Mavericks vs Warriors: Luka and Dallas take on Steph Curry and Golden State

Mavericks vs Warriors: Luka and Dallas take on Steph Curry and Golden State

N [Applause] hey hello it is Josh Bo from money.com and co-host of pod Maverick we’re here with pod Maverick after dark uh I’m here with Matt Gilroy a longtime staff for Ms Moneyball um who’s been with us for a while hasn’t I think this is his first video postgame podcast

So Matt thanks for hopping on man of course Help win it all it was in a good mood oh yeah for sure and we got the we’re a little late because uh we are also Cowboys fans and there’s a Cowboys game and we were like okay it’s almost over and then we

Thought it might go to overtime and then it took a million plays no one would have watched this until the game was over anyway so we’re just doing what everyone else is doing right so uh so we’re here though we’re here uh Kirk’s getting the another night off because he

Has a newborn and he’s allowed to take as many nights off as he wants or needs so um I expect him to maybe be back for for whenever our next show or maybe not we’ll see most of the Maverick’s roster right just you know it’s day to day exactly

Yeah he’s day today for sure uh okay so Mavericks beat the Warriors 132 122 uh on the road which is important because the warriors uh I mean they’re nine and eight now but I think they they had they won like eight out of their last n yeah

There was a at the start of that game where they yeah their their current kind of run at home has been very very strong so it’s a good good win yeah for sure so uh to be honest all the my immediate thoughts were I actually thought Dallas

Commanded the game more maybe than the final score indicated I know they ended up winning by 10 but I really felt like I mean there was no point in the game where I thought they were going to lose um which maybe is me being a little more

Optimistic when the Warriors cut it to five with about 247 left in the game but I don’t know the Mavericks just kind of had the Warriors number I felt like offensively like they kind of got whatever shot they wanted the only time the Warriors made runs was when there

Were some you know maybe some bad mistakes turnovers but otherwise the Warriors they could not guard the Mavericks and the Mavericks couldn’t really guard the Warriors but the Warriors do this thing where they have these like brain melting turnovers at like the most inopportune time and I

Turns in the game but yeah the ones they did have were like right like crushing like you know in terms of like right after they making a run or right you know trying to pull close yeah the the one turn of it six out I don’t know if

You remember it is um in the I think it was in the I think it was in the second quarter yeah the Mavericks were up I think 36 33 and the warriors were making like a push and Klay got like a run out and instead of like just laying it up in

A two-on-one he tried to like do a midair tap One Tap like alyo pass to uh to his running mate which was I think uh Pensky who is like another guard and it was immediately picked off by exm and I was like that is like one of the stupidest turnovers I’ve ever

Seen from like an NBA you know a longtime NBA Allstar and then after that the Mavericks kind of like ran away with the game for the most part yeah it was not his night in like any facet of the game so oh my God I’m just now seeing he

Shot one of 11 at points W that’s crazy so what kind of you know that’s kind of my immediate thoughts from the game what were yours yeah I mean just kind of as I was watching like the thing that I kep think is like it’s like the most

Competent win of the Season like yeah just because like you know it’s the Warriors they can score points at any point so like you know of course they’re going to make run Seth Curry can make threes you know better than anyone in the league so like yeah like they you

Know they can get it close at any any kind of point in the game you can turn it on and flip the switch but um yeah it’s like every time the Warriors would would make a push to get it close it was just like Mavericks would kind of squash

It call it timeout which has been good to from Jason kid to kind of reset that momentum and and get the team kind of back back in line and and get a good offensive play in so um yeah I mean and it was kind of one of those games where

Like everybody pitched in um as I was watching I was like oh man look at you know all these guys are scoring like LC is getting all this help he doesn’t even have to have a great game and I he still had 39 points so there like the quietest

39 points of his career I think but um he played a great game I mean Derek lley had another double double um exom is great um and then I mean the big kind of thing was was H the big kind of Josh Green reemergence was great to see from

Him so yeah I mean everybody played pretty darn well and it was just kind of great team win and uh yeah yeah I mean the Mavericks shot I mean they shot 55.7 from the field they shot 40% from three and 82% at the free throw line like that’s a very good

