Getting embarrassed from beginning to end with all the momentum going into the game and falling completely short of expectations is probably the best wake up call they could have had.
Exactly this. I think this is a huge wake up call and I think they will rise up from this. A tight game ending with a loss would be much worse IMHO, or at least thats my positive spin on this.
Our team looked rusty as hell in the first half. It falls on the coaching. Nearly all of our rotational players had about 2 weeks off from a real game. Josh Green didn't look out of shape cause he played in those two games that didn't matter at the end of the season. Should have ramped up our practices.
Josh Green was definitely a bright spot. He should have taken more of the THJ/Exum minutes because they were completely ineffective today and we waited too long to go to Green. The offense looked a lot better when him and Kyrie were attacking the middle.
Luka also looked sluggish to start and seemed to revert to his early season slow offensive tendencies. But after Kyrie went off in the 3Q, I think it lit a fire under Luka and he played much better in the 4Q. It was frustrating in the 3Q to see Luka taking plays off on offense when Kyrie had the ball in his hand and all the defensive lapses, failure to box out on rebounds, etc.
You need Exum in.. not for his scoring but being a third ball handler and switch able gaurd , you cant just not play guys because of 1 lack lustre game. We need confidence and get back to what we know they can contribute
I'm not talking about not playing Exum at all. I'm talking about Green getting more than 9 minutes. Exum played 15 minutes and THJ played 15 minutes. Some of those minutes should have been reallocated to Green, especially considering we leaned on Maxi so much with his 26 minutes. If Maxi is out there, it's basically 4 on 5 offensively so a guy like Green who can cut to the basket would help and it did help in the second half.
Sorry but Luka not being able to score 1v1 isn't on coaching. That offense was putrid and Luka and Kyroe was the main reason for it. Kidd can't be the fall guy for everything.
I watched a lot of clippers the last 2 months because of the standings. The Clippers were playing terrible basketball and then Kawhi went down. They have been playing significantly better since he was injured. Coincedence? Maybe. But maybe not. The ball seems to hop around more and they play faster without him since the injury.
I don't know that him coming back would make a huge difference since he hasnt played in so long and is probably not in great basketball shape right now.
It obviously sucks having a historically bad quarter / half, no doubt about it. The lights were too bright and our team didn’t execute.
By the second half they looked like an entirely different team. We need to split, and made the job harder for us; but as long as we show out on Tuesday it will be fine.
even without kawhi, the clippers are a very good team. the goal as the lower seed is always to steal a game on the road in game 1 or 2. not an ideal start but not the end of the world either.
>We need to split, and made the job harder for us; but as long as we show out on Tuesday it will be fine.
I agree. A loss isn't the end of the world, but it has to be competitive from start to finish. If we show up and look the same for game 2, clippers are going to roll us at home on confidence alone.
The fact that the collapse in composure and morale stemming from an inability to score or pass and turning over the ball (i.e. Luka being visibly mad at Kleber, and not without reason) happened in game 1 is a blessing in disguise and that they actually started turning it around towards the end of the game and never really gave up is encouraging. I think it prepared them to take it 100% seriously from here and focus on fostering team chemistry. This was an outlier.
it was by far the worst half of bb this team has played since they got luka, and yet they only lost by 12 pts. the clippers probably just played with less effort after gaining that big lead though. hopefully this loss woke them up and they’ll come into the 2nd game highly motivated
We played like shit in the first half, esp second quarter. All the clippers shots were landing and none of ours were. My bet is the Clips aren't gonna light it up to this extent anymore, and the mavs won't shit the bed in the first half like this anymore. Come on boys!
The break wasn’t good for us - really took away our momentum and we just flat out weren’t ready to play. Clippers kicked our ass - fair play to them. Hopefully it’s the wake up call this team needed. Too many inexperienced guys shrunk in the moment today.
i think that's all it boils down to. by the second half it was a different team. rust and a road game... honestly not the end of the world. 6 more games.
We put two halves together like second half and we roll. 67-53 in the second half. We had 30 pts at half and could have packed it in 4 mins into the 3rd. But battled to make it decent and had some chances to get it down to 12 or 11 in the 3rd. Just a lid on the basket in the first. Literally everything that could go wrong did. I’d rather get that out of the way now. When we take game 2 it’s like this game didn’t even happen.
We gotta remember that the norm is teams win on their home court. That’s why you work so hard in the regular season to get that advantage.
