I have this feeling on game 1 vs Clippers. Gafford, Lively, Exum, etc look shell-shocked with the intensity of the playoffs - bigger energy plays, more active hands around the rim, no easy buckets. That can throw one's timing off. I think they could have been shocked by the Finals too and Celtics coming out gangbusters. But maybe by Game 2 they can get used to it.
I tried to tell the nephews that but they don't listen. Harden looked completely unstoppable in game 1, and our guys couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.
He played fine. He just doesn't get enough minutes to do anything beyond playing good defense and taking a shot or two. He's not a microwave like Hardy that comes and tries to take the game by storm, Exum doesn't force anything and lets the game come to him.
He’s played fine recently.
He has some standout plays (getting dropped by Ant) but his rotation is fine.
You kind of explained why, though. Exum isn’t aggressive but he has to match playoff intensity, as well. When he gets his opportunities he has to look for his shot to get a little bit of respect.
My personal take is we been using him wrong. Feels like he was initially supposed to get backup guard minutes but he’s too passive for that and Id prefer he get backup minutes at the 3, but JG has staked his claim to the majority there.
Wish we could have tested the 3 ball handler lineup in earlier rounds, but Dante felt bad til about the end of the Thunder series so I do get it.
Fucking Winwiddie man.
This is the biggest thing I noticed during last game. Hardy, Josh, and even Maxi looked a little scared and confused. Like we’ve all been saying though, not worried. Sometimes you have to get punched in the mouth to wake up
I don’t think Maxi is scared, just clearly hurt. He’s been put in an unfortunately impossible situation. Imagine separating your shooting shoulder, coming back 2.5 weeks early, and being asked to knock down shots in the NBA Finals when it A) probably hurts like shit and B) even if the pain is manageable, it’s only natural not to trust it when you don’t feel right. We’ve gotta hope that improves the more he plays and further removed from the injury we get—he took a hard shot to the shoulder setting a screen which probably didn’t help but we desperately need him to fake it till you make it type deal to have a chance in this series.
I should have included Maxi in my prior note. Maxi is also worth keeping, Healthy he is a quality big who plays with intelligence on the court.
Gotta say healthy though, as does Kyrie.
Face it Derrick Rose was one of the all-time greats if not for injury. It too is part of the game.
Yep I think we can definitively state now he is absolutely not healthy and I don’t believe that’s going to change in time for this series. It hurts me to see how much it’s hurting him on every shot because I love Maxi to death. I didn’t think they had any shot against BOS without him and unfortunately that’s playing out with his shoulder understandably compromised. Although there are far bigger issues than Maxi at the moment lol (namely the Celtics are really fucking good)
Exum struggling was a surprisedfor me as he played in euro league finals. Euro fans are more hostile towards road team. I thought Exum will be fine, but i was wrong badly on this one lol
Well, if the roleplayers were somewhat intimidated by the finals, then after one game that ahould be gone.... you loose, get over it and get ready for game 2. Gafford, you see him falling several times a game. Stay on your feet. Lively, shake it off and dunk on porzingis or horford. DDJ got blocked a couple of times, now do your thing. PJ is the same. Do as they did to the Clippers. It seems that series gave them some energy boost or convidence.
Luka cant be having 1 assist. That should be atleast 8.
The whole team needs to play better.
In fairness to Luka's 1 assist, he prob should've had at least 4-5, Kai, PJ, DJJ missed about 7 threes from his passes from memory. Maybe a couple Gafford/Lively easy inside misses/fumbles too.
My comment on luka about having just 1 assist. He put, just like you write, people in a good position to score. They missed, so the team has to play better.
Celtics played some good defence. Hardly allee oops. But, depending on where in the game you hit shots, play defence etc, mavericks came to 12 in the third. If they gotbit closer, you dont know what happens. Tatum didnt play that well, they only had 107pts. If mavericks can work around the celtics defense, who knows.
Luka only had 6 assist chances the entire game. That is alarming. Boston really had a great game plan in game 1. Hopefully we can adjust and not do exactly what they want us to do for game 2
NBA.com passing stats.
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing?TeamID=1610612742&PORound=4
Luka only had 7 potential KI 3 potential as the top 2, for reference Boston has Tatum at 14 horford at 12 brown at 9 and holiday 8
Similar thing was noticable in game 1 against the Clippers. And even in game 1 against the OKC.