Offensive night they made 16 they win most of those games if they they can pull that off exactly they hit 16 threes they still score even though they shot a bunch of Threes uh they still scored 44 points in the paint which isn’t a ton but when they were shoot when you shoot

43s um that’s not that’s not too bad uh Luca like you said was great and like his scoring was pretty quiet despite having 39 I thought thought this was like really impressive Luka game just in terms of he controlled this game from to final buzzer like he pretty much did

Whatever he wanted and the Warriors threw a bunch of different coverages on him I think kaminga started the game like face guarding him off the ball so that he couldn’t get easy handoffs um that didn’t really work because the Mavericks kind of like played four on

Four with like kaminga out of the play and kaminga is like a really athletic defensive player for the Warriors so it kind of made it things easier uh then when the war when he Luka got the ball and the Warriors switched Luca either made a step back three or like a little

Mid-range jumper if they didn’t switch and they doubled he passed it around and someone either made a three or got a dunk like it was I felt like the Warriors basically tried to do every type of defensive coverage and Luca pretty much beat all of them like it

Never felt like he I mean it didn’t even look like he I know obviously he did but it was one of those games where like he didn’t even break a sweat it felt like well I mean looking at it’s like he did all that like and played like you know

He played a lot he played a full game but he played you know like normal rotation minutes he played just under 38 minutes it wasn’t like he had to go out there and play you know 45 minutes or whatever in a panic to try to like you

Know win or like you know he was the only one out there doing something so he you know he played his minutes he played his normal rotation played well um yeah never we we never really had to like kind of deviate from kind of the game

Plan it seemed like yeah and I think the MAV I mean I don’t know if they won all minutes luuka was on the bench but they they played pretty well with him on the like on the bench like the Warriors didn’t go on a ton of huge runs with him

On the bench um Grant Williams like showing a pulse 10 points made all of his shots made two threes that certainly helped and then like you said we got to get to Josh Green who was probably the second most important player of the game

Uh even though you know he had 18 XM had 19 but his his scoring was just kind of like kind of came out of nowhere I think he had man I mean he only made two shots in his last two games which were his first two games back after like three

Weeks out yeah he scored four points total in about 30 36 minutes of play in the last two games and then he scores 18 in 25 minutes six of eight from the four three or four from three had a really awesome uh dunk after made basket that

Was like where where has that been like have and and like Josh has been struggling like it’s not just those two games he came back he hasn’t really played all that well this entire season defensively he’s shown some drop offs he hasn’t been as assertive on the

Offensive end of the floor he was very aggressive yeah I maybe I mean it’s such a weird thing because like an elbow injury is not like a common NBA injury but maybe it really was bothering him or some or maybe he’s finally right for the first time this season but yeah I mean

If he can play like that the rest of the season that’d be a huge boost so and yeah that I mean that Ren out dunk that he had especially I think it was came after like a big Steph Curry 3 kind of was like you just like we were talking

About like as soon as you know the crowd got into it and seemed like they were going to do something like that was immediate response so great yeah Mavs had I guess that counts as a fast break point even though it was a made basket yeah the Mavs had 23 fast break

Points which is I mean that’s kind of this also like besides Luca being incredible and these role players stepping up and Lively being awesome like the fast break has been been really good for them um and then yeah other guys stepped up exom Lively Lively was really good we probably need to shout

Out Lively before we talk about anyone else 12 and 14 The Warriors had a ton of offensive rebounds they had 16 so you know it’s probably like well you know shouldn’t Lively help more there but like he was really kind of like a man on

An island I felt like yeah in the paint and at the rim and I think he did a really good job even if the Warriors did get offive rebound he did really good job contesting he had zero blocks but he was a big factor in the Warriors not

Really scoring at the Rim Aon the War I mean the the box score I think the way the Warriors track shots is a little funky because it says the Mavericks had six shots in the restricted area and 24 Shots in the paint but outside the restricted area that feels like a lot U

So it feels like they might be tracking it the tracking might be a little different there but still uh the warrior shot eight of 14 um in the restricted area which is a really good like that’s 57% League a average is about 66 and that was like all Lively and I thought

