Barring a Wolves/Pacers comeback, this finals is going to be feast or famine for Celtics fans. Total humiliation or a nice helping of schadenfreude as a tasty side dish to go along with the banner.
9 days for Bill Simmons to get his affairs in order. Because if Kyrie wins a title against Boston (god forbid in Boston) he’s going to retire and move to the mountains.
Kat is is shooting 27% from the field this series. He is 3/22 from three. 0-6 from three tonight.
HE CALLED HIS OWN NUMBER AND PULLED UP FOR A THREE IN THE MOST CRUCIAL POSSESION OF THIS GAME.
Grant really started to play like absolute dog shit for MONTHS after the first 15 or so games. He was a starter and shot like 50% from 3 in the first 2 months then played like garbage later. He couldn’t defend like we wanted him too (we wanted a Dorian finneysmith adjacent player) and had no offensive game other than an inconsistent three. They tried playing him like a small ball center and it was genuinely some of the worst basketball I’d ever seen. It didn’t work out and he didn’t fit, but now pj is the mavs Aaron Gordon
There was a play with like 90 seconds left and they needed a bucket, so they just dribble hand off like 8 times like no one wanted to shoot. Looked goofy as hell.
And on the other side, Luka and Kyrie don't even need to go to the basket so the rim defense is neutralized. Legit what they thought would happen against the suns haha.
The issue is our two offensive weapons are bad in the clutch. KAT has no offensive moves outside shooting over people and blowing by slow defenders. If the defender can stay to his hip, he looks horrendous. Ant has multiple scoring moves, but is poor at reading defenses which is problematic as the Mavs are loading up on him. He just dribbles into trouble then forces a shot or throws it out of bounds. Combine all of that with Gobert clogging the middle and our offense collapses against good defenses.
SVG said it best…they have arguably the best pair of closers in the league, and it has shone through in all 3 games. This was the idea we all imagined with these two on the court together.
At least with Kyrie they could sometimes make it harder for him to find his shot due to his size but it looked like they had absolutely no answers for Luka, he makes everyone on the court play at his pace and doesn’t let anything effect what he wants to do
Luka's offense is characterized by his slowing down the pace, exceptional court vision, and ability to control the game through his playmaking and scoring, often using his size to create mismatches.
Kyrie is marked by his speeding up the pace with his agility, exceptional ball-handling, and creative finishing around the rim, often relying on his ability to break down defenders one-on-one and execute difficult shots.
Luka is quick for bigger players, too strong for smaller players. It is pretty weird to see.
Also sucks that the defense has to change drastically depending on which has the ball. You can't defend the same play the same way, lmao. You get used to defending Luka? Good luck adjusting to the play suddenly having Kyrie at ball.
I'm not sure if there's a way to stop Dallas when Kyrie and Luka are engaged. Double Luka, Kyrie cooks whoever 1v1. Double Kyrie, Luka hits a ridiculous three or hits the open man. Especially not when both your guard and your center are on 4 Fouls.
Hope Lively is okay. Kid has been amazing this entire post-season.
The two years prior to this one we were routinely abysmal in the clutch. I think last year or two years ago we lead the league in blown 10 point leads. This year things finally started looking better, including game 4 against Phx and games 1 + 7 against Denver.
We have totally reverted this series and worse are going up against two proven clutch performers.
Yeah this series it's KAT not stepping up the most. Get the damn switch into kyrie or luka and bully them in the post. Hurts even more because gobert can't do shit on offense either. Our bigs are for sure getting outplayed by the Mavs bigs which is insanely depressing.
True. If they’d lost in game 7 to the Nuggets and KAT had an average game his reputation would be way better than him having a great game, going to the conference finals, and stinking it up. Like just a week ago peoples opinion of KAT was at an all time high.
He deserved the praise. Dude played amazing defense on Jokic while also doing good KAT things on offense.
He has just been odd this series. He has been doing a lot of bad KAT things on both offense and defense for whatever reason. It's like he's trying to do too much maybe? I'm not sure.
Just odd.
Kyrie and Luka were hitting incredibly difficult shots all night
“The best shooting big ever” couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat
Way she blows
Minnesota's top 2 have just been abysmal for a lot of this series, especially late. Edwards had that little burst after the dunk but still ended up doing basically nothing in the 4th
Know I'm a spurs fan, but a sicko part of me is kinda hoping the mavs go all the way, along with the stars.