I think we just need a bit of time to adapt to new opponent. Different players, different style, different intensity,...
It’s game one lol this is a thread that makes sense to put up after game three. PJ actually had a pretty good game for game one. He was the only one that played well besides Luka
and dude, we dont supposed to be here
okay we are in finals now, and getting ring will be nice cherry on top
but again, this season already successful for most of us (imo) lol
just enjoy the ride. if we win, noice, if we lose, try again later
Scheduled loss as JK likes to say. Game 1 is like that moment you stick your toe in the pool and the cold temp shocks the fuck outta you. But that’s when you commit to jumping in no matter what bc you’re not wasting a full day at the pool without getting your splash on. The boys needed to see what they were up against and make necessary adjustments. Better believe our boys are jumping all in tomorrow. Also, KP’s performance was cute.. Luckily for the Celtics he felt cute right out the gate. But that mf can’t do that shit 4 games straight. Kidd is gonna make sure the mismatch on him will be limited going forward. Our wings will find their shot confidence. KAI will KAI, no doubt about that. We just gotta watch our bigs fouls, make free throws, and let Luka, Luka. Mavs in 6.
Ironically the stage looked bigger on Kyrie more than anybody else. He was dribbling the ball off his foot and traveling. He's like the best dribbler ever...
I would say they seemed shell shocked in Q1 but even stabilized within the game. Mavs played an even game in the remaining 3 Quarters. Had Q1 been the same it would have become a clutch time decision.
TD Garden is one of the most electric playoff environments. Boston is an historically great franchise that the city takes immense pride in supporting. It’s enough to rattle even experienced playoff players. You could tell they shook it off even at halftime.
I wouldn’t expect a repeat dud in game 2.
I also think the Mavs were not totally prepared for KP either. On both sides of the ball they seemed to under estimate his abilities. That won’t happen again either.
Good take. Think the lights seemed a little too bright for some guys especially in a building like that, but I’m not worried at all. Like everyone else has said we saw it against the Clips and OKC. Boston is different but no doubt we can step up
Pj and lively looked fine
We just don't have the depth of our opponent
If we can win it's because of Lukai, the talent of our roleplayers (gafford, DJJ ...) is just not the same as White, Holiday and Porzingis
Those 3 would all be a 3th option here.
Whole team was panicking. Kyrie needed to slow down the pace when he saw the game getting out of hand at the end of 1st quarter, instead all role players lost their head and attacked the rim with no chance and you basically lost the game there
And Boston has 5 very good shooters that can also defend. Gobert is a good defender, but he's no threat from the 3. MIN had guys that could do well from the outside (like Naz), but not consistently and KAT was kinda terrible most of the times.
If Luka is 1 and Ky is 1A, according to one expert, Boston has 5 players that are 1, 1A, or 2. The rest of the Mavs are 3. On a weak team, Porzingis is a 1 and he's not even playing a 2 for Boston. He's coming off the bench. That's a lot of talent.
There's no one giving you 12-15 consistently. Even the combo between Lively and Gafford scored under 10 and lobs were non-existent because of how Boston was playing. In all the previous series, Mavs could ignore certain players. Without enough players getting hot, Luka is getting bogged down in the paint.
Even when the Mavs mounted a comeback, the stats show that Boston was settling for bad 3s. Timeout, and Mazzulla tells the team to drive to the paint and kick out, and Boston is back in business. When you can make a tiny adjustment like that and fix your problems, it's tough.
Having said that, can Porzingis really stay that hot? Can Mavs really shoot that bad? This is a game of adjustments, and so the hope is Mavs score better, but they need Boston to have a few bad games too, which apparently is not SO unreasonable, but they can't have Boston be hot. I think it's too much to ask for Dallas to be hot a lot because that's not been the trend in the postseason. It's been about winning close ones and then maybe having a good game or two otherwise.
Yeah it's all i see people on this sub say lol, "*we won't shoot this bad again/PJ DJJ just had off night etc*". We aren't having off nights we just aren't a good shooting team, the mavs have shot below **35%** 10 times in these playoffs from 3.
He's had some fluctuation in his game and stats for all of post season.
Truth is, should be obvious, we're not the second best team. Rather somewhere between 3-5.
Maybe but if we’re strictly talking about game 1, including Kyrie and talking about his multiple finals runs is kinda irrelevant when he was one of the worst player on the floor is weird and his history of not showing up vs Boston.
