Round 1 - Game 5 game thread - Mavs at Clippers 9:00pm TNT

[tap2390]

Hats off to Carlisle and those clamoring for Boban/zone defense. We dared their role players to beat us from 3 and they blinked. I’m not especially worried about the dismal fourth quarter, we had lots of great looks that Luka usually hits just rim out. Porzingis with only 6 shots/ 30 minutes but he had the dagger 3.

Just a masterful coaching job by Carlisle. He got destroyed games 3 and 4 and made the proper adjustments. He deserves props, but he also deserves at least some blame for our woes the previous two games.

[turin]

Originally Posted by tap2390

Hats off to Carlisle and those clamoring for Boban/zone defense. We dared their role players to beat us from 3 and they blinked. I’m not especially worried about the dismal fourth quarter, we had lots of great looks that Luka usually hits just rim out. Porzingis with only 6 shots/ 30 minutes but he had the dagger 3.

Just a masterful coaching job by Carlisle. He got destroyed games 3 and 4 and made the proper adjustments. He deserves props, but he also deserves at least some blame for our woes the previous two games.

I'm very happy RC finally made this change. Better late than never. It would've been nice to roll that starting 5 out with the zone during the regular season to get those guys more minutes together, but considering the fact that this was a high stakes, do or die playoff game, I was especially impressed with the group's effectiveness given pretty much no previous playing time together as a group, and none in zone.

[Dallas41]

Originally Posted by tap2390

Hats off to Carlisle and those clamoring for Boban/zone defense. We dared their role players to beat us from 3 and they blinked. I’m not especially worried about the dismal fourth quarter, we had lots of great looks that Luka usually hits just rim out. Porzingis with only 6 shots/ 30 minutes but he had the dagger 3.

Just a masterful coaching job by Carlisle. He got destroyed games 3 and 4 and made the proper adjustments. He deserves props, but he also deserves at least some blame for our woes the previous two games.

MMB Take
The big lineup change was Boban Marjanovic for Maxi Kleber, basically the opposite of my suggestion to match the Clippers small ball with Dorian Finney-Smith at the four. Boban wasn’t even that good — nine points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes — but it was just enough to A.) keep Zubac on the floor longer than the Clippers wanted and B.) coax the Clippers into more threes and just pray to the basketball gods they’d miss, which they mostly did. We still didn’t see much small ball from the Mavericks, as two of Boban, Kristaps Porzingis, Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell were on the floor all night. The Mavericks still lost the rebounding battle but they at least grabbed 11 offensive rebounds, punishing the Clippers small ball more than the previous games.

[tap2390]

Originally Posted by turin

I'm very happy RC finally made this change. Better late than never. It would've been nice to roll that starting 5 out with the zone during the regular season to get those guys more minutes together, but considering the fact that this was a high stakes, do or die playoff game, I was especially impressed with the group's effectiveness given pretty much no previous playing time together as a group, and none in zone.

Originally Posted by Dallas41

MMB Take
The big lineup change was Boban Marjanovic for Maxi Kleber, basically the opposite of my suggestion to match the Clippers small ball with Dorian Finney-Smith at the four. Boban wasn’t even that good — nine points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes — but it was just enough to A.) keep Zubac on the floor longer than the Clippers wanted and B.) coax the Clippers into more threes and just pray to the basketball gods they’d miss, which they mostly did. We still didn’t see much small ball from the Mavericks, as two of Boban, Kristaps Porzingis, Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell were on the floor all night. The Mavericks still lost the rebounding battle but they at least grabbed 11 offensive rebounds, punishing the Clippers small ball more than the previous games.

I honestly thought we would get killed playing the zone because of the Clippers role players' ability to shoot. I was wrong (for at least one game). The zone disrupted PG and Kawhi's midrange game which had been destroying us games 3 and 4. I think we just have to be prepared for the possibility that in game 6 they kill our zone by hitting threes. If that starts to happen it probably means Maxi / WCS/ Powell get more minutes at the expense of KP and Boban.

[Bryan_Wilson]

Yeah Clippers can hit 3's and break the zone but I'd rather lose from that then see PG13 and Kawhi get 50 in the paint effortlessly. Boban may have been the only starter with a negative +- but I thought it at least set a tone that they were not going to beat us inside and I'll take that.

[turin]

Originally Posted by tap2390

I honestly thought we would get killed playing the zone because of the Clippers role players' ability to shoot. I was wrong (for at least one game). The zone disrupted PG and Kawhi's midrange game which had been destroying us games 3 and 4. I think we just have to be prepared for the possibility that in game 6 they kill our zone by hitting threes. If that starts to happen it probably means Maxi / WCS/ Powell get more minutes at the expense of KP and Boban.

Analytics-wise, you come out better giving up 40% 3-pt shooting instead of 70+% 2-pt layups.

I completely agree about the midrange games. I mentioned that in a post Monday.

2 bigs in a zone doesn't guarantee we win the series, but I think it is a more overall effective style of play for us in the playoffs given our roster composition, and it gives us a better chance of winning when shots aren't falling.

We'll see. Go Mavs!

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