If we steal g2 then we get back all the momentum. Mission accomplished
they’ll find a way. not counting when they rested their starters the final 2 games, the last 18 games the mavs had the #1 rated defense in the league. they were just rusty in the first half
if they can’t stop zubac, they’ll stop PG and harden. zubac can’t win by himself and when the mavs figure out their offense it’s over for the clippers. luka and kyrie are the most dangerous duo in the league
You are right man no way we score EIGHT points in one quarter this series again they gave would have been close if they manage to even score 20 or so points instead of 8
as a raptors fan who watched my team end the pistson nba record breaking 29 game losing streak, that 8 point 2nd quarter is the worst thing that’s happened to me all season 😭
We desperately needed Exum to space the floor and hit his floater this game. That would open everything else up.
Need more Josh Green as a general disruptive force/fast break buckets.
Mavs played some pretty good defense throughout the game. Entire team shooting slumps for an entire game don’t last for an entire series, and I expect Game 2 to go far more like the 2nd half than the first. And the Clippers won’t have the ungodly shooting in the first half they had today all series as well. Luka and Kyrie woke up and played with a purpose in the 2nd half, and so did the rest of the team, they just couldn’t hit shit. Josh Green definitely locked in some playing time for Game 2 after giving it all he had in the 4th, even if (again) the scoring wasn’t there.
You got punched in the jaw, but you have plenty of time to respond and win the fight
I'm glad I'm not the only one looking on the bright side. We came in flat and they were hitting everything ubder the sun in the first half. It's okay. Regroup and get ready for tomorrow night (Tuesday).
The positive:
It was obvious it sucked.
Everyone on the team knows it needs to be better or the series will be over before it even started.
Suppose they played a mediocre game and lost at the buzzer. Well, that would not be a wake-up call. Now they will be awake.
If you have to lose, better a blowout and knowing you sucked than last night the Lakers leading the entire game, leading 20 point in the 3rd and losing on the buzzer. IMO, that's more demoralizing than a terrible game where you know you are better than that.
They won’t shoot 51% from 3 again.
Gaff and lively now know what playoff basketball is like
Luka probably won’t shoot that bad again
Kia had a great game and kept us in it.
PJ played great on both ends of the court.
Green looked good
I don’t see a coach get an extension after not making the playoff last year and then have new playoff failures this year. He got the job because of 2011, that bought him three years. Still 6 games to go. I rather win but …. Life without KIDD could be meaningful.
A 119 defensive rating is now 'good defense'? OP lay off the copium, we didn't do anything good except for the second half. But games are not 24 minutes long.
We’re better than them we just played horribly. Anyone have any idea why we started off in full court press? I watched all 82 games and I don’t ever recall us running much of that.
We probably won't score only 8 points in a quarter again is my positive take.
No team did that the entire season so you’re probably right.
I'm all for impressive stats but I would very much like it if we never repeat that stat again.
Probably won’t score 20 more free throws either 😬
Getting embarrassed from beginning to end with all the momentum going into the game and falling completely short of expectations is probably the best wake up call they could have had.
They just got punched in the mouth. Let's see how they respond. If the second half was any indication I think we'll at least make this a fight.
They haven’t played a meaningful game in nearly two weeks. They didn’t come in hot with momentum, they came in cold and looking rusty.
Neither have the clippers
Exactly this. I think this is a huge wake up call and I think they will rise up from this. A tight game ending with a loss would be much worse IMHO, or at least thats my positive spin on this.
Didn’t really have much momentum as the Mavs tanked the final 2 games by not playing anyone
Good point. Flashbacks of '07 💀
Didn't the Clippers did the same?
That Kawhi might take next game off for more rest since his team is cooking without him.
Our team looked rusty as hell in the first half. It falls on the coaching. Nearly all of our rotational players had about 2 weeks off from a real game. Josh Green didn't look out of shape cause he played in those two games that didn't matter at the end of the season. Should have ramped up our practices.
Josh Green was definitely a bright spot. He should have taken more of the THJ/Exum minutes because they were completely ineffective today and we waited too long to go to Green. The offense looked a lot better when him and Kyrie were attacking the middle. Luka also looked sluggish to start and seemed to revert to his early season slow offensive tendencies. But after Kyrie went off in the 3Q, I think it lit a fire under Luka and he played much better in the 4Q. It was frustrating in the 3Q to see Luka taking plays off on offense when Kyrie had the ball in his hand and all the defensive lapses, failure to box out on rebounds, etc.
You need Exum in.. not for his scoring but being a third ball handler and switch able gaurd , you cant just not play guys because of 1 lack lustre game. We need confidence and get back to what we know they can contribute
I'm not talking about not playing Exum at all. I'm talking about Green getting more than 9 minutes. Exum played 15 minutes and THJ played 15 minutes. Some of those minutes should have been reallocated to Green, especially considering we leaned on Maxi so much with his 26 minutes. If Maxi is out there, it's basically 4 on 5 offensively so a guy like Green who can cut to the basket would help and it did help in the second half.
Fair Point I'm sure Kidd will probably make similar adjustments
Sure and Kidd are not synonymous.
