GAME 29: POR (16-13) @ DAL (15-14) | 130-110 win

[DanSchwartzgan]

I went back and re-watched sections of the game just now.

There is a five minute window (last 2.5 of the 1st and first 2.5 of the second) where Portland scored 2 points.  This corresponds perfectly to Nurkic subbing out.  As I said last night, Reggie and Frank were working hard.  But, Wood had some big-boy rebounds during that stretch.  In fact there wasn't a single Offensive Rebound by Portland during that five minutes of game time.

The Nurkic minutes in Q1 were positive against both Powell and Wood, but when Nurkic returned in the second he immediately had two turnovers and fouled Wood on the perimeter giving up a 3 point play.  The momentum had already swung as those mistakes were the tail end of a 12-0 Dallas run.  Wood immediately then went on a personal 6-0 run on three offensive possessions to open up a 16 point lead.  The lead fell to 6 as Dallas went cold before Wood came out and Powell finished the half +3.  For the first half, Wood was +0 against Nurkic and +11 against Eubanks.

Dallas bumps the lead by six to 15 against Nurkic before Powell goes out.  Wood is +3 against Nurkic before Nurkic goes out four minutes into the second half with four fouls.  Then Wood hangs a +7 on poor Eubanks as Billups called off the dogs.  Final tally, Wood vs. Nurkic +3 and Wood vs. Eubanks +18.

I watched part of this again wanting to see if I could detect something that explains why the D played so much better with Wood in the game.  It helped that he soaked up so many rebounds.  It helped having two of DFS/Reggie/Frank on anytime Wood was in.  It helped that Nurkic is fairly one dimensional (and Eubanks offered very little).  The other thing I noticed was Luka.  He was guarding Hart and any time Portland put Wood in the PnR and the guard got by him or hit Nurkic on the roll, Luka was there to help aggressively.

Unless Powell misses time and Wood starts, I suspect we'll spill significant ink debating whether Wood should start or not.  Personally, I'd like to just see more of what we saw last night.  I've always thought there was value to having Wood plunder the Drew Eubanks and Kevin Love's of the league.  If Powell or someone like him can just hold their own for 16-20 minutes a game, we can make this work (though I think the Cleveland game taught us that Powell starting in the playoffs still won't work).   

I'm not ready to predict Kidd moving Wood to the starting lineup yet (other than tonight maybe).  You can keep two of Luka, SD and Wood on the floor at all times if Wood comes off the bench.  That seems to be the most important thing.  If Wood starts, you probably have to sit SD to be able to play two of them at all times.  I'm not sure SD deserves to come off the bench any more than Wood.  Yeah, you could bench THJ, but starting seems to have unlocked him.  So, what to do?  Since much of Wood's great recent play has come against Eubanks and Love, I'd probably leave well enough alone for now.  With Maxi out, Kidd will get more chances to try Wood against starting bigs like he did against Nurkic last night without necessarily starting Wood.  If it works, take the next step.  With Maxi out, the most interesting thing to me is who finishes.  Two games into this we haven't played a close game, so no idea based on those two games.

[mvossman]

I went back and re-watched sections of the game just now.

There is a five minute window (last 2.5 of the 1st and first 2.5 of the second) where Portland scored 2 points.  This corresponds perfectly to Nurkic subbing out.  As I said last night, Reggie and Frank were working hard.  But, Wood had some big-boy rebounds during that stretch.  In fact there wasn't a single Offensive Rebound by Portland during that five minutes of game time.

The Nurkic minutes in Q1 were positive against both Powell and Wood, but when Nurkic returned in the second he immediately had two turnovers and fouled Wood on the perimeter giving up a 3 point play.  The momentum had already swung as those mistakes were the tail end of a 12-0 Dallas run.  Wood immediately then went on a personal 6-0 run on three offensive possessions to open up a 16 point lead.  The lead fell to 6 as Dallas went cold before Wood came out and Powell finished the half +3.  For the first half, Wood was +0 against Nurkic and +11 against Eubanks.