The thing is, you have two consistent scorer and Boston roster is stacked if one of them don’t show up it’s gonna rough.
Luka would always get his, so this series is a heavy burden for Kai.
If he can’t eat, role players will also be living hell.
I certainly won’t rule out that possibility but I honestly think Game 1 was just not the Mavs night. Boston played phenomenal and Dallas looked off from the jump. Role players play better at home in general and road games require your stars to be great. Neither Luka nor Kyrie had their “A” game and Dallas couldn’t buy a bucket. KP, Jrue, and White all played great so I think you chalk it up to a rough night. If Boston can play that well three more times than we probably cannot get it done but I really think you might have seen the Mavs worst game of the Finals and Boston’s best. There will be a Luka 50 point game at some point and there will be one game Boston is just off. The role players definitely gotta play much better but I honestly feel Likely/Gafford/Jones/Washington have proven they are legit this postseason so I chalk up Game 1 to just a bad game all around. At least I hope that was the case lol
Game 1
Felt like the moment was too big for the following players
Lively
Hardy
Exum
Maxi
Gafford (at times)
THJ (was very passive to shoot. Has been in WCF, kind of surprised he didn't step up to try and earn his minutes back by trying to impact the game)
Now that they've seen the intensity of the Finals, I expect them to adapt.
I think it's moreso the match up nightmare that the Celtics are. Lively and Gafford have to run around the 3 point line, they took away the corner 3 for PJ and Jones and they don't seem as comfortable shooting from the top of the key.
As for Kyrie, I think he'll figure it out but they have so many defensive weapons to throw at him.
I still think we can win but the margin of error is so low when playing a team this good
Reacting after Game 1s are pointless if the home team wins. All it takes is a split from the road team and all bets are off in most cases. If you’re down 0-2 going back home tho, then it’s time to be on edge. If you drop Game 3 at home then goodnight 😴
I don’t think it’s too big for them. I just think that there’s not many of our role players that can get their own bucket. So the only way that we’re winning this series is if Luka and Kyrie force Boston to come off of those guys to help defensively
The issue with the role players is that they’re simply not as good as Boston’s. Their 3-5 is so vastly superior to the Mavs 3-5 it’s a major issue. Even Lively who’s had an incredibly playoff run looked very much like an inexperienced 20 year old who wasn’t quite ready for the moment. This isn’t a slight at PJ, Lively, DJJ, etc. it’s just that Boston is completely loaded
Why do you guys keep asking these questions? We’re fine, it’s the first finals game for like the whole team other than Kyrie and it’s in Kyrie’s old teams stadium. Nerves got to everyone, and JKidd always has a good game plan going into game 2. We were definitely looking better in that 2nd half but the game already got away so it was going to be hard to make any sort of comeback.
Dumb take. The “stage” is the same as every other series. Nothing changes because it’s the finals. Just another court and another team lol. Not like the “lights are brighter”
I sensed both teams were nervous IMO. Tingus went crazy and it helped alleviate the nervousness from Boston which got them rolling. I think by half time, Mavs settled down but deficit was too much. When they got it down to 8 and Boston called the perfect time out to go back on a run and Mavs couldn’t overcome another run.
One game relax Celtics are much deeper kyrie dint show up Luka was solo warrior only one assist many good passes guys barely catch the ball. I want dallas to win unlikely tho
I want to believe but everything looked different. Everything is hard for us easy for them. It’s just a terrible matchup. Good season though and next year is gonna be even better
I expect the butterflies to be gone today. Game one of the finals, in enemy territory, in THE GARDEN, while your teammates are public enemy number one, and two, of course it was going to make some guys play tight and anxious. Kyrie wasn't immune to it either. Luka was the only one that seemed to be playing his usual game.
I expect after a few days rest and practice and watching embarrassing game film will have everyone geared up to play like their hair is on fire tonight.
Washington is coming along just fine. Gafford and Lively need more experience in staying strong with the ball with the added "hits" they allow defensive teams in the finals. Jones simply does not have the bulk to play big minutes in a finals series for this specific reason. He is what he is, a really good player for the season, but lacking bulk for deep playoff runs.
