Mavs/Heat: Can They Build Off This Defensive Performance? | The Get Right

Mavs/Heat: Can They Build Off This Defensive Performance? | The Get Right

Mavs win L MAV that’s right the UTA Mavericks beat the California Baptist Lancers 71 to 57 no jokes aside that is true by the way shout out to the to the UT Arlington Mavericks uh but yes no your Dallas Mavericks get a win over the visiting Miami Heat it was described as

A gut check win um it absolutely was that 114 108 had to hold them off at the very end the kind of went back and forth uh but they do indeed win one that felt like it was very necessary to get themselves back into a place of feeling

Good and really just to see if they could pull together and get some things done um I want to give you some notes on this before I just let you go Blake because I know we were watching it we had a lot of conversations as we were

Watching it uh Luca donic uh your leader in this game Your Leader as a player 35 points 11 rebounds 11 assists his fifth straight 30 30 point triple double his fourth straight game with a 35 Point triple double which is the longest streak streak in NBA history per ESPN

Stats and info and I also want to be noted and maybe this is where we start the starting lineup looked different the closing lineup looked different as we know closing lineup is more important but both of those things were different what did you feel about the changes that

Jason kid made first of all what did you see and what did you like or dislike or what have you so we we kind of highlighted it earlier they were finding that weak side guy that backside guy the guy that is when we say the they you

Mean like the Mi the Miami the Miami Heat were where is the Dallas Mavericks weakest Defender where is the weak side defender on the court that time going down there as well and a lot of times it was Luca a lot of times it was Tim Hardway Jr they’re finding the guy that

Is not your best defensive player and attacking that and not attacking it directly I think this was something that Reggie pointed out was a great point they were kind of attacking it indirectly they were running pick and roles and then having that weak side guy

Have to make a decision to help or stay with his guy and a lot of times they were caught daydreaming kind of doing stuck in no man’s land doing neither and we saw a lot of back door alley oops a lot of regular alley oops kind of

Hitting in that dunker spot those kind of weak side on the Block left and right where they’re getting some easy points in the first half and it looks like they made a little bit of adjustments with their drop coverage and kind of some different lineup out there and we saw

Something that we hadn’t seen before we’ve we we’ve become pretty accustomed to the Maxi Clea PJ Washington Josh Green Luca Kyrie closing lineup this a relatively small ball lineup as you don’t have one of your big time Big you know guys centers that it seems like you

Made a trade to make sure you have to be able to have available at any given time correct and this time they keep obviously Luc and Kyrie in there and PJ Washington checks out of the game Maxi kba is still in but not at the five at

The four spot Lively was in there until he got a little banged up like literally like on the last like play but Lively was in there along the likes of Dante exom who we kind of have been even in this show and in previous shows been kind of waiting for his reassures of

Getting back in the big minutes being in the starting lineup being in the closing lineup Jason kid and many around the organization has spoke really highly of him and we saw it paay dividends here he was able to not going to say lock down but play very good perimeter defense

Point of attack defense on some of the the Heat’s uh better Playmakers on Terry Rosier and Jimmy Butler and make LC and Kyrie’s defensive limitations not be as obvious and I think you saw the rotation help be a lot better PJ Washington also I thought was kind of in and out of line

Just playing in different spots so definitely the biggest thing I noticed was Jason kid was manipulating the rotations more than we’ve ever seen before especially since the trade deadline in recent in the most recent games and they started knocking down shots at the end and the heroic three-point shooting from the heat did

Not continue as we expected no um you mentioned the Dante exom thing and I I didn’t want to highlight that he plays 17 minutes in this which is I mean up a little bit from what he had been getting um he rewards that decision to be played

In the crunch time and I know Brad Townson was the one who I saw this stat from he got you seven points in the fourth quarter and played good defense as you mentioned that feels like that those were the things that you were excited about him before injury clutch

Three right and he has come back and he’s giving you those things and so it seems like this is one of the things that we’ve been talking about and I’m I hate to make the direct comparison but I’m going to Tim Hardway Jr conversely plays 21 minutes in this game three of

11 knocks down two of six from Deep which so so and ultimately um I want to make this clear he is a plus seven so while he’s on the floor they win those minutes not in this game now what does that say in the long run I don’t want to

Make large sweeping generalizations and thoughts off of this but he was not like the complete negative that sometimes we can view him to be at times but I mean you compare that to the way that Dante exom in four fewer minutes gives you these points he gives you five assists

These he’s a plus 16 he comes in just for like good things happen usually and that I think that’s I think he’s able to affect the game a little bit more especially if that scoring is happening now clearly he doesn’t get up as many shots and we’ve talked about that but