Did a really good job in the P yeah and I mean the board SE grab especially D stretch when the warriors were kind of making their their last push it seemed like he was grabbing everything like they weren’t getting a ton of Second Chance points in the fourth quarter so

Um yeah just like you know contributing to that kind of thing we’re like you know yeah got a little close you know ESP those in the fourth um when I think Steph a three and then Chris Paul got that steel off Lively which is kind of

His only bad play of the night um and then he went down and hit a three so other than that I mean it was a great it was a great uh great game and the other thing from my way is like I just I I kept noticing like

Whenever he catches the ball kind of like at the at the free throw line like when Luka getes it to him he’s so good at either just like if he if he can turn and make a make a basket he he’s so efficient in the paint or he’ll always

Just just quickly makes the right pass to something I think he only had one assist you know like direct assist tonight but seemed like every time he caught it there he he was scoring with it or he was making the right passes to someone out and the ball was you know

Moving around and someone was going to get a good shot so um I like that decisioning from him as well yeah uh I think that’s got to be I mean there are a lot of things that are surprising me about Lively because like I’ll be honest

You know I’m not a college tape grinder and I kind of just rely on what all the other draft experts were saying who watched a lot more of him in high school and college than I did um the his abil like you said his ability to make those plays when Luka

Gets doubled in the middle of the flooor whether he’s catching at the free throw line or sometimes like L he kind of like sags all the way to the rim and Luka will just hit him yeah from the top of the three-point line to like right in

Front of the restricted area and he’ll just toss in a little jump hook which is also like impressive like because I thought he was basically purely like a dunks and layups guy like his ability to like catch the ball with a man on his back or on his hip and just turn around

And have the touch to to score to finish the play like that’s impressive like his ility to catch the ball near the free throw line and take like one hard power dribble that is stuff that I’m like I had no idea he could even do that and he

Wasn’t even doing that like the first two weeks of the season and it’s just like prog like his progression is just nuts like it feels like every game he’s like adding something a little bit new to his game or he’s just like improving upon something that maybe didn’t work

Too well the last game yeah like it’s pretty crazy um how well he is like he made both two out of his three free throws also which he hasn’t been great at the free throw line which which is nice like he’s just I don’t know I it feels like the

Sky the limit with him and yeah it seems like I mean there’s a lot of like kind of like especially when he’s playing so well like kind of see like who we’re trying to at least a little bit trying to temper expectations about you know like here’s you know how impactful a

Rookie can be in this first season and things like that here’s you know don’t here’s here’s the rookies who have had you know big big roles on playoff teams and he’s just like he’s like you know playing up to every every conceivable expectation anyone that Happ him in his

Rookie year yeah for sure and I think it also helped like Looney hasn’t been that good um for the Warriors this year he’s kind of falling off so they start the uh they start their rookie their second round rookie uh Trace Jackson J Davis who’s pretty good player like he played

He played pretty well he had 17 and six But like after Lively had to go against uh Jared Allen and then brudy goar in back-to-back games like going against Jackson Davis and Looney like a diminished Looney like that must have been ni he just he was not getting his

Ass whipped in the paint consistent as consistently as those two games because he was just playing against different players which hey you can only play who’s in front of you so it was nice to see him rebound uh against a team that’s not as as beefy in the paint as the last

Two teams they played so that was cool especially because I think the the Mavs organization there like a collective trauma about Kaman ly you know running all over them in the playoffs it’s good they they can finally feel like they have a guy who can who can handle Kon Looney playoff playoff

Looney that’s crazy yeah because it feels like yeah Looney has been like their ghost for like the last two years so that’s pretty good um we’re about 15 minutes in so I’m going to take a little moment to remind everyone that’s watching the live stream on YouTube uh

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Alternative podcast app outside of Apple we’ll do our best for those of you on the YouTube live show we’re going to just take a quick pause so that I can sneak in an ad break for our Audio Only listeners so audio only people uh you’ll

Be hearing an ad break in just a moment uh YouTube people stick around uh we’ll be right back after this break okay we’re back we Mavericks beat the Warriors 132 122 really fun game we talked about Luca we talked about Josh Green we talked about Lively I think we just talked

About how well I think the played Matt you said this felt like kind of one of their more what’ you say like more most competent like everyone did what they were supposed to do everyone played I think there was a uh there was a Mavs PR

