Can Luka Doncic SAVE The Mavs?
we find ourselves in relatively interesting Waters where for the first time the winning team in the finals for a game at least this year scored over 110 points and ironically enough it also ended up being the Dallas Mavericks they saw a lot better play from Luca donic for one and also Derek Lively was a player that came alive in this one after in the first three games seeming to be just that rookie 20-year-old 19-year-old player that everybody saw him to be pre previous to being in the playoffs before obviously he came onto the scene and started playing out of his mind and he finally returned to that form in a game that they really needed him to because nobody wants to get swept in the finals especially after finally making the finals and to his credit he is one of the few recent rookies to have actually had the opportunity to play significant minutes in a finals run at the same time we saw poor play from the likes of Jaylen Brown Jason Tatum Derek white and Drew holiday to a certain extent the only person that was in the regular rotation for the Boston Celtics that played significantly better or on par with their own numbers was ironically enough Sam Hower who was five of seven from the field and four of six from three-point range though with his 14 points he still managed to be in a -20 box score plus minus situation so that just tells you how things went today the win went to Dallas 122 to 84 which was significant and the starters got pulled in the third quarter for the Boston Celtics ICS as they prepare to gear up for game five hopefully planning to win it at home on their own floor but I still wonder exactly if it will be that easy now we understand that the first game of the finals is always a feeler it’s always in any series just like the test gamees where coaches try out different things see how the other team reacts to it see how the other coaching staff reacts to things and then you just kind of go from there so that game wasn’t something that was too dangerous when you look back at those numbers but games two and three were very winnable games for the Dallas Mavericks and if certain things go a little bit better their way you see them potentially being either up 3-1 themselves or having the series in more realistic fashion being set at 22 now they did end up having a wonderful game from Kyrie Irving yet again and this time it did not go to waste because Luka donic played much better defense honestly the best defense he’s played in this entire series and it looked like the Luca donic that we saw for example against the Timberwolves and even so on and so forth in previous playoff games this entire playoff run to get to this point and that was the biggest thing that a lot of people were criticizing him for he was complaining too much to the refs and honestly he just looked like he didn’t want to play actual defense and it’s one thing if you’re going to struggle or you’re going to be mediocre because when you can consistently put together 30-point performances with borderline triple double numbers with rebounds and assists and be not as turnover prone as most people will tend to be you can kind of get a little bit of leeway on defense but when you go from being a pretty solid plus Defender to being absolutely garbage and getting blown by almost every single possession or offering no resistance on drives it’s kind of hard to defend you and that’s why there were a lot of analysts that actually started to go after him now Kyrie hasn’t been nearly as good as we hoped he would be defensively but we knew that was going to be a challenge for him because he doesn’t really match up size wise with anybody except for Drew holiday for a certain standpoint because Derek white is taller than him and longer than him obviously they’ve had a lot more actions where Al Horford will go out to the wing instead of to the corner which draws the big out which usually is Gafford or Lively but instead they’re sticking Gafford or Lively down in the corner so they can run a little bit of a oneman Zone situation which leaves Kyrie to be the man on Al Horford obviously not ideal but it does end up serving the purpose as well as it possibly could and for the most part he’s been holding his own particularly in this game he did a significantly better job the shots that usually were going for the Boston Celtics were not there for them their starters combined for seven of 23 from three-point range and like I said Sam Howard was the only guy that shot significantly better or up to par with what he usually did he was four of six you saw pton Pritcher go one of six from three you saw s go one of five from three so they just weren’t very good and Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum together were a combined two of nine so that just goes to tell you exactly what was going on collectively Jaylen Brown had 10 points in his 27 minutes Jason Tatum had 15 points in his 27 minutes things just weren’t really falling for them and understandably so they decided you know what we’ll just go ahead and try again the next game porzingis was allegedly available for this one but there was a supposed to be specific conditions that needed to be met in order for them to be willing to play him and they actually didn’t play him now the game got really out of hand particularly in the first quarter when the lead started going and then it continued to funnel into that second quarter and in halftime things were getting really ugly