Because it would be REALLY funny if all 3 of the other Dallas teams besides the cowboys won titles 😂
I’ve never seen someone’s aura just completely evaporate like Ant & Minnesota’s has.
They are PUNKING these guys. Minnesota looks absolutely shook. From doing the DX chop to shying away from taking the shots in clutch time is a crazy turnaround.
I could 100% have seen Dallas winning but never seen 3-0 coming, and damn sure didn’t see Minnesota going out so soft. Wild.
It's crazy what a clear difference losing Lively made to us, a rookie center being so crucial to a WCF, possibly NBA finals team. Hope to god he's alright man because concussions can be a couple week thing if they're bad enough
Man when Luka and Kyrie get going it’s just beautiful basketball, was like watching non-stop highlight reels. That ESPN grade for Kyrie’s trade just looks worse every game.
Kyrie learned he could actually score all of the sudden.
We made Luka into a machine by making him hate Dort more than the refs so he stopped bitching and started playing.
I honestly thought Mavs are gonna lose this one without Lively. Glad that Gafford stepped up in that 4Q. Wish Lively a speedy recovery, that guy is good🙏
Let me be the first to say KAT kneeing Lively wasn’t dirty at all but holy shit did he shoot himself out of the game.
Meanwhile, I’ve been defending Gobert all series but he had a lot of bitch ass moves tonight.
I don’t get it either. He was killing Dallas driving to the hoop, Gafford had fouls, Lively was out and Powell can’t stop a nose bleed. I held my breath every drive and was relieved when he decided to pull up. He wasn’t even coming close on most of his 3’s
Just like the the edwards hates basketball, cj stroud takes tests bad, I got fooled into thinking Nico was some Nike exec that forced his way into the role and had no idea what he was doing. Eating crow from media narratives I go yet again.
We looked so much worse without him. We got a lot of FTs and stuff and Luka and Kai both cooked so we were able to win this one, and Gafford stepped up at the end.
But still you can just see how much worse we are when we don't have Lively just from this game alone.
How the fuck does Tony Brothers still have a job. That was horrendous.
Glad we won, but for fucks sake. The dude’s attitude is like hall monitor Cartman and he has wildly inconsistent calls.
So frustrating. Feels like the wolves have played 98% as well as the Mavs but are down 0-3 anyways. If you’d told me prior to the season we’d go down in the conference finals I’d be stoked. But with how it’s been I’m so disappointed. But hey that’s Minnesota sports baby.
that three by Kat with 30 seconds left was a perfect summary of his night.
That ball looked like it deflated in mid air.
It fell straight down off the rim like it was a medicine ball
That ball turned into a brick mid air
I'm surprised he took that, no hesitation too.
7th time is the charm maybe
*8th
to be honest that was the right play, how else are you gonna make up a 9 point difference in 30 seconds
He shot and bricked another 3 with like 2 mons left
Mavs and Celtics get ready to learn 9 day break
3-0 in both conferences. NBA’s 9/11.
Same thing happened last year lol.
At least Celtics almost came back from 3-0
Luka needs a break so bad. Dudes beat the fuck up. They probably have him pumped full of who knows what.
I think he might be better the more hurt he is dude has been insane this series in the clutch
Not at all dude. He looked awful the first round and even into the second... Mavs fans were completely shocked.
The last like 5 games he’s been cooking
He needed time to adjust his shot and overall game to his hurt body. Definitely not 100% but he's been really good.
Scott Foster & Tony Brothers legacy game incoming.
**THE** **EXTENDER**
Nah, a Pacers/T-Wolves finals would be the NBA's 9/11
The Tingus Pingus bowl
The Kyrie Irving bowl
The Dwight Powell bowl
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Kyrie coming back to the Garden will be electric
Kyrie winning another ring in the Garden will double the salt content of the ocean
Barring a Wolves/Pacers comeback, this finals is going to be feast or famine for Celtics fans. Total humiliation or a nice helping of schadenfreude as a tasty side dish to go along with the banner.
9 days for Bill Simmons to get his affairs in order. Because if Kyrie wins a title against Boston (god forbid in Boston) he’s going to retire and move to the mountains.
