GAME 37: DAL (21-16) @ SAS (12-24) | 126-125 win

[Arioch]

Question: I watched the Spurs feed of the game and in the second quarter, they had James Silas on as a guest. Around the 55-minute mark, they were marveling at Luka and Eliot asked Silas how Luka compared to Oscar Robertson. Silas said they were similar but "He [Luka] don't count it as well as Oscar did".

It's possible I misheard, but the closed captions typist also heard it as 'count' -- and I can't for the life of me figure out what he meant by that? Anyone understand that?

[Chicagojk]

The defense and rebounding was really poor last night.   Although, last game of the year, I guess I can understand some thought of just getting out of there with a win.  

Mavs have taken advantage of their competition lately.   You have to give them credit there.  Luckily this stretch lined up with their current injuries.  If they played a tough stretch, we may be looking at 2-3 games under .500.  It feels like we have been playing better but we need to factor in the competition and Luka's peak level play.   

Disappointing to hear that Green is practicing, but not participating in team activities yet.  Sounds like he may be out for a little bit longer.  

I really disliked the start of the fourth quarter.  I don't think the Spurs made a large run, but the offense was really bad.  Dinwiddie made nice plays.  But all the other plays were where everyone was standing around and Din was dribbling.   Although, he was playing with guys who are not scoring options besides Wood.  My hope is the non Luka lineups can develop some chemistry and hopefully more ball movement and faster pace.   Mavs need a group who can play 5 or so minutes and not hemorrhage points when Luka is sitting.

[dirkfansince1998]

Closing lineup was interesting. Frank instead of Bullock. Spurs (especially Tre Jones) basically played Bullock off the floor. Targeted him in the pick and roll. He simply lacks the foot speed to defend smaller guards.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

I really like Keldon Johnson’s game.  He’s the type of player that would be a huge upgrade over the one dimensional wings we have.  Would be awesome for Josh Green to develop into something similar on a talent level.

[burekemde]

I really like Keldon Johnson’s game.  He’s the type of player that would be a huge upgrade over the one dimensional wings we have.  Would be awesome for Josh Green to develop into something similar on a talent level.

One dimensional wings is our biggest issue. We need multidimensional wings for this team to explode. No wonder our defense has taken a hit with those defenders out. But notice how much more explosive the offense is and we are winning far more games. More balanced multiskills wings can elevate this team. We are not winning a title with one dimensional players around Luka. He has the IQ to use that mutidimensionality.

I agree that Johnson looked great and on multiple levels.

[BoredAssistant]

Noticed that 3 of Luka's 5 highest scoring games are on the road.  MJ had 55 at MSG, 63 in The Garden, and 69 in Cleveland.  Maybe this is a correlation with the all-time greats?  To counter, KB's 81 was at home, but he had everything handed to him on a silver platter his entire life. 

[KillerLeft]

Noticed that 3 of Luka's 5 highest scoring games are on the road.  MJ had 55 at MSG, 63 in The Garden, and 69 in Cleveland.  Maybe this is a correlation with the all-time greats?  To counter, KB's 81 was at home, but he had everything handed to him on a silver platter his entire life. 

Good thought...maybe he's just recognizing how poorly the rest of the team is performing on the road this season (for whatever reason) and trying to compensate. 

I knew this game would be a struggle, not because I think the Mavs have to get an MVP level game to beat even the lowly Spurs, but because they need that type of game to beat any team on the road this year. The quality of the roster around Luka is intertwined with that issue for sure, but it's not the entire issue. For some reason, this version of the Mavs is two different teams: a good one at home, heading towards great, and a bottom feeder on the road, heading (I hope) towards decent. THAT is what I'd be worried about getting to the bottom of were I in Kidd's position.

[BoredAssistant]

but because they need that type of game to beat any team on the road this year.

Had not thought about it this way but yeah that makes sense.  Mavs are 6-11 on the road now which looks a lot better than 3-11.  I'm sure most are aware that the Warriors are 16-2 at home and 3-16 on the road, which is stunning to see as I had avoided looking at the standings until just now.

[SleepingHero]

It's possible I misheard, but the closed captions typist also heard it as 'count' -- and I can't for the life of me figure out what he meant by that? Anyone understand that?

Doesn't really make sense to me. 

Maybe he was making light of Luka's FTs? I have no clue. I feel like color commentators for every team have their own quirks. I mean Harp just loves to throw in "juncture" in any sentence at random times.

[dirkfansince1998]

Question: I watched the Spurs feed of the game and in the second quarter, they had James Silas on as a guest. Around the 55-minute mark, they were marveling at Luka and Eliot asked Silas how Luka compared to Oscar Robertson. Silas said they were similar but "He [Luka] don't count it as well as Oscar did".

It's possible I misheard, but the closed captions typist also heard it as 'count' -- and I can't for the life of me figure out what he meant by that? Anyone understand that?

Maybe refering to Luka´s post game interview where he mentioned that he had no clue about his scoring total when he dropped 60.

