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Originally Posted by Melonhead
Pretty decent breakdown of everything we’re saying
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Some of the sites I've visited have also started pointing to Richardson back as starter since Kleber really hasn't done much to slow down KL.
I guess this is worth a shot and we have to hope and pray Richardson turns a switch on
Move Dorian Finney-Smith to the four
This is the easy and obvious answer: match the Clippers small ball. Dallas has started Kleber and Porzingis in the frontcourt in every game, mostly because Kleber seems to be the only option to physically matchup with Kawhi Leonard. About that — Leonard is making basically everything, regardless of Kleber’s level of defense.
So if Kleber can’t slow down Leonard, sizing down to match the Clippers speed of their small ball lineups could maybe help. All season, the Mavericks presumptive “death lineup”, the ace in the hole the Mavericks could go to, would be Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Richardson, Finney-Smith and Porzingis. Especially before the season, the assumption was these were the Mavericks five best players, so getting them all on the floor at the same time could help.
That lineup in the regular season has been bad, due to Richardson’s poor season. In 83 regular season minutes, it’s posted a net-rating of minus-21, according to NBA.com. Perhaps that’s why Rick Carlisle has been hesitant to go with it in this series.
Richardson hasn’t really show enough in these playoff games to change that line of thinking, outside of a great fourth quarter in Game 1, but it might be time to just throw it at the wall and see what sticks. For what it’s worth, that lineup has played three minutes in this playoff series and have outscored the Clippers by seven points in those three minutes.
It’s only three minutes. That’s smaller than a small sample size — but with how this series is trending, it might be worth it. Stick Richardson on Paul George, put Finney-Smith on Leonard and just hope that is enough to at least temper the effectiveness of the Clippers small ball havoc. With how the Mavericks have played on offense for three out of the four games, a little defensive improvement can go a long way.
This is why you traded for a player like Richardson. It might be time to try it out.