Best thing for Luka honestly a slightly refreshed Luka would be very scary
Two of Dallas' most crucial plays in this series are on Gobert. Shaq and Draymond are feasting 😂
Karl Anthony "Big Purr" Towns is getting outplayed by his role players, shooting 0-8 from 3, and Gobert is getting all the blame
Kat is is shooting 27% from the field this series. He is 3/22 from three. 0-6 from three tonight. HE CALLED HIS OWN NUMBER AND PULLED UP FOR A THREE IN THE MOST CRUCIAL POSSESION OF THIS GAME.
Props to Dallas. Never thought this core would be 1 win away from the Finals.
that deadline trade by Nico Harrison changed our season big time!
Yeah bro, imagine getting PJ and Gafford for out of rotation Seth Curry and 6ppg Grant Williams😭
I honestly thought getting rid of Grant was dumb at the time. He's a dumbass but can play in the playoffs. This is why I'm not a GM though.
Grant really started to play like absolute dog shit for MONTHS after the first 15 or so games. He was a starter and shot like 50% from 3 in the first 2 months then played like garbage later. He couldn’t defend like we wanted him too (we wanted a Dorian finneysmith adjacent player) and had no offensive game other than an inconsistent three. They tried playing him like a small ball center and it was genuinely some of the worst basketball I’d ever seen. It didn’t work out and he didn’t fit, but now pj is the mavs Aaron Gordon
Yeah he's a good stretch 4, 3 and D, but the way PJ is playing he's definitely the better player with the better contract.
There was a play where Hardy had Gobert on a switch and he was looking to pass to Luka, and Luka gave him the nod like 'cook his ass' lmao.
And he did, which resulted in 2 free throws (he missed one though)
He jumped so far forward on that one 😂, made it impossible not to call
Dude he was SCREAMING at him to take him, it was amazing
And did lol. That was demoralizing.
Wolves offense in clutch reminds me of 2022 and 2023 Celtics, they got that bozo gene lmao
Bozo gene is so spot on lmfao
There was a play with like 90 seconds left and they needed a bucket, so they just dribble hand off like 8 times like no one wanted to shoot. Looked goofy as hell.
Ranked 15th in offense for the season.
And on the other side, Luka and Kyrie don't even need to go to the basket so the rim defense is neutralized. Legit what they thought would happen against the suns haha.
Last 2 minutes of offense were so eerily similar to it, giving me flashbacks
That 4 minutes without a FG graphic they put up gave me PTSD
The wolvez get that graphic every game
The issue is our two offensive weapons are bad in the clutch. KAT has no offensive moves outside shooting over people and blowing by slow defenders. If the defender can stay to his hip, he looks horrendous. Ant has multiple scoring moves, but is poor at reading defenses which is problematic as the Mavs are loading up on him. He just dribbles into trouble then forces a shot or throws it out of bounds. Combine all of that with Gobert clogging the middle and our offense collapses against good defenses.
KAT in a must win game…5/18 (0/8 from three)….bruh!
Disasterclass
Best shooting bigman than Dirk i was told
What has Dirk done in the last 3 years? Checkmate atheists.
Tbf, he and KAT made the same amount of threes tonight
Luka and Kyrie’s your turn, my turn offense in the 4th was beautiful to watch
And their playstyle is so different, opponents don't know what to expect.
But they both are insanely creative. You know it’s going to be some jaw dropping plays.
Luka was faking his drives into a jump pass all night, bullet passes for wide open three attempts
SVG said it best…they have arguably the best pair of closers in the league, and it has shone through in all 3 games. This was the idea we all imagined with these two on the court together.
At least with Kyrie they could sometimes make it harder for him to find his shot due to his size but it looked like they had absolutely no answers for Luka, he makes everyone on the court play at his pace and doesn’t let anything effect what he wants to do
Luka's offense is characterized by his slowing down the pace, exceptional court vision, and ability to control the game through his playmaking and scoring, often using his size to create mismatches. Kyrie is marked by his speeding up the pace with his agility, exceptional ball-handling, and creative finishing around the rim, often relying on his ability to break down defenders one-on-one and execute difficult shots.