[DanSchwartzgan]

The defense and rebounding was really poor last night.   Although, last game of the year, I guess I can understand some thought of just getting out of there with a win.  

Mavs have taken advantage of their competition lately.   You have to give them credit there.  Luckily this stretch lined up with their current injuries.  If they played a tough stretch, we may be looking at 2-3 games under .500.  It feels like we have been playing better but we need to factor in the competition and Luka's peak level play.   

D-Rating was in the 130’s for just about everyone.  Basically, we took the night off at that end of the court.  Earlier in the season we lost these games and it was super frustrating.  We had games like this last season too…even in the good run post 12/31/21.  Yet, we have the best record in the league against good teams.

I’m pretty convinced the team just doesn’t care about certain games.  It is a long season and as long as you win at home for your fans and continually prove to yourself you can beat the better teams, then the theory goes that the only season that really matters comes after 82 games.  It is hard to criticize them too much.  It has been a crap start to the year and yet, they are in 4th in the west.  That is pretty well the exact peak any of us predicted when the season started.  Someone might have said 3rd/4th.  I thought/hoped 4th.  But, the bulk of the prognostications (if not all of them) was 4th or worse.  Oh, and they are doing this while missing three important cogs in the 9 man rotation.

[SleepingHero]

I’m pretty convinced the team just doesn’t care about certain games.  It is a long season and as long as you win at home for your fans and continually prove to yourself you can beat the better teams, then the theory goes that the only season that really matters comes after 82 games.  It is hard to criticize them too much.  It has been a crap start to the year and yet, they are in 4th in the west.  That is pretty well the exact peak any of us predicted when the season started.  Someone might have said 3rd/4th.  I thought/hoped 4th.  But, the bulk of the prognostications (if not all o

That's just a loser's mentality if that really is the case imo.

Sure logically that makes sense, but this team hasn't come close to getting that kind of respect where they can just take multiple games off because it's against opponents that are "beneath" them. Got to earn that. 

Much harder to continually turn it on when it matters vs. just playing consistent every time. Thing is, I believe this attitude (if it really is a thing) comes direct from the coaching staff which is shocking given that Kidd was a competitor night in and night out as a player.

[mvossman]

That's just a loser's mentality if that really is the case imo.

Sure logically that makes sense, but this team hasn't come close to getting that kind of respect where they can just take multiple games off because it's against opponents that are "beneath" them. Got to earn that. 

Much harder to continually turn it on when it matters vs. just playing consistent every time. Thing is, I believe this attitude (if it really is a thing) comes direct from the coaching staff which is shocking given that Kidd was a competitor night in and night out as a player.

I think there is a balance there.  A coach like Thibs tends to run his team into the ground trying to win every game and has nothing left for the playoffs.  I think a lot of the taking games off mentality comes from Luka, who I have a hard time blaming as he is carrying this team on his back.

[KillerLeft]

I think there is a balance there.  A coach like Thibs tends to run his team into the ground trying to win every game and has nothing left for the playoffs.  I think a lot of the taking games off mentality comes from Luka, who I have a hard time blaming as he is carrying this team on his back.

I agree, and really what we're talking about isn't so much the coaching philosophy, which we can't know, but more so that they're not choosing to go scorched earth right away to fix it. They might feel the same way we do, but might be taking the marathon approach to teaching the team about it. 

And, the team still hasn't racked up as many losses as they had last year when they reached 16 wins. They were 16-18. We can argue about the why of both slow starts and get mired down in that, but the point is that there's more than enough time to turn this into a good season. Great, even.

[omahen]

I don't think this "taking it easy" approach is in any way unique to Mavs. I think it is natural, it is a very long season and as it was said - you risk running your team to the ground if you want them to play 120 % each game. That is why basically all stars are taking days off and so on. It might show more on Mavs because of their lack of talent. Mavs don't have depth where Luka or a couple of other players could take it a bit easy and some other guys would step up. Which is sad, really. If Luka takes a day off on defense, everything falls apart on that end. One would expect others would pitch in more, but it is the other way around.

[meistermatze]

Question: I watched the Spurs feed of the game and in the second quarter, they had James Silas on as a guest. Around the 55-minute mark, they were marveling at Luka and Eliot asked Silas how Luka compared to Oscar Robertson. Silas said they were similar but "He [Luka] don't count it as well as Oscar did".

It's possible I misheard, but the closed captions typist also heard it as 'count' -- and I can't for the life of me figure out what he meant by that? Anyone understand that?

I am pretty sure he meant that Luka is not counting his numbers during the game. I thought that often myself, because no way he would end up missing out on potential triple doubles by like one assist or rebound. Probably the Big O was more focused on that, like Westbrook in his MVP season. I think Luka just doesn't really care and just wants to win.

[Jason Terry]

Let’s not forget any time soon that we just played a game in San Antonio and the fans chanted MVP for our guy the whole game. Pretty special thing we should all cherish