Dallas bumps the lead by six to 15 against Nurkic before Powell goes out.  Wood is +3 against Nurkic before Nurkic goes out four minutes into the second half with four fouls.  Then Wood hangs a +7 on poor Eubanks as Billups called off the dogs.  Final tally, Wood vs. Nurkic +3 and Wood vs. Eubanks +18.

I watched part of this again wanting to see if I could detect something that explains why the D played so much better with Wood in the game.  It helped that he soaked up so many rebounds.  It helped having two of DFS/Reggie/Frank on anytime Wood was in.  It helped that Nurkic is fairly one dimensional (and Eubanks offered very little).  The other thing I noticed was Luka.  He was guarding Hart and any time Portland put Wood in the PnR and the guard got by him or hit Nurkic on the roll, Luka was there to help aggressively.

Unless Powell misses time and Wood starts, I suspect we'll spill significant ink debating whether Wood should start or not.  Personally, I'd like to just see more of what we saw last night.  I've always thought there was value to having Wood plunder the Drew Eubanks and Kevin Love's of the league.  If Powell or someone like him can just hold their own for 16-20 minutes a game, we can make this work (though I think the Cleveland game taught us that Powell starting in the playoffs still won't work).   

I'm not ready to predict Kidd moving Wood to the starting lineup yet (other than tonight maybe).  You can keep two of Luka, SD and Wood on the floor at all times if Wood comes off the bench.  That seems to be the most important thing.  If Wood starts, you probably have to sit SD to be able to play two of them at all times.  I'm not sure SD deserves to come off the bench any more than Wood.  Yeah, you could bench THJ, but starting seems to have unlocked him.  So, what to do?  Since much of Wood's great recent play has come against Eubanks and Love, I'd probably leave well enough alone for now.  With Maxi out, Kidd will get more chances to try Wood against starting bigs like he did against Nurkic last night without necessarily starting Wood.  If it works, take the next step.  With Maxi out, the most interesting thing to me is who finishes.  Two games into this we haven't played a close game, so no idea based on those two games.

My thought is that we need a legit point of attack defender (Bullock/Green/Frank) on the court at all times.  If putting Timmy in the starting lineup unlocks him, then the only option is to bring Din off the bench.  I agree that Din doesn't "deserve" to come off the bench as he has been one of our best players, but from the standpoint of lineup fit he really makes the most sense as 6th man.

[mvossman]

Interesting change in the way DFS is being used these last two games.  Typically, he plays most if not all of the first and third quarter with Luka then sits the early 2nd/4th.  The last two games, Wood has not only come in as the solo-big, he hasn't had Dorian either.  The next biggest guy on the floor has been Luka.  We survived minutes with Luka, Wood, THJ, Reggie and Frank +3.

Then, when Luka sits and SD is the lone ball handler, Dorian is the four to Wood's five.  That's where the game really blew open.  It was even more obvious this is a thing in the second half as Dorian sat after 4:00 in the third because Wood came in so early after the Powell injury 95 seconds into the quarter.  Once again, we survived +3 minutes with Luka, Wood, THJ, Reggie and Frank.

Something else of note, for two nights in a row, the best two players in terms of D-Rating have been Frank and Wood.  They were the best two players in On/Off vs. Cleveland at +11 and +8 respectively.  Last night it would have been +16 and team leading +19 for Wood if not for Frank losing 5 points in scrub time.  Wood and Frank have played 74 minutes together this season.  O-Rating is 124.3 and the D-Rating is 109.  The Defensive number isn't special, but the offensive number is pretty nice considering Frank isn't thought of as much of an offensive threat.  But, the last two games, that combo has easily been in the 90's defensively and some of that has come alongside known stoppers like Luka and THJ.  The Frank/Wood minutes were +9 in a 20 point loss to Cleveland and +16 in a 20 point win against Portland.

I'm not saying Frank is the new Wood whisperer.  I'm saying he and Reggie have played really hard the last two nights and have made lineups without DFS tolerable and lineups with Dorian, Wood and Spencer really good on the defensive end.