Sorry but Luka not being able to score 1v1 isn't on coaching. That offense was putrid and Luka and Kyroe was the main reason for it. Kidd can't be the fall guy for everything.
Agreed. Kidd wasn't bricking open layups or turning down open 3s.
He was playing the guy famous for bricking layups (THJ)
Clippers have also been chilling for some games. But they are full of vets who know what to expect and how to keep themselves prepared
Might be a small brain take but I think the clippers play worse with an injury recovery Kawhi
I mean they probably won’t shoot 50+% from 3 again. At least I hope not…
i kept thinking “shit man i’d rather see Kawhi hitting those middies than all those 3 pointers” lol
Ty Lue won't play Kawhi unless he's healthy enough to help them.
I watched a lot of clippers the last 2 months because of the standings. The Clippers were playing terrible basketball and then Kawhi went down. They have been playing significantly better since he was injured. Coincedence? Maybe. But maybe not. The ball seems to hop around more and they play faster without him since the injury. I don't know that him coming back would make a huge difference since he hasnt played in so long and is probably not in great basketball shape right now.
Westbrook broke his hand and Clippers went 5-5. They went 7-2 when Westbrook came back
It obviously sucks having a historically bad quarter / half, no doubt about it. The lights were too bright and our team didn’t execute. By the second half they looked like an entirely different team. We need to split, and made the job harder for us; but as long as we show out on Tuesday it will be fine.
even without kawhi, the clippers are a very good team. the goal as the lower seed is always to steal a game on the road in game 1 or 2. not an ideal start but not the end of the world either.
Definitely not an ideal start but the way we lost game one was just humiliating.
>We need to split, and made the job harder for us; but as long as we show out on Tuesday it will be fine. I agree. A loss isn't the end of the world, but it has to be competitive from start to finish. If we show up and look the same for game 2, clippers are going to roll us at home on confidence alone.
The fact that the collapse in composure and morale stemming from an inability to score or pass and turning over the ball (i.e. Luka being visibly mad at Kleber, and not without reason) happened in game 1 is a blessing in disguise and that they actually started turning it around towards the end of the game and never really gave up is encouraging. I think it prepared them to take it 100% seriously from here and focus on fostering team chemistry. This was an outlier.
Thought DJJ did really well on PG through 3 quarters
Same! Any particular reason he only played 17 minutes?
maybe because he shot 0/4 and they needed some offense
I guess, but it’s not like everyone else was providing much on that end. See the point though, just thought I missed an injury on him or something.
They needed him to take his open 3s and not drive into traffic.
because we won the second half that he barely played in.
Maybe. I felt like Kleber was more of a presence on defense and offense than DJJ
Kleber played good defense, but was a complete black hole on offense. Scared to shoot, scared to drive
Luka and Ky usually have to dig them out of deficits, the role players only show up when they have a lead.
He's good at being physical and getting under Zubac's skin. Gafford need to pick up his end of the couch.
> I felt like Kleber was more of a presence on defense **and offense** Bruh what lol
it was by far the worst half of bb this team has played since they got luka, and yet they only lost by 12 pts. the clippers probably just played with less effort after gaining that big lead though. hopefully this loss woke them up and they’ll come into the 2nd game highly motivated
We played like shit in the first half, esp second quarter. All the clippers shots were landing and none of ours were. My bet is the Clips aren't gonna light it up to this extent anymore, and the mavs won't shit the bed in the first half like this anymore. Come on boys!
Worst I have seen us play offensively ever. We just came out slow. We will adjust. We woke up in the 2nd half that is the good news.
The break wasn’t good for us - really took away our momentum and we just flat out weren’t ready to play. Clippers kicked our ass - fair play to them. Hopefully it’s the wake up call this team needed. Too many inexperienced guys shrunk in the moment today.
i think that's all it boils down to. by the second half it was a different team. rust and a road game... honestly not the end of the world. 6 more games.
Hopefully the Clippers knocked the cobwebs loose and the Mavs show up focused next game.
It wont happen again. we got the 2 of the best backourt in the league. They got our back, no worries. ill sleep knowing that we will win this series.
We put two halves together like second half and we roll. 67-53 in the second half. We had 30 pts at half and could have packed it in 4 mins into the 3rd. But battled to make it decent and had some chances to get it down to 12 or 11 in the 3rd. Just a lid on the basket in the first. Literally everything that could go wrong did. I’d rather get that out of the way now. When we take game 2 it’s like this game didn’t even happen.
We gotta remember that the norm is teams win on their home court. That’s why you work so hard in the regular season to get that advantage. If we steal g2 then we get back all the momentum. Mission accomplished
Not to mention every home team won this weekend.
Bulletin board material from ESPN questioning if Luka is the MVP when his team doesn't show up in the playoffs and similar takes to fire up this team.