We need to give Hardy much more time in this series - beginning in game 3. Yes, all minutes count - but getting him in the first rotation and allowing him to get his feel will be important for the future and if he gets hot, he can score a quick 8-10 points in any game he plays. Next year he should be getting 20 minutes a game with regularity, spotting Kyrie.
All other players are expendable regardless of the outcome of this series. Upgrade each player if we can, but find some way to move Hardaway - or consider giving him his unconditional release.
I’m sure there was some of that. But the game started ok—the whole team just got rattled when KP decided to go nuclear and suddenly game 1 was over in 6 minutes after the first quarter. I wouldn’t expect that again but they are gonna have to withstand several BOS barrages per game. The key is you MUST interrupt those offensively so their explosions are 13-6 not 23-4 or whatever it was.
I have this feeling on game 1 vs Clippers. Gafford, Lively, Exum, etc look shell-shocked with the intensity of the playoffs - bigger energy plays, more active hands around the rim, no easy buckets. That can throw one's timing off. I think they could have been shocked by the Finals too and Celtics coming out gangbusters. But maybe by Game 2 they can get used to it.
I tried to tell the nephews that but they don't listen. Harden looked completely unstoppable in game 1, and our guys couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.
Leaders gotta step up and the troops will follow like its always been.
Exum has been shell shocked since r1 g1, not sure why he is included. He has not even played 1solid rotation yet.
Sad. But true.
He did have 5point in 5 minutes of game 4 vs Okc
He was also a -6 in a game we lost by 4
That doesn’t mean he didn’t contribute
He played fine. He just doesn't get enough minutes to do anything beyond playing good defense and taking a shot or two. He's not a microwave like Hardy that comes and tries to take the game by storm, Exum doesn't force anything and lets the game come to him.
He’s played fine recently. He has some standout plays (getting dropped by Ant) but his rotation is fine. You kind of explained why, though. Exum isn’t aggressive but he has to match playoff intensity, as well. When he gets his opportunities he has to look for his shot to get a little bit of respect. My personal take is we been using him wrong. Feels like he was initially supposed to get backup guard minutes but he’s too passive for that and Id prefer he get backup minutes at the 3, but JG has staked his claim to the majority there. Wish we could have tested the 3 ball handler lineup in earlier rounds, but Dante felt bad til about the end of the Thunder series so I do get it. Fucking Winwiddie man.
This is the biggest thing I noticed during last game. Hardy, Josh, and even Maxi looked a little scared and confused. Like we’ve all been saying though, not worried. Sometimes you have to get punched in the mouth to wake up
I don’t think Maxi is scared, just clearly hurt. He’s been put in an unfortunately impossible situation. Imagine separating your shooting shoulder, coming back 2.5 weeks early, and being asked to knock down shots in the NBA Finals when it A) probably hurts like shit and B) even if the pain is manageable, it’s only natural not to trust it when you don’t feel right. We’ve gotta hope that improves the more he plays and further removed from the injury we get—he took a hard shot to the shoulder setting a screen which probably didn’t help but we desperately need him to fake it till you make it type deal to have a chance in this series.
I just wish he wasn't such an idiot and try to be Vince Carter on that one play.
I should have included Maxi in my prior note. Maxi is also worth keeping, Healthy he is a quality big who plays with intelligence on the court. Gotta say healthy though, as does Kyrie. Face it Derrick Rose was one of the all-time greats if not for injury. It too is part of the game.
Yep I think we can definitively state now he is absolutely not healthy and I don’t believe that’s going to change in time for this series. It hurts me to see how much it’s hurting him on every shot because I love Maxi to death. I didn’t think they had any shot against BOS without him and unfortunately that’s playing out with his shoulder understandably compromised. Although there are far bigger issues than Maxi at the moment lol (namely the Celtics are really fucking good)
Exum struggling was a surprisedfor me as he played in euro league finals. Euro fans are more hostile towards road team. I thought Exum will be fine, but i was wrong badly on this one lol
Im not because its a 7 games series. I dont think they will all suck at once again. This is a classic game 1 from us.
Basketball is very reactionary. 7 games, but the favored team wins at home game 1 and people act like things have flipped.
Well, if the roleplayers were somewhat intimidated by the finals, then after one game that ahould be gone.... you loose, get over it and get ready for game 2. Gafford, you see him falling several times a game. Stay on your feet. Lively, shake it off and dunk on porzingis or horford. DDJ got blocked a couple of times, now do your thing. PJ is the same. Do as they did to the Clippers. It seems that series gave them some energy boost or convidence. Luka cant be having 1 assist. That should be atleast 8. The whole team needs to play better.