third quarter comes out Dallas just keeps hammering on the pressure and it got to the point where there was nothing that Boston could really do and so they just decided to go and take their guys off the floor and let the bench just get a little bit of a burn and it’s unknown whether they’re going to continue to see this as a mainstate thing if next game ends up going that way I think that they’ll probably try and dog it out a little bit more in that one because it is going to be on their home floor and who doesn’t want to win the finals at home winning on the road is pretty decisive it’s kind of like that knife that just catches somebody in the jugular and puts them in a situation to where it’s embarrassing to lose in front of your home crowd and the confetti flies out and the other team gets crowned inside of your gym like that’s embarrassing but if you can manage to win and be successful at home then you feel a lot more confident and comfortable in your ability to just number one get the job done and number two it feels a lot better when you do it because everybody’s on your side as soon as you complete the mission I think that could be a little bit at play and why they didn’t go as hard but that doesn’t excuse the fact that they actually got knocked out of the gym pretty freaking bad especially out the gate and the biggest thing was Luca was actually offering resistance now he wasn’t perfect right he wasn’t the exact replica of what he had been in rounds previous but he was a whole lot closer and that’s the thing he never had to be a perfect Elite two-way two-way Defender he just needed to be reasonable enough on the defensive side of the ball to allow him not to be an absolute cone because they were attacking him continuously in actions as they were going to because he is the weakest link defensively because he doesn’t have the same quick feet and speed at least from the hand speed perspective as Kyrie Irving but he is a girthier build but at the same time if you wear him down and put him in pick and roll coverages and force him to play defense either he’s going to play or he’s going to sell and the first three games of the season that’s what he did he sold he tried to buy charges while not being in a defensiv position he got little silly Tic Tac fouls here and there reaching around he baited himself too hard a lot of times he overreached sometimes he wasn’t closing out properly he wasn’t either closing out too well or he just decided not to close out at all and when you have other guys that are flying up and down the court doing everything that they can trying to buy a game he needs to be better and I think he got the message after getting grilled by everybody I don’t know if there was a conversation with Jason kid and the rest of the coaching staff with ownership talking to him or even Kyrie or the rest of the players but he seemed more bought in in this game and that’s what made all the difference now there were other things like I said Derek Lively playing really well he ended up having a double double at the end of this one Kyrie had another great game shot well from the outside and this was the first game of the series where they actually shot and made more threes than the Boston Celtics did and in a situation where they necessarily needed it and of course there were a couple threes that happened later on once the game was completely over but at the same time you can’t sit there and be out shot from three-point range and give up seven more made threes than your own team and expect to still win that game because you’re going to have to take a lot of twos and make a lot of twos in order to make up for that situation that you put yourself in and I just don’t think that’s a very sustainable thing to do now going forward it’s 3-1 they’re going to the hardest Stadium to play in as far as win loss records go the Celtics have it better in Second To None to the point where they’ve never lost three games in a row the entirety of the Season much less four and now the Dallas Mavericks have to put themselves into a position to where they expect them to be able to steal three games and two of them being on the road because they lost their first game at home which was why they went down 03 in that situation Luca cannot be the one to sit there and foul out like that all of his fouls were legitimate there was one that I was kind of iffy on but at the same time he can’t put himself in a position to where you you have five fouls you’re going to try and draw a charge when you’re not in a defensiv position you didn’t beat your man to the spot you’re just going to go ahead and fall out on the ground you’re going to force R to call something but the situation is they’re going to have to call it on you because you’re not in a defensible position so he kind of sold that one if you get that one back I think they do win that game and it is able to happen even though he was shooting an abismal number in the fourth quarter this particular Finals game things looked a lot better things looked a lot more smoother and you even saw Derrik Lively hit threes and that was very important because because they saw a lot more production out of their Corners you saw PJ Washington finally come alive and get some shots you saw Derrick Jones Jr also hit a three combined they were both four of eight from the field in total so they combined for a total of 11 points which isn’t exactly up to standard but they were able to get it done because Kyrie and Luca both