GAME 2 2024 Playoffs: Dallas Mavericks (0-1) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (1-0)

[rocky164]

Maybe this will get THJ out of his funk.

[BigDirk41]

Timmy was the difference tonight. We don't win if he doesn't go off and be efficient . PJ and Luka were huge, but Timmy was unexpected.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Who was that on the sideline?

Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray and RB James Conner.

[RGP1981]

Gafford and Lively need to figure out how to push through contact and get the ball up to the rim. Struggling to do that over 6'5 Jalen Williams is unacceptable for 6'11" and 7'1" players.

[The Jom]

Josh good. Tim great. Pee Jay phenomenal. From here it needs to be Luka and Kyrie.

[GATA]

Green was the MVP of this game

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Josh good. Tim great. Pee Jay phenomenal. From here it needs to be Luka and Kyrie.

Game is over.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Green was the MVP of this game

Nope, PJ

[DallasMaverick]

Kidd’s got a formula that works. Lose game 1, give their opponents a false sense of confidence, then knock them out.

[BoredAssistant]

Josh Green playoff career high incoming.  Hoping for a Luka miracle or at least a sign he can play with a bum knee moving forward.  THJ with a solid 15 minutes.  Honestly don't care if this is a loss as long as it looks competitive.

Idc if this didn't end up being accurate but I'm taking the dub.

[Scott41theMavs]

Mavs aren't dead!!!

[GATA]

We are getting killed with these early start times

[Mavs2021]

Just chase Williams off the 3pt line. Guy has no in-between game. Let Holmgren shoot. Nevertheless this is not a team to f*** around with like the Clippers. We need to get both home games.

[The Jom]

Luka with an awesome stat line, and I don’t have him in my top 3 Dirkie finalists.

[Luka77]

Can we please get 2 at home and protect home court?

[The Jom]

Just chase Williams off the 3pt line. Guy has no in-between game. Let Holmgren shoot. Nevertheless this is not a team to f*** around with like the Clippers. We need to get both home games.

Clippers were better. Refs not allowing the same kind of physical play (so far), except for in the post.

[omahen]

Mavs at their best when needed a lot. Did their job on the road and got one win. Great game.

Let me first just say that this OKC team is really, really good. They punish every mistake. Every player (other than Giddey) can shoot a three at high percentage, most of them can also put the ball on the floor. SGA is legit. It took an awesome offensive performance to put them away.

Mavs finally got a good shooting night, I think first one in this year playoffs. Loved the adjustments. Less Luka ball early and PJ got it going (we will see game 3 if this was only a one time thing). As expected, Luka overcame all his injuries and showed why he is in MVP conversation. Good shooting, just one TO. PJ stepped up big time and bench (THJ and Green) finally gave us something. Strangely quiet night for Kyrie, took only 8 shots and hit 2. Great hustle on defense though and 11 assists. Centers need to be better on offense, especially Lively.

That Luka knee bleeding is on the left knee, not the right one that is the problem. He had to get a wound late in the season (I remember same bleeding in one of the later games) that just doesn't heal due to constant usage.

Mavs in 6!

[KillerLeft]

I am still confident about this series. I expect a big game from Luka tonight, as well as an adjustment from the offense, hopefully with fewer touches in the short roll for Gafford and Lively. That's not really in either of their skillsets yet. Gafford just looks to bulldoze when he has the ball, and that's too far away from the rim for that mindset, and Lively is too passive, looking exclusively to kick out to the corner, and immediately.

Need at least one shooter to step up. Three would be better, but one is mandatory if they have a chance of winning. Is this the THJ game?

[KillerLeft]

Teams are blitzing a 1-5 pick and roll(i.e the ball handler gets doubled immediately).  The read is for the ball handler to pass the ball to the short roll man (i.e center).  If you don't want Gafford or Lively in that position, the pick will likely have to be set by someone else and they will be in the short roll if the defense decides to blitz.

It’s actually quite a bit more complicated than that, and honestly has more to do with how the thunder are playing the first screener, not so much how they are playing with the big who comes in for the second screen.

The Mavs made some good adjustments tonight to put players in better positions.

[Chicagojk]

Great win.  What a roller coaster of a game.  What a game by PJ.  Probably his best as a Mav..  He is certainly a streaky shooter.    Hopefully we can see that again in this series.  At least consistent shooting.  Nice to have Hardaway and Green too.  I really like Green staying aggressive and not pulling back.  I was pretty much done with Hardaway (shot out to Killer on his call).  There were still several times last night when I was saying "Oh no...here we go again" when he was dribbling.  He made big shots.  Luka too.  Kyrie was good on defense.    I think we will need a better Lively on offense to win the series.  I still want our bigs to make them pay inside.  I think OKC is doing well defending but Dallas is missing some shots.

I am so impressed with Shai.  He just gets good shots all the time and really seems to hit shot after shot.  A little concerning that Dallas didn't turn the ball over and shot almost 50% from three and had to scrap out a victory.  This OKC team is really tough to play against.    I am surprised Giddy is being replaced.  I know he was a guy the Mavs want to shoot, but they have pretty much gone away from him last night.  It will be interesting to see how he responds.