And that (for the Mavs) is by design. Before this game forced all of the talking heads up here to come crashing back to reality, all you heard was rave after rave about how J Kidd had the Mavs playing "centerless" basketball. Their one true center - Boban - can't even get off the bench because he's "too slow" to play the way J Kidd wants. The simple fact is that this team expects Luka to do everything - score, run the offense, rebound, and make everyone around him better. So Kerr put length and size on Luka and set his defense to build a wall that stifled his penetration to the basket and Luka could not adapt. GS's size and aggressive defense also took Dinwidde and Brunson out of the game as well. Add to that all of the missed 3 point shots - especially the wide open ones - and it was game set and match for GS. What has to be of concern to J Kidd and the rest of the Mavs is that Curry and Klay really didn't have a great game and GS still blew them out. Now it gets interesting.
Obviously I can look at the boxscore to see who won and who had what stats, but I missed the game. How did it go? Anything telling?
I think we are seeing that this is the limit of small ball. Even with accurate shooters and a generational talent you cant beat a team with a mobile center and elite switchers. But tbh its also a bit predictable cuz the Rox never won anything even at their peak. Also telling that GSW,the only small ball champs, use their death lineup sparingly and still fielded a space eating big man most of the time. But then again Luka Magic is one of the best ever. Lets see if he out talent GSW. Its gonns be hard though cuz Wiggins was hyped as the next Lebron himself growing up, and then there's Draymond and Kevon Looney backing him up.
Celtics, Game 2 just became successful employing that small ball. It's not as small as GSW but had almost the same effect. Now, if Rockets can draft Jabari Smith, we may be seeing Rockets' very own small ball.
It's not really small ball cuz their frontcourt is RW3, Horford and Tatum and those guys are 6'9/6'10 and pretty bulky dudes with long arms. Bam is also around that height. GSW is the one with the true small ball as they had 6'6 Dray and 6'6 Iggy as the front court. Rox employed the comical smallest frontcourt/microball with 6'5 PJ tucker and 6'7 Covington. Mavs copied the Rox microball model as they run a mix of 4 guards and Luka. If Rox get Jabari they dont qualify as smallball as Jabari himself is 6'10. Maybe you meant 5 out offense which is totally possible since Wood/Jabari/EG/KPJ/Green can all hit the 3.
I guess it's more on how they can play small and fast. There were tall players that actually play like guards/SF. You're right though, modern nba team needs 5 out offense who can shoot, penetrate and endlessly switch and defend. There should also be multiple playmakers.
Havent watched a single game this series or looked up any boxscores.... With that said Im 99% sure GSW is up and will win the series....
This is exactly what a Harden led Rocket team would do. I wonder if Luka will be 20 lbs overweight and hit all the strip cubs in the near future. If he does the swim move on the floor... I'm done