had 21 and 29 respectively and that made the difference one thing that was important though even though they ended up blowing them out by such a wide margin is the fact that Luca shot 0 of eight from three and Kyrie finally hit one three but he was one of six overall he was 10 of 18 from the field and luuka was 12 of 26 so ultimately it really didn’t matter but that’s just something to keep an eye on going forward and obviously Kyrie hasn’t had a good game in Boston this playoff series and in my original presentation video I suggested that it might be something to look at even though I didn’t think that Kyrie would struggle too mightily as he has I was wondering if there might be a little bit of something a little bit of chirping in his ear that might just affect his game just a little bit and obviously facing off against the best defensive team remaining in the playoffs after having to just gone through the Minnesota Timberwolves doesn’t do you any favors and he has to face the likes of Drew holiday and and switches he’s the best match up he’s going to get is who Derek white that’s terrible Jason Tatum that’s not all so good Jaylen Brown even worse so there’s no great there’s no person that you prefer him to be on unless you can get a switch onto Al Horford and they’ve been doing really good at denying that as the Boston Celtics now as I said before Derrick Lively hit the three that he did take which looked really smooth it looked like it was a planned play and he looked like he loved that release he did end up going four or five from the field he had 12 rebounds 11 points he was having seven offensive rebounds which was really big for them and that made all the difference in my eyes to say the least they also had a couple more made threes from the corners as a team they were 15 of 37 work which works out to 40.5% which is Big to look at and five of those came from Tim Hardaway the man was 57 from the field he had total of 15 points and after last game being subbed in for Luca after LCA fouled out and just being absolutely hot dog water this was a very refreshing game from him not saying that we’re going to see this next game but that was what we needed especially when you have a situation where both your point guard and your shooting guard Luca and Kyrie have to have amazing games for you to be able to win if you can get even mediocre production out of your bench you’re going to be in a lot better Waters than they have been in the past because previously their bench and the rest of their role players on their team have been mud and not the good kind so you want to be able to put yourself into the position to have a chance at winning a game and after holding them to 105 and 107 in the previous two games those were winnable games against a team that’s really efficient on offense as the Boston Celtics are being able to put them into that position and have them struggle like that if you could call it that is something that’s to be a little bit refreshing and considering the fact that they also only scored 84 points immediately they put in the bench for the fourth quarter entirely and part of the third it still counts in my eyes and if Tim Hardway Jr can maintain this level of efficiency even though he’s been kind of a coin flip this entire series and finally had a game I wonder if he can build off of this and make things a little bit better with all that in mind though what are you guys’s thoughts on this most recent game do you think that they can stretch out to a game six because honestly we can’t talk about the Dallas Mavericks even winning the series until it gets pushed out of Boston and sent back to Dallas for a game six because then you’re talking about winning that game and going on the road to win a game seven and making this series genuinely entertaining yes this was a good game for the Dallas Mavericks but it was a blowout so we didn’t really enjoy the entire Spirit of it Beyond probably halftime so I just want to know what do you guys think about the finals so far has it been entertaining do you have a preferred team that you would have rather seen in here because even though it’s finally heating up it’s not exactly the most ideal yet do you think that Luca can maintain this level of play on the defensive side of the ball enough to allow his team to stay in games and win games and do you think that any of the role players are due for a coming out party with that being said go ahead and smash that like button subscribe turn on post notifications and become a member of the channel to help support the content it’s your boy rith hoops good morning good evening and good night and I’ll catch you guys in the next one peace [Music] [Music]
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In this video we discuss the game 4 victory by the Dallas Mavericks over the Boston Celtics at home. With the series now a big 3–1 the question becomes can Luka Dončić, and Kyrie Irving lead the Dallas Mavericks on the road against the Boston Celtics to continue this series or was this a win that will just serve as a small victory in a mountain of defeat. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had an abysmal game, and all starters for the Boston Celtics were pulled during the third quarter as they prepare to return home in mounted effort to close a series at once, and for all. 
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2 Comments
Thanks for the content.
Ok I’m sorry the mavs are jerking t winning I’m right ha ha