A Few Thoughts on Mavs 107, Raptors 110

[Dahlsim]

Mods are just posters who Magick asked to delete spam. Most other modding that has taken place is to watch out for Mod on Mod crime. No reason to hold that against SH.

I've been doing a bit of Brunson defending lately, but it is true that he's having to learn how to handle pressure. His 4th quarters have been up and down, no doubt. 

JJB would absolutely have settled that game down. He knows how to handle pressure because of his experience level in high pressure NBA situations, mental toughness and handles. 

And finally, based on past DSJ posts, more recent Seth posts (who takes Jalen's minutes sometimes), and consistent Brunson posts, I think Fuerza actually is Jalen Brunson. Which is really cool. He may be the first real live NBA player we've had on the board. 

We (most of us) love you Jalen!!

You are under the impression Barea is guaranteed to come off the bench ice cold and perform at a high level. He also has to play defense and he wasn't gonna stop Lowry, who was coming in like a freight train. 

Sure, I would prefer to see Barea run the offense over Delon/Seth, which hurt us in a 4 min span from 3Q-4Q but again I don't think it was the difference between winning/losing like many of y'all expect. Barea could have came in and screwed up just as easily too. 

Contrary to belief, I like all the Mavs players equally. I try to add a different perspective instead of contributing to the echo chamber of Luka = god posts.

Well, why not?  Barea is one of the very best in the league at drawing offensive fouls on the opponent.  He does it all the time.  Just because he's cold off the bench doesn't erase his memory of how to draw fouls.  Also, it's when a player is "coming in like a freight train" that they are most susceptible to committing an offensive foul.  JMHO.

This is an interesting point and good debate.   I agree with 15th that its highly likely that JJB will perform better under pressure than 2nd year Jalen in terms of decision making over a period of time, just making less mistakes.  He's proven.  
Its true also that nothing is guaranteed.  JJB could come in and lay an egg, but the % and history says you're giving your team the best chance to avoid such mistakes, especially repeated mistakes over and over. 

There's another point here which I've tried to make.  When your team is the one that has a big lead late in the game, you don't absolutely have to out defend your opponent.  Your opponent has to get the stops more than you do.   If you keep scoring, the other team is going to run out of time even if they have a hot hand going like Kyle Lowry was.  Trading 3's for 2's is probably not going get it done. 

This is why I liked both JJB and Boban for this situation.  Boban because statistically he's highly unlikely to get repeated attempts at the bucket and not produce some points.   Sometimes he's also going to get fouled too especially when your opponent is guarding him with smaller men. 

KP also serves this purpose but his frailer frame inside allows tough small guys like Lowry to foul him and wrap him up much easier than a giant like Bobi.  Once the Mavs surrendered the lead, then it was a different story.  Now they have to get stops because they're chasing and need the defense as much or more than the Raptors but Mavs were up 23 points going into the 4th quarter! 

Good offense is also good defense when the other team is chasing your big lead. Rick Carlisle played rotations that would make more sense if the Mavericks were behind trying to catch up rather than protecting a lead. 
If the Mavs score 25 points instead of 20, it likely means they didn't turn the ball over as much and the Raptors score a couple less baskets.  The comeback will come short for the team behind big, which is usually what happens.

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We didn't even have to stop lowry if we kept scoring ourselves. Rick just has a fetish for small ball. I remember watching open court a while back and Kevin McHale was saying that small ball is good but tall skilled beats small skilled any day of the week and tall hustle beats small hustle. Pretty simple. He even gave examples like Draymond Green is a good defender but against a tall skilled big say Marc Gasol or Anthony Davis, he cant guard em. So expecting Brunson, Curry and Delon to be able to stop Lowry and a bunch of other sizable wings is stupid and more importantly.... they then have to work harder to score or grab rebounds!!! Brunson is a good backup as is Barea but expecting them to create and score one on one in such high energy trapping defense was a recipe for disaster. No Maxi or Boban with KP to try and shore up the middle/grab boards/block shots and no screens to free up space for offense.Ugh

I think we just posted the same point.  Great minds think alike!