Tweet that went out that was like when either green or XM scores 15 points to match are like seven and one and they both scored scored over to so it’s like it’s like that’s the kind of thing that we’ve been asking for for years like

Just it seems like you know LCA is gonna get his points if we have one other guy Kyrie theoretically is that guy now who’s gonna you know always gonna be there but then you should have one other guy it’s Tim if it’s exom if it’s it’s

Green you know one other guy who really kind of has a big game and steps up in a big way and tonight there was a lot of guys I think there were like six six guys in double digits um exom played as good a defense as he can on step um so

It was just a great team effort um Luca did luuka things and everyone else did what they needed to do yeah yeah competent that’s such a good word like Mavericks only had nine turnovers Luka had four of them which is fine because he has the ball like every single play

So the fact that like no and no other Maverick had more than one so like considering how much the Warriors tried to get the ball out of Luca’s hands like for the Mavericks in those moments to not toss the ball away um it makes makes a difference like just being able to get

A shot up um getting a shot up is much better than a turnover um Tim Hardway Jr had five assists and zero turnovers which is pretty awesome um so it just kind of goes to shows just how like everyone kind of knew what they needed

To do they were all in the right places no one seemed out of place everyone seemed to contribute like Jones had two steals played Steph pretty well um Luca defensively had some good possessions against Steph as well on the defensive end which was funny LC’s had a couple I

Mean yeah he he was the first one to say it but he’s had a lot of really strong defensive games um I don’t think he had the the kind of blocks and seals this game as he had you the couple of last ones but yeah I mean he’s he’s he’s

Stepping up on defense I think I think it’s pretty visible to people who are we’re watching even if he’s not you know step his stats every time see yeah he got uh got a steal on a block so that’s you know he slowly adding more and more

To his uh his season total but um I think I think he’s taken a step up defensively uh definitely recently if not you know on the year as a whole yeah this yeah and this was yeah I totally agree I thought this was a really good performance from him on both

Sides of the ball obviously defensively was interesting like I think iy was good at The Rim think there were some good moments against Steph especially um man Steph and Clay combined to go 10 of 36 from the floor you will probably not see I mean I

Want to say you don’t you will not see that a lot uh with the Warriors but I think Steph has been in a pretty bad shooting slump like the last four or five games so those two yeah and cl has been it’s kind of funny to think that

Like the Warriors would have won this game if it wasn’t for Steph and Clay picking it up cuz everyone else is playing great like I I you know when I’m trolling through Twitter to look for people saying Derek Livy should win uh you know R of the year I come across

People who are you know sticking up for for this I can’t say his name they said it a couple times I think it’s bazinsky I’ll learn it when he makes Allstar um but um he’s yeah he’s played this first time I’ve really know watched you know a ton of him play and

He got you know 20 minutes played really well hit a lot of big threes so seems a good player yeah they got two rookies that I really CU D Jackson Davis I mean he’s not a beefy you know I don’t know how long they can handle him starting as

Like a center but he’s pretty skilled as well um so they’ve got two skilled like it’s like it’s weird like kaminga played a pretty good game I thought like this Warriors season it’s I mean not to talk too much about the Warriors but it feels like the young guys are kind of doing

Their part and it’s like the old guard that’s kind of letting them down a little bit like Looney hasn’t been good Draymond before he got suspended was really erratic Steph has been pretty good all season for the most part but clay has looked really bad yeah Clay definitely seems

Like the the biggest kind of missing piece of like kind of how where their success used to come from so see yeah that’s crazy but Mavericks don’t care they will take they will they will take the win um I think another guy you know we didn’t really talk too much about exm

We just kind of mentioned how well we played like it’s kind of crazy that him doing he had 19 and five 19 points and five assists and it felt so normal and natural and I think the fact that we’ve reached the place where like XM scoring

19 is not like the first thing we’re talking about we’re like holy crap don’t XM scor 19 points it’s like no that’s just kind of what he does like the fact that it took a month for that like that’s just happened over the course of the month because it’s crazy to think