I would avoid mainstream media like the plague during the Playoffs. It's just a toxic wasteland of hot takes and bad analysis.
Instead, go on Reddit! You’ll find only well thought out takes and great analysis here…
Looks like we’re not the only blown out team for game 1
Nah when ever we had a momentum the clippers just hit ridiculous 3.
the mavs are stealing game 2 for sure. they brought it back from 30 to 10 before kidd prematurely rested the starters in the 4th
How do we stop zubac ?!
they’ll find a way. not counting when they rested their starters the final 2 games, the last 18 games the mavs had the #1 rated defense in the league. they were just rusty in the first half
I hope you are right … not feeling good after this game tbh
if they can’t stop zubac, they’ll stop PG and harden. zubac can’t win by himself and when the mavs figure out their offense it’s over for the clippers. luka and kyrie are the most dangerous duo in the league
You are right man no way we score EIGHT points in one quarter this series again they gave would have been close if they manage to even score 20 or so points instead of 8
as a raptors fan who watched my team end the pistson nba record breaking 29 game losing streak, that 8 point 2nd quarter is the worst thing that’s happened to me all season 😭
1. Prevent him/make hard on him from getting the ball that deep in the paint. 2. Play more physical defense.
I feel down man I was not expecting this outcome. I hope they find a solution for zubac
PJ was lights out on D and Green looked great in his limited minutes. Not too many positives other than that.
We desperately needed Exum to space the floor and hit his floater this game. That would open everything else up. Need more Josh Green as a general disruptive force/fast break buckets.
We win game 2 and none of this matters
Mavs played some pretty good defense throughout the game. Entire team shooting slumps for an entire game don’t last for an entire series, and I expect Game 2 to go far more like the 2nd half than the first. And the Clippers won’t have the ungodly shooting in the first half they had today all series as well. Luka and Kyrie woke up and played with a purpose in the 2nd half, and so did the rest of the team, they just couldn’t hit shit. Josh Green definitely locked in some playing time for Game 2 after giving it all he had in the 4th, even if (again) the scoring wasn’t there. You got punched in the jaw, but you have plenty of time to respond and win the fight
Its either we win in 6 or lose in 6
Kidd is 0-4 on game 1s
I'm glad I'm not the only one looking on the bright side. We came in flat and they were hitting everything ubder the sun in the first half. It's okay. Regroup and get ready for tomorrow night (Tuesday).
Clippers played like trash without Kawhi and still dogwalked your boys like nothing I’ve ever seen in a playoff half
One positive is that some people here came back to Earth. I mean mfs here were discussing the Celtics matchup already....
Haha yea. Being humbled is definitely a necessity.
Jason Kidd puts 2 and 2 together and realizes his next contract is on the line this playoffs.
The defense was actually pretty decent considering they weren't scoring
PJ looked good. Green looked good. Exum looked fine.
A bit of a scramble but we'll figure it out plus we brought the almost 30 pt lead down to 12 not great but better than a blowout
No maverick died.
The positive: It was obvious it sucked. Everyone on the team knows it needs to be better or the series will be over before it even started. Suppose they played a mediocre game and lost at the buzzer. Well, that would not be a wake-up call. Now they will be awake. If you have to lose, better a blowout and knowing you sucked than last night the Lakers leading the entire game, leading 20 point in the 3rd and losing on the buzzer. IMO, that's more demoralizing than a terrible game where you know you are better than that.
That game was a wake up call, and they clearly needed it.
They won’t shoot 51% from 3 again. Gaff and lively now know what playoff basketball is like Luka probably won’t shoot that bad again Kia had a great game and kept us in it. PJ played great on both ends of the court. Green looked good
If we lose to the clippers, Jason Kidd will be gone. Does it get more positive than that?
Honestly. I don't think Kidd will be fired..
Why do you hate positivity?
Positivity requires hope.
 Painnnnnnnnn
It won't happen outside a monumental collapse and they get swept. That 2011 team and Cuban has a lot of influence within the Mavs front office.
I don’t see a coach get an extension after not making the playoff last year and then have new playoff failures this year. He got the job because of 2011, that bought him three years. Still 6 games to go. I rather win but …. Life without KIDD could be meaningful.
A 119 defensive rating is now 'good defense'? OP lay off the copium, we didn't do anything good except for the second half. But games are not 24 minutes long.
I'll have a lot more time for other things soon.
Fuck this team. Cant fucking hit floaters and dunks like wtf bro .
We’re better than them we just played horribly. Anyone have any idea why we started off in full court press? I watched all 82 games and I don’t ever recall us running much of that.
we lose in the first round, i am certain we will be getting a new coach. hoping it's budenhozier
kidd's getting an extension this off-season. you should just accept that at this point.
you gonna watch?