Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

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Superbone
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

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Thanks, WPM!
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

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Now, who's going to step up for today's game day thread? It's already 10 am on game day and no thread?!
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Mori Chu
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Mori Chu »

Thanks, wp. I will admit that I am pretty out of the loop on the Mavs. I haven't paid much attention to them all year and just kind of assumed they were a "decent" playoff team in the West but not a real contender. So I have missed seeing the rise of Brunson and seeing how they have reinvented themselves now that Porzingis is gone. I'm interested to see how we match up with them. I worry a little that if we get the wrong refs, they'll just call 87 fouls as Luka drives to the basket and basically make him unguardable.

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Indy
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Indy »

To my surprise, the Mavs have 14 more FTAs than the Suns so far. And Luka isn't even in their top 2. Brunson has 39! and Dinwiddie has 30. Luka is at 20, which is less than CP (25) and Mikal (22).

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by BKinSJC »

Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 11:41 am
To my surprise, the Mavs have 14 more FTAs than the Suns so far. And Luka isn't even in their top 2. Brunson has 39! and Dinwiddie has 30. Luka is at 20, which is less than CP (25) and Mikal (22).
Luka only played three games, though.

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by bajanguy008 »

Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 11:41 am
To my surprise, the Mavs have 14 more FTAs than the Suns so far. And Luka isn't even in their top 2. Brunson has 39! and Dinwiddie has 30. Luka is at 20, which is less than CP (25) and Mikal (22).
Some people are pointing to their two guards FTAs as cause for concern putting pressure on our backcourt. In the starting lineup we're probably putting/hiding CP3 on Reggie Bullock and like against Pelicans that should mean Book on Finney Smith.
Assuming we go Jae on SF (Luka) and Mikal on 2 guard (Brunson)
I guess it gets interesting when Dinwiddie comes off the bench but bottom line is we have much more wing defenders than the Jazz lol so don't think it's so easy to Hunt our guys even if that's their game plan
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

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Hope you're right yung fella

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Mori Chu
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Mori Chu »

bajanguy008 wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 12:37 pm
Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 11:41 am
To my surprise, the Mavs have 14 more FTAs than the Suns so far. And Luka isn't even in their top 2. Brunson has 39! and Dinwiddie has 30. Luka is at 20, which is less than CP (25) and Mikal (22).
Some people are pointing to their two guards FTAs as cause for concern putting pressure on our backcourt. In the starting lineup we're probably putting/hiding CP3 on Reggie Bullock and like against Pelicans that should mean Book on Finney Smith.
Assuming we go Jae on SF (Luka) and Mikal on 2 guard (Brunson)
I guess it gets interesting when Dinwiddie comes off the bench but bottom line is we have much more wing defenders than the Jazz lol so don't think it's so easy to Hunt our guys even if that's their game plan
I don't know if I like that matchup. Isn't Luka going to slice and dice Jae? Shouldn't Mikal, our best perimeter defensive player, be guarding Luka, their best perimeter offensive player?

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by bajanguy008 »

Mori Chu wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 12:56 pm
bajanguy008 wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 12:37 pm
Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 11:41 am
To my surprise, the Mavs have 14 more FTAs than the Suns so far. And Luka isn't even in their top 2. Brunson has 39! and Dinwiddie has 30. Luka is at 20, which is less than CP (25) and Mikal (22).
Some people are pointing to their two guards FTAs as cause for concern putting pressure on our backcourt. In the starting lineup we're probably putting/hiding CP3 on Reggie Bullock and like against Pelicans that should mean Book on Finney Smith.
Assuming we go Jae on SF (Luka) and Mikal on 2 guard (Brunson)
I guess it gets interesting when Dinwiddie comes off the bench but bottom line is we have much more wing defenders than the Jazz lol so don't think it's so easy to Hunt our guys even if that's their game plan
I don't know if I like that matchup. Isn't Luka going to slice and dice Jae? Shouldn't Mikal, our best perimeter defensive player, be guarding Luka, their best perimeter offensive player?
Ingram's length made him a tough cover, Luka's size might as well so I can see us going with Jae physicality as option 1 again. Mikal gonna be on him a bunch still anyways. I just posted this in the Game Day

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Mori Chu
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Mori Chu »

I wonder if Torrey Craig may be a useful person to throw at Luka for stretches. Seems like guarding Luka requires a rare mix of size, strength, and speed. Jae is strong enough but a bit too slow, and Mikal is fast enough but a bit too slim.

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Indy »

I thought that Mikal has about twice as much time guarding Luka compared to anyone else on our team. So I am not sure Monty changes that up now. But Brunson will be tough.

Oh, and I think DA will get plenty of switches out on Luka. I think he likes that match up.

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Indy »

BKinSJC wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 11:46 am
Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 11:41 am
To my surprise, the Mavs have 14 more FTAs than the Suns so far. And Luka isn't even in their top 2. Brunson has 39! and Dinwiddie has 30. Luka is at 20, which is less than CP (25) and Mikal (22).
Luka only played three games, though.
Yeah I totally spaced that because I didn't watch much of those first games.

He played about half the minutes of Brunson and Dinwiddie.

I went back and checked expecting to see Brunson's FTAs drop off when Luka came back. Surprisingly they didn't--20 without him, 19 with. His FGAs did drop a bit, but not as much as you would think (23 vs 18).