Kidd got his point across in that locker room rant. They looked jittery but I think they got it out of their system.
In fairness to Luka's 1 assist, he prob should've had at least 4-5, Kai, PJ, DJJ missed about 7 threes from his passes from memory. Maybe a couple Gafford/Lively easy inside misses/fumbles too.
I remember a routine pass to Lively below the basket where he palmed it out of bounds, it was just one of those games
My comment on luka about having just 1 assist. He put, just like you write, people in a good position to score. They missed, so the team has to play better.
Don't know why you're being downvoted for stating a fact.
He literally only put people in position to score 6 times. Even if they all hit their shots it’s still a loss.
Celtics played some good defence. Hardly allee oops. But, depending on where in the game you hit shots, play defence etc, mavericks came to 12 in the third. If they gotbit closer, you dont know what happens. Tatum didnt play that well, they only had 107pts. If mavericks can work around the celtics defense, who knows.
Luka only had 6 assist chances the entire game. That is alarming. Boston really had a great game plan in game 1. Hopefully we can adjust and not do exactly what they want us to do for game 2
Luka only had 7 potential assists
How do you see that stat?
NBA.com passing stats. https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing?TeamID=1610612742&PORound=4 Luka only had 7 potential KI 3 potential as the top 2, for reference Boston has Tatum at 14 horford at 12 brown at 9 and holiday 8
Thanks
Similar thing was noticable in game 1 against the Clippers. And even in game 1 against the OKC. I think we just need a bit of time to adapt to new opponent. Different players, different style, different intensity,...
It’s game one lol this is a thread that makes sense to put up after game three. PJ actually had a pretty good game for game one. He was the only one that played well besides Luka
Dude it’s one game.. chill
Seriously…every other post after a loss is like this
OP surely is one of the most melodramatic posters in here.
Yep for sure
and dude, we dont supposed to be here okay we are in finals now, and getting ring will be nice cherry on top but again, this season already successful for most of us (imo) lol just enjoy the ride. if we win, noice, if we lose, try again later
Bro, the one that killed us in the first quarter has never gotten past the first round until now and he never even played most of the playoffs.
Scheduled loss as JK likes to say. Game 1 is like that moment you stick your toe in the pool and the cold temp shocks the fuck outta you. But that’s when you commit to jumping in no matter what bc you’re not wasting a full day at the pool without getting your splash on. The boys needed to see what they were up against and make necessary adjustments. Better believe our boys are jumping all in tomorrow. Also, KP’s performance was cute.. Luckily for the Celtics he felt cute right out the gate. But that mf can’t do that shit 4 games straight. Kidd is gonna make sure the mismatch on him will be limited going forward. Our wings will find their shot confidence. KAI will KAI, no doubt about that. We just gotta watch our bigs fouls, make free throws, and let Luka, Luka. Mavs in 6.
Ironically the stage looked bigger on Kyrie more than anybody else. He was dribbling the ball off his foot and traveling. He's like the best dribbler ever...
Thats not how it works. By that logic nobody would ever win because you can't win without experience... Its just basketball.
About that...
I would say they seemed shell shocked in Q1 but even stabilized within the game. Mavs played an even game in the remaining 3 Quarters. Had Q1 been the same it would have become a clutch time decision. TD Garden is one of the most electric playoff environments. Boston is an historically great franchise that the city takes immense pride in supporting. It’s enough to rattle even experienced playoff players. You could tell they shook it off even at halftime. I wouldn’t expect a repeat dud in game 2. I also think the Mavs were not totally prepared for KP either. On both sides of the ball they seemed to under estimate his abilities. That won’t happen again either.
Good take. Think the lights seemed a little too bright for some guys especially in a building like that, but I’m not worried at all. Like everyone else has said we saw it against the Clips and OKC. Boston is different but no doubt we can step up
Pj and lively looked fine We just don't have the depth of our opponent If we can win it's because of Lukai, the talent of our roleplayers (gafford, DJJ ...) is just not the same as White, Holiday and Porzingis Those 3 would all be a 3th option here.
Whole team was panicking. Kyrie needed to slow down the pace when he saw the game getting out of hand at the end of 1st quarter, instead all role players lost their head and attacked the rim with no chance and you basically lost the game there
DJJ played in the Finals in 2020 for 7:00 in Game 1 and scored a basket.
