100%. Fun matchup to start the year too.

Oh **** I forgot Harrison Barnes is in the spurs lol

Klay's out there making plays! Rumors of his demise appear to be greatly exaggerated.

We'll see how he holds up through the season, though.

DANManman said:

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Klay's out there making plays! Rumors of his demise appear to be greatly exaggerated.

We'll see how he holds up through the season, though.

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He actually shoots better as the season goes on throughout his career.

We had to bring our new defensive stopper to shut down a career quarter from HB.

Absolutely brutal start for PJ…

Great to see him hit that open look

Maxi!!! We need him back closer to what he was

Let's shoot like that 1 more quarter

shack009 said:

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We had to bring our new defensive stopper to shut down a career quarter from HB.

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You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him

That was sweet with the walk off from Luka for Klay

Well this is fun

LFG

If Klay can shoot better than 40% from 3 this season, this team is a 3 seed at worst

shack009 said:

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Absolutely brutal start for PJ…

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We need him to be just an average shooter.

Had the kids by myself tonight so I had to record the second half and come back and watch. Can't believe I was nervous about the second half.

Such a fun way to start the season with that crazy spurt from Klay and Luka.

I actually thought we could have won by 30+. You could tell Luka was rusty and we missed several easy shots at or around the rim, probably just because of the thought of Wemby being on the floor. Thought the spurs also made some heavily contested shots close to the rim.

Some rough moments for Grimes and Marshall, but you can tell they at least aren't afraid. I actually thought Grimes had been benched because he was so bad, then he came in to start the 4th.

Overall, the offense was so fun to watch. We did a ton of fun stuff, cool ways to get Klay open, and also used him as a decoy really well too. Having Lively as a plus passer is such a luxury.

Also it looks like Hardy is going to be our consistent minutes wtf guy this year. He made like 6 awesome plays and also did like 6 completely boneheaded things.

But you can tell he's progressed and will be an important part this year. Glad it's him over Dinwiddie.

Oh and Maxi led the team in plus/minus tonight. Dude still has it. Gotta keep shooting.

I was hoping PJ would work on his shot in the offseason or at least would shoot better after having an offseason to learn the system. It's just 1 game, but his offense didn't look good at all.

It's weird because his shot looks fines. He might just be a corner 3 guy because he can't make anything from the break.

Even though the media picked up on the fact that Klay isn't the same guy post-injury, everyone is overlooking just how much better he is than 2023-24 THJ. Klay doesn't need to be an all star to raise the ceiling of this team.

Mavs looked very physical last night and have a lot of offensive firepower to match. Luka looked a little rusty to start after missing pre-season but came out better the 2nd half. I think (barring injuries) the Mavs will finish either 1 or 2 in the West.

jeffdjohnson said:

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Even though the media picked up on the fact that Klay isn't the same guy post-injury, everyone is overlooking just how much better he is than 2023-24 THJ. Klay doesn't need to be an all star to raise the ceiling of this team.

Mavs looked very physical last night and have a lot of offensive firepower to match. Luka looked a little rusty to start after missing pre-season but came out better the 2nd half. I think (barring injuries) the Mavs will finish either 1 or 2 in the West.

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I loved the physicality and everything about the defense. Both the mindset and the coverages. Picking up full court was a fun wrinkle we didn't see a ton of last year.

But a lot of fouls away from the basket and they kept doing dumb things in the 3rd when the Spurs were in the bonus for a long time and kept going to the line on silly fouls. Gotta learn to rein it in in those situations.

M.C. Swag said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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The problem is Klay has to be running silly to utilize his skill set. His open catch and shoot three % is the same as a number of cheap available 3 and D players. What makes him unique is his shooting percentage on the move off screens and on contested jumpers. He had over 150 more shot attempts coming off screens last year than the player with the second most in the league (Curry).

If we aren't planning to fundamentally adjust how we play offense, these moves are just a waste of money. Dallas has to utilize off ball screens and movement MUCH more to get value out of Klay. People have this idea that he's this incredible open catch and shoot guy that has value in that skill alone, and it just isn't true. Hes just a really expensive version of a very common, generic NBA player if that's all we plan to do.

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Nothing about the Mavs offense will hurt Klay. He can still curl around screens and get movement looks if he wants. He can also save his legs and drill wide open shots that Luka or Kyrie create. Maybe his C&S 3% is similar to 'cheap 3&D' players, but his gravity isn't. Last year he shot 38% on 9 3PA per game. That's great shooting on elite volume and he will bend defenses just by being on the court.

And honestly the Mavs offense SHOULD change to more movement shooting because more teams are going to copy the Celtics defensive formula and cover the corners while allowing Luka to iso. If Luka and Kyrie can't get their iso buckets to fall, we'll need someone who knows how to use a screen to fire off a quick shot.

Regardless this team needed an infusion of a reliable 3pt threat.

• After the trade deadline, Dallas shot 36% from three as a team. - - Klay shot 38% for all of last season.
• In the NBA Finals, they shot 29.4 percent on above-the-break threes. - - Klay shot 38% from above the break for all of last season.
• On wide-open threes, classified as the closest defender being six or more feet away, Dallas shot 37.1 percent in the playoffs, and a dreadful 31.1 percent in the Finals. - - Klay shot 37% on wide open 3s for all of last season.

Even if we change NOTHING about how we play, Klay profiles as someone who's shooting will improve the team offense simply by his gravity and increased efficiency. And those improvements are further amplified when you simply need him to be better than THJ (a player that made the Mavs worse in every measurable category when he was on the court).

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It's 1 game, but Klays impact on the offense has been exactly what I hoped it would have been. (His rebounds, however, were something I didn't see lol)

It was awesome. Klay was also running to the 3 point line off of Lively and Naji when Lively had that back door pass to Naji for a layup. But the defense is completely focused on Klay and has to go over the top of everything.

jeffdjohnson said:

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Even though the media picked up on the fact that Klay isn't the same guy post-injury, everyone is overlooking just how much better he is than 2023-24 THJ. Klay doesn't need to be an all star to raise the ceiling of this team.

Mavs looked very physical last night and have a lot of offensive firepower to match. Luka looked a little rusty to start after missing pre-season but came out better the 2nd half. I think (barring injuries) the Mavs will finish either 1 or 2 in the West.

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Klay is really replacing DJJ and Naji replaced THJ. Klay is a downgrade defensively but such an upgrade offensively and how defenders treat him that the defensive downgrade is still a net positive for Dallas.

Both are positives.

I guess the suns are just going to make everything.

11 team fouls on the Mavs and 6 on the suns…

And Mavs bench got T'd up on a foul by the suns.

More missed layups, including from Luka…

These calls are ridiculous and the Mavs don't have a challenge because a ridiculous call early in the game wasn't overturned.

Phoenix gets a ridiculous overturn. This game was decided before it started.

11 more fouls called on the Mavs and 19 more FTs for the Suns…

Mavs played like garbage and missed a ton of easy shots, but it's hard to overcome stuff like that.

And I had to watch on the Suns broadcast…

Safe to say we aren't exactly in mid season form.