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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Thunder VS Mavericks (Game 1)


Thunder Lead Series 1-0

Last game of the night, and the Thunder were full of energy. You could tell that they were so excited to be back in the mix after they didn't make the playoffs last year. On the other hand, the poor Mavericks are having a very tough time matching up with this Thunder team. They were blown out by a total of 38 points. So here is really why the Mavs had such a tough game.

The Mavericks couldn't guard Westbrook in the paint. The main fault lies on Dirk. If Westbrook was in there, you could almost always mark it down as 2 points, Dirk was just too slow. Also, Wesley Matthews can not guard Kevin Durant. KD is way too tall and really took it at Matthews all night long. And that is the problem, they have no one to guard KD and Westbrook. The best defender they have to guard Westbrook is Raymond Felton. Westbrook would just blow by Deron Williams.

A big thing that limited Dallas's scoring was OKC's defense. Their pick and roll defense was amazing! Steven Adams did a great job in it whether he was guarding the roll man or he was help side. All of the rotations were on time. Serge Ibaka and Russell Westbrook also did a great job and so did Roberson. They all were on the same page defensively. Dallas was forced to take a ton of tough shots in the paint and from mid-range. The team only shot 29.8% from the field, 22.2% from 3, and 61.5% from the FT line.

What Dallas really needs is more guard play. It was really limited from them. J.J. Barea, who is now injured, only had 2 points, he shot 1-6 from the field. Deron Williams finished the game with 2 points, he shot 1-9. Raymond Felton shot 2-10 from the field, however, he did have 7 points. As you can see, these guy need to produce. Dallas can not win without them.

And last, Dallas got out rebounded badly. The Mavs had a total of 33 rebounds. OKC had 56. Dallas also had 0 blocks in the game. You can tell what that says about their big. I think, if you are Dallas, you have to have JaVale McGee out there to protect the rim and grab board. That is all he has to really do. That and be open for lobs to open up the floor. Mejri did not work out and you a guy who can protect the paint because Dirk can't. Not to mention, JaVale was the only player on the Mavs to have a positive +/- advantage. He needs to be a part of the rotation.

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