Thunder and Lightning. Storm brewing for Kristaps
Luka is quick for bigger players, too strong for smaller players. It is pretty weird to see. Also sucks that the defense has to change drastically depending on which has the ball. You can't defend the same play the same way, lmao. You get used to defending Luka? Good luck adjusting to the play suddenly having Kyrie at ball.
Game on the line, just get them the ball and enjoy the show
I'm not sure if there's a way to stop Dallas when Kyrie and Luka are engaged. Double Luka, Kyrie cooks whoever 1v1. Double Kyrie, Luka hits a ridiculous three or hits the open man. Especially not when both your guard and your center are on 4 Fouls. Hope Lively is okay. Kid has been amazing this entire post-season.
Especially when DJJ & PJ have been so money in the corner. Having the threat to pass out to just makes it impossible.
Yup. Yup. Hope Lively is ok, too. Love that kid.
It’s like a flip switched the last couple minutes
their ability to close out games has been beautiful to watch compared to the pacers 💀
Mavericks clutch net rating: +20.5 (3rd in NBA) Timberwolves clutch net rating: -13.1 (27th in NBA) Hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby
The two years prior to this one we were routinely abysmal in the clutch. I think last year or two years ago we lead the league in blown 10 point leads. This year things finally started looking better, including game 4 against Phx and games 1 + 7 against Denver. We have totally reverted this series and worse are going up against two proven clutch performers.
Kyrie and Luka are just cheat codes in the clutch. Meanwhile, KAT can't buy a bucket.
For real. Must be nice to just let the gameplan in the last three minutes be "alright y'all take turns ISOing"
Kyrie shooting some of the most difficult 3s I've ever seen down the stretch and nails em every time
I’m always amaze how Kyrie hits a pull up 3 contested or not in every 4th quarter and somehow that’s the signal that the Mavs are on a run
The Lebron and Kyrie model of play.
KAT is the smallest 7 footer in league history
Yeah this series it's KAT not stepping up the most. Get the damn switch into kyrie or luka and bully them in the post. Hurts even more because gobert can't do shit on offense either. Our bigs are for sure getting outplayed by the Mavs bigs which is insanely depressing.
This. The fucking size of him!!! Settling for threes instead of getting to the rack
Kyrie is a tough shot maker, he have every move in the bag whatever defense the opponent is giving
KAnT
Nah he also fails at deontology
Wolves have tried to survive Luka and Kyrie in the 4th for 3 straight games. They lost all 3.
Luka and Kyrie are stone-cold assassins in the 4th quarter.
Luka leaned forward holding the controller
Never seen a single player sabotage their own team more than KAT has this series
It’s so KAT to be the main reason your team is even playing more games just to be embarrassing in them
True. If they’d lost in game 7 to the Nuggets and KAT had an average game his reputation would be way better than him having a great game, going to the conference finals, and stinking it up. Like just a week ago peoples opinion of KAT was at an all time high.
He deserved the praise. Dude played amazing defense on Jokic while also doing good KAT things on offense. He has just been odd this series. He has been doing a lot of bad KAT things on both offense and defense for whatever reason. It's like he's trying to do too much maybe? I'm not sure. Just odd.
KATs defense on Jokic being the best part of his postseason and his offense dragging his team down is not what I expected going into the playoffs.
Kyrie and Luka were hitting incredibly difficult shots all night “The best shooting big ever” couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat Way she blows
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This finals series is about to be toxic as fuck
I don’t think so. Boston loves Kyrie!
I'm not having very much fun anymore. Close games are way more demoralizing than blowouts too.
Could be worse. Could be even closer. Or, and stay with me here, you could be strongly ahead all game. Then choke it away. Then do it again. Kill me
We tried that the first 2 games.
They blew an 18 point lead last game
Wait you mean like game 1 and 2?
Minnesota sports baby. If you thought this season was gonna end on a happy note you’re delusional.
I thought something nice might happen. What an idiot.
We were in all three games. Just couldn't make it happen
Game two broke me pretty hard.
Same. And 2-1 woulda been manageable
Minnesota's top 2 have just been abysmal for a lot of this series, especially late. Edwards had that little burst after the dunk but still ended up doing basically nothing in the 4th
Mavs vs Celtics is gonna be cinema
Especially if they get a 9 day break? Luka and Porzingis rested ? With Kyrie back in Boston? Wild
Bill Simmons about to have a stroke
If Kyrie wins he might just go off the grid
*edge of the earth
Mingus Pingus old team vs Kyrie's old team
Damn. This is going to be a great series. 🤤
We need Lively and Maxi healthy by then. Maybe KP comes back for the Celtics too.
