought there were other deserving Dirkie winners...
Kyrie had yet another quiet offensive night. However unlike most of the media I think that is totally fine. OKC is shading every Kyrie potential drive. Loading up on his side means he can't really make any moves in an iso before finding the open guy. They're doubling him when Luka is on the bench. He's barely had any plays ran for him aside a couple of off ball screens (1 of which resulted in a 3). When he's not doubled he's being challenged by 2 pretty long defenders relative to Kyrie in Williams and Wallace. OKC is devoting all their energy in stifling Kyrie's presence. It is 100% working. However, Kyrie is still finding ways to contribute offensively. He had 2 big offensive rebounds in the 2nd half that both resulted in Luka 3s. His passing game kept everyone involved. His defense was there (even though he helped off Shai and Joe 2 times to go contest Dort/Giddey, big mistakes). It was a quiet game for sure though from Kyrie standards. It's great having 2 transcendent scorers because if 1 falters another can pick up the slack. And I can't wait to get to my Luka write up!
Lively had arguably the best defensive game of the season so far. He does SO many little things that makes life hell for OKC. https://twitter.com/JoeVirayNBA/status/1...9329796548
Here is a tweet that shows 1 possession of Lively in the 4th who didn't directly contest any shot, but was so active he was in position to turn away OKC every time. Also shout out to our perimeter defenders here as well. Further, OKC went back to Hack-A-Lively again this game. As soon as they did it I saw Lively look over to their bench annoyed. The kid calmly walks up to the FT line and drains 2 FTs and they were nothing but net. There wasn't really enough time for OKC to keep doing that strategy, but I'm convinced that the confidence at how he drained those 2 FT's would've been enough to make OKC not intentionally foul again. He's currently the owner of 4 of the top 6 highest +/- for a Mavs rookie in the playoffs. It's not a coincidence. It's not normal what he's doing at all. Great game from the rookie.
Now onto my Dirkie finalists. There were two that seperated themselves from the rest. Either one is a deserving choice. In a crucial game 5, DJJ came out and had arguably the best game of his career. He opened the game shooting a perfect 6/6 from the field, including 3 threes. He continued his heater in the 2nd half, but was more crucial defensively. Whenever DJJ was off the court, Shai cooked Green or THJ. But as soon as DJJ came back on that was largely stopped. DJJ also came up with a huge block and leak out dunk the 4th to further rip the hearts out of the OKC fans.
When all is said and done though, how can I not give it to Luka. For all the criticism he got, for all the lowlights, coming off of what was most likely the worst game of his career, Luka shut the haters up in the best way possible. He picked apart's OKC's defense time after time. He shot lights out, finally looking like his former self. He said himself he locked in and focused on playing basketball instead of other stuff and it showed. He heard and listened to all the critiques and made it happen. And when the going got tough, Luka got tougher and he absolutely stamped Shai's layup to seal the game. Luka stepped up huge this game. His bounce back was a statement game. And you see all the reports of him playing through incredible pain, you can't help but wonder if this guy was made in a lab. Legendary stuff from The Don. Deserving Dirkie winner for Luka. P-R-A-V-I M-V-P !
PJ had a quiet game compared to the previous 2. He barely looked for his shot and the Mavs went away from really running any post ups for him. Interestingly that coincided with the Thunder moving Shai off of PJ and onto DJJ for the majority of the game. Hmmmmmmm! Even though PJ didn't have an offensive explosion, the points he did score came at probably the best time. After the Mavs went up 18, the Thunder stormed back and had all the momentum. The game was cut to 7 and PJ hits the clutchest 3 to stave off any Thunder come back! He then bricks the next three but rebounds his own miss and dunks it! HUGE. Further his defense all night was fantastic. Just a great game from PJ but I thought there were other deserving Dirkie winners...
Kyrie had yet another quiet offensive night. However unlike most of the media I think that is totally fine. OKC is shading every Kyrie potential drive. Loading up on his side means he can't really make any moves in an iso before finding the open guy. They're doubling him when Luka is on the bench. He's barely had any plays ran for him aside a couple of off ball screens (1 of which resulted in a 3). When he's not doubled he's being challenged by 2 pretty long defenders relative to Kyrie in Williams and Wallace. OKC is devoting all their energy in stifling Kyrie's presence. It is 100% working. However, Kyrie is still finding ways to contribute offensively. He had 2 big offensive rebounds in the 2nd half that both resulted in Luka 3s. His passing game kept everyone involved. His defense was there (even though he helped off Shai and Joe 2 times to go contest Dort/Giddey, big mistakes). It was a quiet game for sure though from Kyrie standards. It's great having 2 transcendent scorers because if 1 falters another can pick up the slack. And I can't wait to get to my Luka write up!
Lively had arguably the best defensive game of the season so far. He does SO many little things that makes life hell for OKC. https://twitter.com/JoeVirayNBA/status/1...9329796548
Here is a tweet that shows 1 possession of Lively in the 4th who didn't directly contest any shot, but was so active he was in position to turn away OKC every time. Also shout out to our perimeter defenders here as well. Further, OKC went back to Hack-A-Lively again this game. As soon as they did it I saw Lively look over to their bench annoyed. The kid calmly walks up to the FT line and drains 2 FTs and they were nothing but net. There wasn't really enough time for OKC to keep doing that strategy, but I'm convinced that the confidence at how he drained those 2 FT's would've been enough to make OKC not intentionally foul again. He's currently the owner of 4 of the top 6 highest +/- for a Mavs rookie in the playoffs. It's not a coincidence. It's not normal what he's doing at all. Great game from the rookie.
Now onto my Dirkie finalists. There were two that seperated themselves from the rest. Either one is a deserving choice. In a crucial game 5, DJJ came out and had arguably the best game of his career. He opened the game shooting a perfect 6/6 from the field, including 3 threes. He continued his heater in the 2nd half, but was more crucial defensively. Whenever DJJ was off the court, Shai cooked Green or THJ. But as soon as DJJ came back on that was largely stopped. DJJ also came up with a huge block and leak out dunk the 4th to further rip the hearts out of the OKC fans.
When all is said and done though, how can I not give it to Luka. For all the criticism he got, for all the lowlights, coming off of what was most likely the worst game of his career, Luka shut the haters up in the best way possible. He picked apart's OKC's defense time after time. He shot lights out, finally looking like his former self. He said himself he locked in and focused on playing basketball instead of other stuff and it showed. He heard and listened to all the critiques and made it happen. And when the going got tough, Luka got tougher and he absolutely stamped Shai's layup to seal the game. Luka stepped up huge this game. His bounce back was a statement game. And you see all the reports of him playing through incredible pain, you can't help but wonder if this guy was made in a lab. Legendary stuff from The Don. Deserving Dirkie winner for Luka. P-R-A-V-I M-V-P !
14x All-Star, 12x all-NBA, 1x MVP, 1x Finals MVP, 1 NBA Championship: Dirk Nowitzki, the man, the myth, the legend.
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