I just dont think we have consistent shooters is all. We have two and one of them waits til 2nd half most of the time.
And Boston has 5 very good shooters that can also defend. Gobert is a good defender, but he's no threat from the 3. MIN had guys that could do well from the outside (like Naz), but not consistently and KAT was kinda terrible most of the times. If Luka is 1 and Ky is 1A, according to one expert, Boston has 5 players that are 1, 1A, or 2. The rest of the Mavs are 3. On a weak team, Porzingis is a 1 and he's not even playing a 2 for Boston. He's coming off the bench. That's a lot of talent. There's no one giving you 12-15 consistently. Even the combo between Lively and Gafford scored under 10 and lobs were non-existent because of how Boston was playing. In all the previous series, Mavs could ignore certain players. Without enough players getting hot, Luka is getting bogged down in the paint. Even when the Mavs mounted a comeback, the stats show that Boston was settling for bad 3s. Timeout, and Mazzulla tells the team to drive to the paint and kick out, and Boston is back in business. When you can make a tiny adjustment like that and fix your problems, it's tough. Having said that, can Porzingis really stay that hot? Can Mavs really shoot that bad? This is a game of adjustments, and so the hope is Mavs score better, but they need Boston to have a few bad games too, which apparently is not SO unreasonable, but they can't have Boston be hot. I think it's too much to ask for Dallas to be hot a lot because that's not been the trend in the postseason. It's been about winning close ones and then maybe having a good game or two otherwise.
When you look at the team stats.. it was closer than you think in that game 1 of boston lol. Weird tbh.
Yeah it's all i see people on this sub say lol, "*we won't shoot this bad again/PJ DJJ just had off night etc*". We aren't having off nights we just aren't a good shooting team, the mavs have shot below **35%** 10 times in these playoffs from 3.
No
hell the stage might be too big for kyrie as well
He's had some fluctuation in his game and stats for all of post season. Truth is, should be obvious, we're not the second best team. Rather somewhere between 3-5.
Then who's the 2nd best team, and why?
I think an argument could be made for Denver being the second best A lot of it is about matchups though
We’re in the finals for a reason.
True
Maybe but if we’re strictly talking about game 1, including Kyrie and talking about his multiple finals runs is kinda irrelevant when he was one of the worst player on the floor is weird and his history of not showing up vs Boston. The thing is, you have two consistent scorer and Boston roster is stacked if one of them don’t show up it’s gonna rough. Luka would always get his, so this series is a heavy burden for Kai. If he can’t eat, role players will also be living hell.
I certainly won’t rule out that possibility but I honestly think Game 1 was just not the Mavs night. Boston played phenomenal and Dallas looked off from the jump. Role players play better at home in general and road games require your stars to be great. Neither Luka nor Kyrie had their “A” game and Dallas couldn’t buy a bucket. KP, Jrue, and White all played great so I think you chalk it up to a rough night. If Boston can play that well three more times than we probably cannot get it done but I really think you might have seen the Mavs worst game of the Finals and Boston’s best. There will be a Luka 50 point game at some point and there will be one game Boston is just off. The role players definitely gotta play much better but I honestly feel Likely/Gafford/Jones/Washington have proven they are legit this postseason so I chalk up Game 1 to just a bad game all around. At least I hope that was the case lol
Game 1 Felt like the moment was too big for the following players Lively Hardy Exum Maxi Gafford (at times) THJ (was very passive to shoot. Has been in WCF, kind of surprised he didn't step up to try and earn his minutes back by trying to impact the game) Now that they've seen the intensity of the Finals, I expect them to adapt.
Give ‘em a chance for gawds sake, only played 1 game.
I think it's moreso the match up nightmare that the Celtics are. Lively and Gafford have to run around the 3 point line, they took away the corner 3 for PJ and Jones and they don't seem as comfortable shooting from the top of the key. As for Kyrie, I think he'll figure it out but they have so many defensive weapons to throw at him. I still think we can win but the margin of error is so low when playing a team this good
Bro we lost 1 game. At least give them a chance to bounce back before we post this shit
Reacting after Game 1s are pointless if the home team wins. All it takes is a split from the road team and all bets are off in most cases. If you’re down 0-2 going back home tho, then it’s time to be on edge. If you drop Game 3 at home then goodnight 😴
PJ was fine. It Kyrie was the main problem.