This is where I think some of the discussions of hey who who are you getting involved in the rotation and I imagine maybe you you view maybe Jason kid looks at this and you can’t make big pendulum sweeping changes to the rotation but he has gotten to a place

Where kind of Slowly by Shirley he’s just cutting in XY XY back again it’s it’s been frustrating to watch the slowly transition but here at least in this game you saw one of the benefits of those moves in Dante exom getting more time uh PJ Washington how did you feel

That he played he played 30 minutes wasn’t wasn’t great when it comes to the scoring portion of it I thought he was really active on the defense side of the ball and around and around the ball and I think this is the thing that I can say

For PJ and Josh when their offense is going it’s likeo who’s going to stop this team and they give you 152 they look good they’re shooting the ball well from three they’re attacking the basket but what both of these guys do give you on a nightly basis that I feel confident

Saying is they’re going to give you effort they’re going to play well in the defensive side of the ball and they’re going to be around the ball loose balls balls getting tipped up they’re diving on the on the ground like they’re making sure that they’re around all that stuff

So I can always appreciate that from PJ I think that’s why fans are always going to hold him to a high regards because a high motor is something you can always appreciate it’s the reason that the fans love Daniel gaffer from the first minutes that he stepped out there that’s

True I think that’s the way that sometimes people feel a certain way about players on the team where it’s like hey at least try your hardest that that’s one thing that’s like hey okay you’re trying but things aren’t going to well Dwight pal I know he gets a lot of

Grief but he yeah the energy is never not there the energy is never not there yeah but that that immediately undercuts a little bit of what you were talking about I don’t think you’re wrong right I think you’re right and saying that F fans appreciate effort and energy um

Yeah but the the the Dwight Powell is where I think that maybe get Str goggles thewi power will save us uh no but I let’s let’s talk about centers real quick because we talked about the ways in which they went back big in that closing lineup which I think was

Important and I don’t know if that’s just an individual decision for this game when you’re facing a team that you do not anticipate being a great three-point shooter and they’re not necessarily going to stretch you out and make that five position have to guard wide as much

Hey man between Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford they played 45 of 48 minutes when it comes to having a center on the floor right like talked about this is a lot closer to what everybody anticipated when you make the trade to have a backup center of the caliber of Daniel Gafford

Or however you want to view it as a starting center or whatever but like you have two of those guys and this is a lot closer to I think what people expected do you think that them playing was like the high supports do you think that was

Just kind of a I think it was a little bit of coincidence or was it just it worked out uh was it a good move I I think it was a little bit of a matchup thing with bam kind of not really stretching the floor kind of playing on

The elbow and in and understanding what you have to do and and that the the Miami Heat don’t exactly have five different Playmakers at the ball they’re going to be doing a bunch of pick and rolls and just blow them by you now Terry Rosier is a Blazer and definitely

Gave you some problems as he was able how many points 27 points 11 assists like he he was the tip of the spear for the heat he was the Tyrese Maxi he was a Halt and he’s just that that’s one thing I don’t think the Mavs have fully

Figured out with like these really Speedy guards that that can create out the pick and roll and can play make and make it hard on that drop coverage but I I I thought I thought that they did decent at that I think we’re starting to

See more of Maxi kba at the four and I think that might become more of a staple as much as me and Reggie even talked about we we we don’t mind it and some that he plays the five I don’t know how much more we’re going to see of him

Exclusively at the five and unless it is for a specific reason and it’s very obvious I don’t know how many more scheduled minutes he’ll get it to five um I think there’s a lot of things to give them credit for I don’t think that you look at hey there’s a win and now

It’s all fixed by any means because there was many times during the course of the game where I I personally and I can be a Negative Nancy I understand that well I personally am looking at the defensive things and I still see a lot places where you can be taken advantage

Of but you saw them get into some passing Lads you saw them kind of get their hands on as you mentioned hands on the basketball at times get their hands in passing lanes and I feel like when you do at least enough of that your offense can then make a level of

Difference especially when you have you know a great night a really good night from Luca you know a solid night from Dante exom while you didn’t have a great night from Tim Hardway Jr right like giving having more guys and having more opportunities of getting some great play

From elsewhere besides having to just just depend on is it an on Tim Hardaway Jr shooting night uh Kyrie Irving was solid as well um oddly enough and I don’t know how much you want to talk about this you if you don’t want to we can move right past it again plus minus

Isn’t the end all Beall but Kyrie Irving is a minus 7 meaning the minutes that he had all the way across were a net negative how do you view that um it it’s a weird thing because when Kyrie’s out there he’s usually out there with Luca and obviously it’s very dependent on Luca

The ball movement and all that good stuff and then he also gets those split minutes where Luca’s not out there and they’re kind of running with that bench bench Unit A a good amount of times and it’s kind of looped into some other guys so was that like the second quarter