October November he wasn’t even really like part of the regular rotation like he did not play 20 minutes or more in a game until he started his first game on December 6 I’m looking at his game log and then from there he’s been Dynamite he’s averaging 15 he’s basically

Averaging 15 five and five for the most part in December um which is nutty like just absolutely nutty um he’s shooting 60% from the floor um the threes I have to imagine are going to fall off eventually but he keeps shooting him so confidently you know I don’t know when

That’s gonna happen but like his what’s not gonna end with him is his ability to kind of be that connective piece in terms of moving the ball and like attacking the secondary action when Luca does whatever he does and then his finishing and driving ability at the

Basket like just keeps getting better it feels like every game uh that was a big difference maker like the Warriors don’t like you can attack this when draymond’s not on this roster you know if he’s not playing I mean I don’t know who they have that can block shots and guard the

Rim like Looney’s a decent big but he’s not like a rim protector in the traditional sense and then Jackson Davis I don’t think is either like uh I think they only had they had three block Shots tonight and none of them came from their bigs I think Chris Paul got one yeah

Paul is annoying to me so I know every time he made it B I was like what the hell yeah Paul had one Wiggins had one and and Gary pton had one the second Gary pton second so uh yeah like his driving ability just crazy and like it’s

Just I don’t know it’s just wild to me that we’ve already just reached this phase with exent where it’s like yeah this is this is kind of who he is like I keep thinking maybe there’s going to be a drop off but maybe just in the starting lineup playing next to Luca

Like yeah this is what we should expect do you think he’s gonna stick in the starting lineup when K comes back or do you think maybe that’ll be kind of like the the inflection point when he has to kind of go to if he’s playing you know

Leader Off the Bench if he’s I don’t know if he can be as effective as playing next to Luka just you know because of gravity and Luca’s uh you know well I want to offer a prediction but kid already answered this question uh a couple games ago um he said xm’s

Going to start and Grant Williams is going to come off the bench so the starting lineup is going to be Kyrie exom Jones Lively Luca um which seems a little small but Grant hasn’t really been doing too much on the defensive end of the floor anyway so you might as well

Just play your five most productive guys at the same time so he’s going to keep starting and I think they’re just going to ride this as long as they can maybe if he cools off they make another change but like I don’t know do you see this

Ending anytime soon I mean he’s just he playing so well yeah I mean with the way he’s playing it’s it’s hard to move into the bench I mean it when you know when we first when he’s first you know was playing well was like oh great we have this guy who can lead

The bench and like I don’t have to worry about the bench minutes anymore and now it’s like he’s playing so well that you have to start him but then now it’s like back to wondering like who’s gonna Who’s Gonna Leave the bench now so it’s a good

Problem because now you got you know all these productive guards but um I mean yeah maybe you know it might just be one of those things where it’s like it’ll be matchup you know R Carlo’s favorite word matchup base you know playing a bigger team maybe green or or Williams starts

And plays with one of those guys but um yeah I mean he’s playing great so stick him stick him anywhere and just let him go yeah for sure um man I don’t even know what else to talk about like because like everything was just pretty

Well I I don’t even really have any neg like I’m trying to think of negatives like I mean the Warriors give the Mavericks fits whenever they like kind of do their off ball stuff um kind of saw some flashes of that playf the the Western Conference Finals because they

Killed the Mavs with like off ball cutting and stuff like that like the Warriors had 32 assists which is a ton of assists like they were really moving the ball well when they weren’t doing the crazy like inexplicable turnovers and the Mavericks didn’t really have

Much to stop it but it ended up not really mattering all that much because Stephen Clay didn’t make any didn’t make enough of their shots um and really I mean no one hit the only person who hit threes consistently like Steph ended up going six of 15 uh Paul went six of nine

But like the role the role players didn’t really make him pay kaminga one of five sarich one of four Wiggins one of three Payton missed uh one and then Pinsky did go three of five but he made two of those like in back-to-back possessions and otherwise was too too

Much of a problem like it felt like the Mavs were a little bit more consistent with their three-point shooting from the role players uh and that felt kind of like the difference in the game I think or not maybe not the difference but but one of the factors at least yeah I mean

I’m just looking over everything here they didn’t get like you know they didn’t nothing was lopsided like even when they they lost points in the paint um Second Chance points but it was you know 44 to 52 on points in the paint 11 to 15 second chance points so it’s like