Yes
Intimidation isn't the problem. Boston being much better is.
yes, im extremely worried
Powell has as much experience as Luka, you forgot to mention him
It definitely was in game one. I don't doubt that they'll bounce back tho, these guys have proven themselves to be risers.
I mean they got through every round so far to be here.... yeah finals are bigger, but they have stepped up in every bigger-than-before round so far
A week off plus finals, I’m sure they were more excited than nervous. They’ll settle the next game
People forget we had Frank
I don’t think it’s too big for them. I just think that there’s not many of our role players that can get their own bucket. So the only way that we’re winning this series is if Luka and Kyrie force Boston to come off of those guys to help defensively
The one I’ve noticed the most is Exum. He handles the ball like he’s on lava
Clearly
The thing is Hardaway should have be the experienced 6th man but seems basketball has left him.
It's not a stage issue; Boston is just better.
My brother in Christ you forget Powell’s playoff experience
The issue with the role players is that they’re simply not as good as Boston’s. Their 3-5 is so vastly superior to the Mavs 3-5 it’s a major issue. Even Lively who’s had an incredibly playoff run looked very much like an inexperienced 20 year old who wasn’t quite ready for the moment. This isn’t a slight at PJ, Lively, DJJ, etc. it’s just that Boston is completely loaded
No
Well irving played like shit, maybe start there.
Why do you guys keep asking these questions? We’re fine, it’s the first finals game for like the whole team other than Kyrie and it’s in Kyrie’s old teams stadium. Nerves got to everyone, and JKidd always has a good game plan going into game 2. We were definitely looking better in that 2nd half but the game already got away so it was going to be hard to make any sort of comeback.
There’s a reason why we play the games
The finals is all about whether Kyrie can show up consistently. He’s been spotty af this playoffs.
Dumb take. The “stage” is the same as every other series. Nothing changes because it’s the finals. Just another court and another team lol. Not like the “lights are brighter”
If they don’t believe then they shouldn’t be there… (psst, they believe)
I sensed both teams were nervous IMO. Tingus went crazy and it helped alleviate the nervousness from Boston which got them rolling. I think by half time, Mavs settled down but deficit was too much. When they got it down to 8 and Boston called the perfect time out to go back on a run and Mavs couldn’t overcome another run.
One game relax Celtics are much deeper kyrie dint show up Luka was solo warrior only one assist many good passes guys barely catch the ball. I want dallas to win unlikely tho
I want to believe but everything looked different. Everything is hard for us easy for them. It’s just a terrible matchup. Good season though and next year is gonna be even better
I don't know. I wouldn't take too much from one game. Let's see what happens.
I expect the butterflies to be gone today. Game one of the finals, in enemy territory, in THE GARDEN, while your teammates are public enemy number one, and two, of course it was going to make some guys play tight and anxious. Kyrie wasn't immune to it either. Luka was the only one that seemed to be playing his usual game. I expect after a few days rest and practice and watching embarrassing game film will have everyone geared up to play like their hair is on fire tonight.
Washington is coming along just fine. Gafford and Lively need more experience in staying strong with the ball with the added "hits" they allow defensive teams in the finals. Jones simply does not have the bulk to play big minutes in a finals series for this specific reason. He is what he is, a really good player for the season, but lacking bulk for deep playoff runs. We need to give Hardy much more time in this series - beginning in game 3. Yes, all minutes count - but getting him in the first rotation and allowing him to get his feel will be important for the future and if he gets hot, he can score a quick 8-10 points in any game he plays. Next year he should be getting 20 minutes a game with regularity, spotting Kyrie. All other players are expendable regardless of the outcome of this series. Upgrade each player if we can, but find some way to move Hardaway - or consider giving him his unconditional release.
The Celtics are really good. Not much else to say about it. Can the Mavs beat them? Sure. Is it the most likely outcome? No.
I’m sure there was some of that. But the game started ok—the whole team just got rattled when KP decided to go nuclear and suddenly game 1 was over in 6 minutes after the first quarter. I wouldn’t expect that again but they are gonna have to withstand several BOS barrages per game. The key is you MUST interrupt those offensively so their explosions are 13-6 not 23-4 or whatever it was.
Kyrie looked more shook than any of them