For reference:
Ernie tells the inside the NBA crew last night that the Mavs were the best defensive team in the league for the last 20 games of the season, and Kenny is completely shocked to the point where he asks Ernie to repeat it: https://twitter.com/pandahank41/status/1791011301927661967
X sports crew commentator last night says that OKC is the younger version of the Mavericks: https://x.com/NBAonTNT/status/1790955589343789124
(For context as we all know probably, Luka is YOUNGER than SGA, Lively is YOUNGER than Chet, Gafford and PJ are 25)
Not to mention the “They have THJ as a great third option” takes, the “Luka is terrible on D” takes (which are now conveniently going away), and the lack of acknowledgment at our injuries all year long with the MVP race
It’s genuinely pathetic work
by Internetcowboy
23 Comments
The “THJ is their 3rd best (4th, 5th, or 6th too) player” take immediately let’s me know I can tune out whatever opinion that person has on the Mavericks.
Absolutely. There’s no doubt there are few national guys that actually watch the games.
But I want us all as Mavs fans to just enjoy what we are watching. For those of us that have been fans for all the Dirk years this is a special time.
You know we only went to 3 WCFs with Dirk? Only 3. And we won 50 games for a decade straight.
Luka man. What a player. Obviously it takes a great team, great coach and great front office. But the player. The Great player separates us.
We are 1 win away from our 2nd WCF appearance in 3 seasons. That’s 2 appearances in Luka’s first 6 years and two of those years were his rookie season and a gutted roster.
Just enjoy this guys. This is unique. Especially for Dallas. And for what its worth…. If Denver gets past Minnesota that will be Joker’s 3rd WCF appearance… we got it really good right now in Dallas.
Let’s finish this off Saturday!!!
I’m getting tired of hearing “We don’t normally talk about the Mavs defense, but…”
I feel like I’ve heard that multiple times throughout the playoffs even though the Mavs have been playing Elite defense for several months now!
I don’t think what Caruso is wrong at all tbh. The TNT crew is always clueless.
Tbf I think the media is still hyperfixated on the Timberwolves defense throughout the playoffs (before their 3 game losing streak) and have forgot everything before that.
To be fair, these guys can’t watch every game of every team. Just not possible. That being said, the stuff you mentioned above should be covered in basic research before a playoff series and is kind of inexcusable to miss.
When Kenny asked Draymond if Luka makes these passes in the regular season that’s when I knew that these guys do NOT watch basketball at all lol
Honestly I think the second clip is pretty accurate. Maybe not younger version in terms of age but in terms of experience. The OKC team we watched last night was very reminiscent of the early Luka playoffs runs. What I mean is the whole team is kinda just sitting around watching one guy cook and then eventually they end up with a wide open three and miss it. Main difference between those teams is the defense though OKC certainly has better defense than we did at the time.
”X sports crew commentator” and its just Alex Caruso LMFAOOO
Some analysts are still saying shit like can the mavs play good enough defense to win? That’s literally the only thing they’ve been doing to get wins right now.
The media has their “darlings” that will get praise no matter what, talked about no matter what and there are certain teams that get very little attention or any modicum of actual analysis. Teams and or players can vary year to year.
“darlings” include:
LeBron (not even the Lakers, just LeBron)
Celtics
Knicks
Zion
“Young” OKC
Bucks
Wemby
Middle tier:
Nuggets
Heat
Sixers
Clippers
Warriors
Blatant Snubs:
Mavs
Rockets
Indiana
Orlando
Sacramento
One things for sure. There is no fact checking. If there were guys like MacMahon would be working at Hardee’s
All these tv heads outside of a select few … don’t know anything. They know how to present themselves in media and project themselves to an audience. And they’re often not even watching the game, or at least not much of it.
we know bro, we know
Danny Chau’s Ringer article about game 4 being some OKC statement that they’re out to compete for the finals had a vibe like he watched game 1 and then checked the box scores of the rest. Wild stuff.
>X sports crew commentator last night says that OKC is the younger version of the Mavericks:
Bro that’s Alex Caruso lmao.
By younger he just means less experienced. We also have Kai who is older, maxi, THJ, Green, DJJ. Alot of guys who have had playoff runs, and been in the league for a while.
OKC is a bunch of 1/2nd year players in their first playoff run.
The one guy shocked that Luka claimed one of his fouls even though he does that at least once a game.
how do you not know alex caruso?
The best part was when Draymond was saying “Luka been spoon-feeding these guys” and Kenny asked him “was he making these passes earlier this season tho?” and Draymond was kind of shocked and said “he’s averaging like 10 assists!”.
I can accept that they don’t know about our defense but the fact that they don’t even know about Luka’s passing when he’s been at worst the 2nd best passer in the league in the past like 5 years is hilarious.
>It’s kind of like OKC is playing against the future version of themselves in Dallas
That’s hilarious. “Someday we’ll be a team that can get past the second round”
My favourite one is “Luka needs to trust his teammates more” from Charles. You would think Luka dribbles and ignores everyone on the court. And the problem is, casual viewers who don’t watch Mavs games watch TNT and take these things as facts.
I foolishly thought when we got Kyrie they would watch us more just to mostly see if he does anything crazy. Nope. They still barely give a shit.
Not to mention Green is 23 and Hardy is 20, but talking heads look at Kai and THJ and think we’re old lol