They held their own in in you know all these aspects and they they played so good on offense that it didn’t matter so yeah and the Mavericks once again get outshot at the three-point line technically Warriors made three more threes in the Mavericks and if you want an example of how this

Year’s Maverick are different uh just look at that stat and look at how many times they’ve won this season so far not making more threes in their opponents because that was basically the only way was Bas literally the only way they could win games last season was if they

Made more threes on their opponents now they’re figuring out ways to do it without making the three obviously uh you know Luc is in command of his game but Lively just makes such a huge difference as someone that can consistently score at The Rim when Luca gets doubled and exom being a driver

Jones being a driver too like they just have more guys that feel comfortable taking the ball and and trying to score at The Rim as opposed to what they’ve had maybe the last couple of Seasons so I think that makes a big difference green had a really good drive in this

Game against against the pinski um that just kind of made me raise my ey a little bit when he when he went for because you know it was great to see he’s he’s not you know the guy I want taking it off the dribble most of the time but again against against the

Rookie he he took it and he’s pretty pretty confident about it and scored so just part of part of uh his really good game tonight yeah for sure yeah I like that too when he’s aggressive with the ball and he’s not like hot potatoing it like immediately

After he catches it I feel like he’s a much he’s a much better player I feel like some maybe like he has the skill to I mean maybe not be an 18-point guy every night but like sometimes I feel like he gets in his head a little bit

When he plays poorly um because he’s maybe like overthinking trying to make like the perfect play or not wanting to make a bad play um but he’s got I mean he’s got it so he he really should be more aggressive with his dribble um because he’s I mean he’s turned himself

Into like a really good finisher um so yeah as long as he has you know the awareness of like you know I think he probably saw you know this rookies on me he can’t guard me so you know just those kind of things being you know quick

Decisions and and being decisive if it’s a pass or you know just like driv and kick if he doesn’t make it all the way the rim and an open guy so yeah yeah quick decisions decisiveness yeah I think that’s the name of the game for

Him well I don’t think I have too much else because again usually the way we do with this Kirk is like we talk about the good and then we talk about the bad and I can’t think of anything all that bad except maybe like maybe defensively the Mavericks could have been a little

Tighter but the Warriors are pretty good on offense so there’s like just not much to complain about there so Matt do you have anything else or or do you think you’re ready to wrap up here um yeah thing I’m excited to you know just excited the team’s getting healthy

Again I think kid said Kyrie’s getting close to coming back in the next couple games so we’ll finally get to see you know like I feel like that’s kind of like we were losing all these games it was like you know iy’s out Kyrie’s out so it’s like I couldn’t you know perform

Real opinions about you know how the team was playing so excited to win with Lively excited to get Kyrie back and kind of see see how this team is supposed to operate yeah and that’s a good point because exam’s ascendance has entirely happened with Kyrie out so we

Still haven’t seen this version of exom with Luca and Kyrie and Lively so that’ll be a good time to evaluate and hey the Mavericks get to play Utah and Portland and Portland for their next three games so if Kyrie does come back um we might see some lopsided scores

Well we should you know knock but the Mavericks have a nice little Runway to start the new year uh they get to pad their schedule with three really like I mean those are those have to be all three wins so hopefully the Mavericks can kind of leave that that two game

Losing strength losing streak behind them they get a good win against col State play three more against some pretty easy teams and then the schedule gets a little bit tougher after that but we’ll worry about that later so I think I’m good uh Matt thanks uh again for

Joining me tonight I really appreciate it um as we are a little like the Mavericks our roster is a little short-handed next next man up mentality here exactly we appreciate it um we talk to you guys later cannot guarantee if it’ll be me and Kirk but someone will be

Here I mean it’ll be either me or Kirk or someone on staff but we’ll have someone after the Utah game New Year’s game against Utah Jazz on Monday so we’ll talk to you guys after that again this is joshb Matt Gilroy for pod Maverick after dark Maverick’s beat the

Warriors 132 122 we will talk to you guys later

Josh and one of the many Mavs Moneyball Matts talk about Dallas trying to get back on track against Golden State

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