Where it felt like uh that he couldn’t miss yeah and like in that third quarter or was it the second or third it might have been the third it was the second I think it was the second cuz in the third that’s when they won on that 14-2 run

They outscore the heat 37 to 25 I I I think Kyrie’s a guy that I think we were talking about who’s most important Maverick down the stretch and he is one where I think if they really want to be a like we want to make it to the Western

Conference Finals High aspirations I think Kyrie how he was playing during that stretch where he was like 27 a game and shooting very efficient from the field he’s got to do that I think the other guys will fill gaps here and there PJ Josh Dante Tim Gafford Lively they’ll

Fill the gaps hopefully in the other places but you you need Kyrie to be consistent I think he’s he’s definitely not in a slump it’s just as far as the the flow and efficiency of really getting back into that I think he’ll he’ll spark back in there is there

Anything else that you feel like I haven’t gotten haven’t LED you to is there anything else that you’re like man I I I appreciated this I didn’t appreciate this I want to make note of during the course of this 114 108 win over the Miami Heat the fact that they

Got outshot from the three and still won yeah that’s fair I mean he shoot 45% M shoot 39 and we don’t see the very often They Come Away with a win against a team that doesn’t shoot a lot of Threes they only made they only shot 17 made 11

Better percentage and they a lot of them were in that first first quarter they were knocking them down but I I think the biggest thing was you know what I’m going to I mean it’s part of this but I’m kind of adding to it yeah the the

Fight they were down at half played a abysmal first quarter as far as defense goes I don’t want to say abysmal the heat were just hitting everything they could have definitely dropped their head the world’s falling on us nothing’s going right and we’ve seen that happen

And we’ve seen that happen we’re on a losing streak it’s happening again we’re getting out coached our players aren’t in the right spot and they respond with a 37 to 2 5 third quarter not saying all is fixed just saying that is a good sign to see moving forward I like the fight

From a team that is always going to fight because this came game came down to the very end to the wire against Miami Heat team so I love the resilience that the MAV showed in that third quarter and then also when things got close in the fourth being able to be

That clutch time team that we know that they are yeah glad glad that they’re not throwing in the towel in some regard they they know that there’s work to be done we all know that there’s work to be done and that’s in some ways it looks

Like they’re trying to be up to the challenge and salute to the Dallas Mavericks for getting a win a much needed one um and if you if you view anything I know you mentioned like Kyrie not necessarily in a slump even if it’s a slump got a slump Buster coming up you

Will be traveling to Detroit oh yeah on Saturday to play the Detroit pisses I believe nine wins is that is that correct nine wins them and the Wizards I need to this is the game this is the omx this is the AJ Lawson this is the Brandon Williams this the Jaden Hardy

Man he’s in purgatory he is in purgatory I mean I forgot he was on the team yeah um so yeah no they they break that little uh losing streak that they had going on uh they currently now are a full game behind the Kings as opposed to

The game and a half they were prior a game ahead of the the Golden State Warriors now um but they they’re still in eighth place we know that that’s where they are they’re it’s it’s not going to happen immediately that they get themselves out of the playin and I

Believe I was looking at ESPN earlier today that if you break down their analytics which of course you can take with a grain of salt because we’ve seen instances where ESPN’s anals have uh you know been uh poo pooed upon but they’re like kind of slated to end up in that

Seven spot and end up in that kind of uh that playing tournament so well you remember when we had the easiest schedule hardest schedule we were reviewing that like a month ago and the I think the maps had like the 25th or 24th easiest schedule and one of the

Easiest ones out of the teams remaining and I agree with it looking forward it was definitely front loaded the front part of that with the with the the East going out east I can look at it right now was the harder teams and now you do

Have you still got to play the Thunder a couple times in the Warriors but it’s definitely easier moving forward you got some pistons in there I mean yeah you got the Pistons a couple more times you got a couple times against the Rockets a couple times against the Utah Jazz

Ultimately um I guess including this game if I if I remember correctly 26th of 30 when it comes to uh schedule difficulty meaning that they have the fifth easiest schedule from this point on their opponents uh notching a 466 winning percentage down the stretch C still one against uh still got two

Against the Thunder hey we take care of them we know what happens against the Thunder baby three against the Warriors that can be any any type of game a couple against uh the Sacramento Kings so yeah it it’ll be interesting to see uh how this goes it gets a little bit

Easier and so hopefully that will help uh the Mavs out and they they start their way towards the end of the season would they win against the Miami Heat a team that we know is going to play the Pistons have 10 wins they’re 10 and 52

Oh did they get a win good good good for Them

The Mavs finally got back on track with a much needed win versus the Heat last night. The defensive performance was miles ahead of what it has been over the last 6 games, so can they harness what worked and begin a winning streak?

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