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Superbone »

Mori Chu wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 10:48 am
Thanks, wp. I will admit that I am pretty out of the loop on the Mavs. I haven't paid much attention to them all year and just kind of assumed they were a "decent" playoff team in the West but not a real contender. So I have missed seeing the rise of Brunson and seeing how they have reinvented themselves now that Porzingis is gone. I'm interested to see how we match up with them. I worry a little that if we get the wrong refs, they'll just call 87 fouls as Luka drives to the basket and basically make him unguardable.
I was glad to see Scott Foster refereeing yesterday so that he's likely not refereeing game one. As far as I know, CP3 still has that double digit losing streak when playing in SF refed games.
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

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Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 1:30 pm
I thought that Mikal has about twice as much time guarding Luka compared to anyone else on our team. So I am not sure Monty changes that up now. But Brunson will be tough.

Oh, and I think DA will get plenty of switches out on Luka. I think he likes that match up.
Would be perfect if he draws some early fouls on Luka.

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Indy »

iLLmatic wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 1:38 pm
Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 1:30 pm
I thought that Mikal has about twice as much time guarding Luka compared to anyone else on our team. So I am not sure Monty changes that up now. But Brunson will be tough.

Oh, and I think DA will get plenty of switches out on Luka. I think he likes that match up.
Would be perfect if he draws some early fouls on Luka.
I meant the other way (unless you were saying he will get draw chargers against Luka).

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by iLLmatic »

Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 1:42 pm
iLLmatic wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 1:38 pm
Indy wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 1:30 pm
I thought that Mikal has about twice as much time guarding Luka compared to anyone else on our team. So I am not sure Monty changes that up now. But Brunson will be tough.

Oh, and I think DA will get plenty of switches out on Luka. I think he likes that match up.
Would be perfect if he draws some early fouls on Luka.
I meant the other way (unless you were saying he will get draw chargers against Luka).
I did not, thanks for the clarification. I got caught skim reading.

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Flagrant Fowl »

I've already lost sleep over this series and it hasn't even started yet. I'm not as worried about the Mavs as I was the Pelicans, more interested to see the adjustments from both teams.

It's a safe bet that Ayton will be a huge factor in this series. Kidd has already made comments about how the Mavs will need to change their approach, so I don't expect the Suns will catch them off guard by getting Ayton good looks in the offense. I think we might see the Mavs try to 'hunt' Ayton more than the Pels did. Not necessarily because they think he's a weak point in the defense, but drawing fouls on him could get him out of the game or at least off his rhythm. Dwight Powell could give Ayton some trouble with his athleticism if Ayton isn't careful or locked in.

I'm not surprised to see that Crowder will get the primary defensive assignment on Luka as it frees up Bridges to slow down Brunson or Dinwiddie. It's the same strategy the Suns used with Ingram and CJ. Crowder is also the most expendable among the starters with Cam Johnson being an effective replacement, so it's not going to kill the Suns if (when) Luka draws 2 fouls on Crowder in the first 5 minutes of the game. Luka will see plenty of Bridges, Johnson and even Booker throughout the series, so there's not a ton to read into with the initial matchups.

Speaking of Luka matchups, I think the Suns should return the favor and hunt him a bit on defense. I expect that his calf strain gradually improving, but he was still missing some explosiveness in their last game. Some of it will depend on how much the Mavs switch and I expect he'll be checking Crowder on the defensive side, but making him work on that end can effectively wear him down and reduce his isolation shot making later in the game.

I'm not sure what the Mavs will do with Chris Paul. I assume there will be a fair bit of DFS and Bullock on him, but Paul is still too good at using screens to get open looks against those guys. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Mavs utilize some 'junk' defenses if (when) Paul and Booker start to get going in the mid-range. That'll bring us back to Ayton who'll have a chance to feast in the paint if the Mavs defense puts all of their focus on the Suns guards.

The Suns shouldn't have to overcome a ton of issues to win this series if everyone is healthy. They're deeper and more experienced with a more advanced offensive scheme. The Suns can win in at least a few different ways while the Mavs will need to consistently shoot well from 3-point range to win games. Obviously everyone's biggest fear is an injury and I'm pretty sure someone will have to miss some time, so I'm going to take a more cautious approach and guess the Suns will win in 6 games.
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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by ShelC »

Without jinxing anything, I feel a lot more confident against the Mavs then the Pels. The Pels were just a tough matchup for us. The Mavs are perimeter oriented with not much upfront in terms of size and scoring and we have the swings to cover off defensively on the perimeter.

I think Brunson is a bit overrated at this point so hoping we're able to bring him back down to earth. Dinwiddie is solid but isn't going to carry them. Can't overlook him tho. Bullock can get hot from 3 and is a good defender, but probably not a threat every game. Then you got DFS, Powell, Kleiber, Bertans, Boban up front. Don't want to let Kleiber get going from 3, which will pull DA out of the paint. DFS shot well frm 3 last series, Powell is a hustle player and Bertans hardly got off the bench.

I'd love for Craig to get back into the rotation this series to help cut back on Mikal's minutes. Craig can match up well with guys like Doncic and DFS, so can Jae and CamJ. It shouldn't just be Mikal chasing Jalen or Doncic all series. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised to the refs hit a guy like Jae with quick fouls while he's guarding Luka. I do agree with hunting Doncic and testing that calf early in the series.

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Re: Suns-Mavs Round 2 News Thread

Post by Superbone »

You think Dallas will continue Willie's plan of hounding Paul full court?

Speaking of Boban, will he get some run to cover Ayton? I don't remember him getting any minutes in their last series.
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