Clippers Game I Cancunie

[Scott41theMavs]

Who very obviously preferred vacation to playing in the second round?

[MarkAguirreWrathofGod]

This is great. Scott4Mavs may be my soulmate. Changed my vote like 5 times.

[Smitty]

THJ clearly can’t play basketball at an NBA level anymore. He wasn’t the reason for the loss or anything but I much preferred the Green minutes to Timmy’s. I hope Kidd makes that adjustment at a minimum for game 2 and we see more Green and zero Tim.

[Jakeospikez]

The THJ minutes were pretty standard from what we've seen the past few months, constantly getting attacked on defense. The much bigger surprise was Gafford's game. If he continues to struggle it may open up Lively starting, which may be better long term cause Lively needs to get as much experience as possible to get him up to speed for the future.

[ballsrchr]

Ah...the Cancunie!

Who gets my...Cancunie? My first choice is not on the list. The coach(es) simply didn't have the team ready to play. There were no adjustments to what the Clippers were doing--which for one thing was hit shot after shot. And the Mavs weren't ready to play. I think they were expecting the Clippers to roll over and die. Not the case...as we saw.

But I must choose one.

It is close, but I'm going to give it to--THJ. He can't be depended on to play consistently--good.

Josh green would be a better choice off the bench than THJ.

Now I feel all kind of dirty and grimy for making a choice in the "Inaugural Cancunie Awards." But...why not?

[MrGoat]

Josh Green not getting minutes in the first half was Kidd's fault. So my vote goes to Gafford who fell most below expectations, pathetic game 1 performance that set a bad tone for us early and now we're all of a sudden back at the part of the season where Kidd didn't even want to play him and put Maxi in to compensate and we struggled.

Refs were bad in that game too but that 2nd quarter was just unacceptable. It's only game 1 though, but they had better come out better than that in game 2

[SleepingHero]

The Cancunie is amazing.

Gafford for me. He just couldn't cut it. No energy the whole game. Zubac abused him. It was pretty shocking seeing him get absolutely manhandled.

Luka had a bad game by his standards as the choices he was making just didn't make sense. But he still came alive in the 2nd half.

[Halfnir]

This time I'll give Gafford the benefit of playing his first playoff game plus being affected by his ankle incident. He has to rise to the occation in game 2. Also interesting, Gafford was only -1 in the first half, the meltdown happened after he left the game after his second foul in Q1 and then he played only one more minute in Q2 due to his injury happening. He was team worst -7 when returning in the second half though.

Timmy, however, should know what is expected in a playoff game and failed. -> Cancunie for him. 

However, picking anyone from a team that collectively shot 22% on FG and 11% on 3pt in the first half is a bit unfair.

[omahen]

Several things happened that sealed this game very early.

1. Clippers came very well prepared. They forced their style of play and Mavs didn't really have an answer before getting behind too much to make a difference. Clippers managed to force a very slow paced game which suits them more. Took away Mavs transition offense, but that was also result of hitting tough shots. They were able to adequately punish Mavs defensive scheme that relies on guards/wings leading their guy towards the helping center in the paint. Harden was able to pass to open guys or offensive rebound happened. On the defensive side, they took away Mavs PnR by aggresively helping in the paint (Mavs stars not hitting their shots really helped). In general, I thought Mavs defense was mostly good and they did fight. Clippers made some tough shots. I just thought that perhaps they overhelped a couple of times and Clippers took advantage.
2. Clippers stars made their shots in the first half and Mavs ones didn't. Luka and Kyrie combined were 5-19 (1-10 from three) for a total of 17 points. Harden had 20 by himself, George added 5. Westbrook and Zubac were in double figures, Mavs second and third scorer (Kai and PJ) had 6.
3. In such a slow paced game stupid mistakes are a huge cost. THJ and centers were the main culprints here. Blown fastbreak, blown easy layups and alley-oops. Combine that with indecisive Maxi who looked like deer in headlights on the offensive end and general inability to hit a shot. Limitations of Mavs role players really showed. Not sure why, but everyone looked "scared" or without confidence. Clippers have offensively much more capable guys behind their stars (Westbrook, Powell).

[fifteenth]

I know THJ is the whipping boy. But I don't think he carries enough responsibility to take this L. If you get doubled up in points in the first half, you can't pin it on the 7th - 9th man.

I'd say this was a group effort first half disaster that they couldn't dig out of. A group Cancunie.

[The Jom]

Luka. By a mile. I’m watching the replay as I write this. Every time he switches onto Harden (which is often), Clippers score. Every time. Usually a wide open 3.

Luka has to be the best player on the court for the Mavs to win. First team All NBA every year. MVP candidate. And outplayed by old, fat Harden.

Good experience if it causes us to grow. But right now it looks like we’re shrinking.

[GATA]

Irving. Guy is an absolute sieve on defense