I think it might be the other way around.  I think Wood is kind of the Frank whisperer.  I think his offensive volume and creation makes it easier to have guys like Green, Frank and Bullock on the floor without harming the offense too much, allowing them to contribute on the defensive end.

[KillerLeft]

I think it might be the other way around.  I think Wood is kind of the Frank whisperer.  I think his offensive volume and creation makes it easier to have guys like Green, Frank and Bullock on the floor without harming the offense too much, allowing them to contribute on the defensive end.

It's very likely a combination of both angles mentioned, but this is one of the first acknowledgments I've seen in all of this discussion that offense is that important. When your offense is as ridiculous as the Mavs', I feel pretty strongly that you have to fix that first.

[F Gump]

Whether it should be surprising or not, it is new.  DFS and Luka have played together 770 of the 913 minutes Dorian has played (almost 85%).  So, it is a change of strategy.  

It basically says Powell and Wood are splitting the C minutes and since Dorian can't play 48, there has to be some point in time that someone else plays the four.  So, Kidd is prioritizing putting DFS with SD/Wood over putting him with Luka/Wood.  The interesting thing (or surprising if you insist) is that the team is holding its own during these minutes which have also included well known defensive stud Tim Hardaway Jr.

Wood said postgame that Luka is his second best pairing behind Wood and Maxi (actually Wood/Green is first then Wood/Luka now at 8.1).  But, Wood/SD is -6.1.  Kidd needs to do something to unlock that pairing.  I imagine the change regarding DFS is more about cleaning that up with the expectation that the team can survive the Luka at Point-PF minutes.  W/O Maxi the 5/4 minutes look to be DP/DFS, then Wood/Luka, then Wood/DFS and finally Powell/DFS.  In the first half there were no minutes where Luka, Wood and SD played together.  The next logical discussion will be about starting Wood, but I suspect such a move requires benching SD if you want to always have two of those on the floor at all times.

A couple of notes on the above:
1 My point was that Luka has played point-forward repeatedly. I never suggested it was the primary way he was being used, but only that we need to realize what it is....
2 And therefore, seeing DFS exit as PF, and Luka replace him, shouldn't be regarded as something eye-opening or new.
3 In addition, we have to remember that if Luka is playing even more point-forward for the time being, this is more reactionary rather than a strategic change, as a result of being short-handed at the 4/5 (whereas before they were overstuffed). Previously Luka playing PF was a change of pace, but with a shortage of 4/5 manpower, it's likely to become somewhat of a necessity for a while.

One side note - would Luka stylistically actually be a more effective defender as a PF, rather than trying to guard the perimeter? Extended run with him playing that role might help answer that question, and seems like it has potential to alter how they go forward overall.

[DanSchwartzgan]

 
2 And therefore, seeing DFS exit as PF, and Luka replace him, shouldn't be regarded as something eye-opening or new.
 
One side note - would Luka stylistically actually be a more effective defender as a PF, rather than trying to guard the perimeter? Extended run with him playing that role might help answer that question, and seems like it has potential to alter how they go forward overall.

No one called it eye-opening and it is new as it it hasn't been done.  There have not been lineups until now where two of Powell, Wood, Maxi, McGee and DFS were not on the floor.  It is reactionary.  It has to be done unless you are going to play Wood alongside Powell or McGee.  I was simply pointing out how Kidd chose to do it in the OP...nothing more.

For the most part, Luka guards either the least creative player on the other team or the player the least likely to bring him into a PnR (often the same player).  Quite often that is a three or a four.  When Dorian is in the game, he can guard the best offensive player 2-4 and Luka can guard the worst.  The trick with removing DFS and making Luka the undisputed four is putting some length on the floor so Luka can continue to 'hide' on a lesser player.  Frank's long arms have been helpful in accomplishing this and helped (small sample) the team survive minutes where it was Wood/Luka/THJ/Bullock/Frank.  Again, Kidd didn't have a ton of choices, but it is interesting (at least to me) how he chose to do it.