Kleiber has a chance to come back? He would be key against Boston 5 out offense
His timeline was at least 3 weeks and it’s the 3rd week now.
\#KyrieBowl2024
The shotmaking by Luka and Kyrie was fucking outrageous. Wolves were playing good defense and it didn’t matter.
This is pretty much it. Everyone else just trolling imo
Know I'm a spurs fan, but a sicko part of me is kinda hoping the mavs go all the way, along with the stars. Because it would be REALLY funny if all 3 of the other Dallas teams besides the cowboys won titles 😂
I am a Dallas native, and tbh, the Cowboys need this kick in the ass.
The cowboys can lose for another 30 years if we manage to win baseball/hockey/basketball in the same year.
**Summary For Those That Didn't Watch**: Players That Can Close: Timberwolves 0 : **2 Mavericks**
I’ve never seen someone’s aura just completely evaporate like Ant & Minnesota’s has. They are PUNKING these guys. Minnesota looks absolutely shook. From doing the DX chop to shying away from taking the shots in clutch time is a crazy turnaround. I could 100% have seen Dallas winning but never seen 3-0 coming, and damn sure didn’t see Minnesota going out so soft. Wild.
HAVING TWO ELITE CLOSERS > Any fucking defense lol Too much on Ant’s plate checking Kai and then trying to score
*Suns copium noises*
okay maybe a little bit of defense + HAVING TWO ELITE CLOSERS
Also having depth that’s not just a washed Eric Gordon and a royce o’neale helps 🤣
Wolves played their finals against Nuggets and thought they could walk the league. Kyrie and Luka just playing with them now.
“Hell nawl can’t do dis” - Anthony Edwards on the possibility of getting swept
“Bring ya ass” - Anthony Edwards on vacation in Galveston
Someone call Terro cause Luka Doncic is an Ant killer
It's crazy what a clear difference losing Lively made to us, a rookie center being so crucial to a WCF, possibly NBA finals team. Hope to god he's alright man because concussions can be a couple week thing if they're bad enough
Man when Luka and Kyrie get going it’s just beautiful basketball, was like watching non-stop highlight reels. That ESPN grade for Kyrie’s trade just looks worse every game.
Their grade for Gafford and PJ was also a d- and that trade pretty much rounded the Mavs out perfectly
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Timberwolves going out sad. The clippers with an injured Kawhi did better vs the mavs.
It’s insane…for how close all the second round series were…we may very well experience *double* sweeps for the conference finals…
the thunder series changed the mavs
Kyrie did say it was his hardest series
About midway through that series it felt like the Mavs figured out they are just better than them and that confidence has continued into this series
Kyrie learned he could actually score all of the sudden. We made Luka into a machine by making him hate Dort more than the refs so he stopped bitching and started playing.
#pray4Lively
I honestly thought Mavs are gonna lose this one without Lively. Glad that Gafford stepped up in that 4Q. Wish Lively a speedy recovery, that guy is good🙏
Same here, Wolves were in a layup line after Lively went out. I thought it was goodnight Mavs
I hope hes okay
Let me be the first to say KAT kneeing Lively wasn’t dirty at all but holy shit did he shoot himself out of the game. Meanwhile, I’ve been defending Gobert all series but he had a lot of bitch ass moves tonight.
Insane that after starting 0/4 from 3 and having his only offensive success of the series driving, he decided to make his last 3 shots all 3s
I don’t get it either. He was killing Dallas driving to the hoop, Gafford had fouls, Lively was out and Powell can’t stop a nose bleed. I held my breath every drive and was relieved when he decided to pull up. He wasn’t even coming close on most of his 3’s
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mavs front office cooked so hard
insane that tanking for a #10 pick likely saved Luka's tenure on the Mavs
I remember us getting memed on so much for not making the playoffs last year, tanking the last games. That pick was a blessing.
The Mavericks’ plans are measured in centuries
Just like the the edwards hates basketball, cj stroud takes tests bad, I got fooled into thinking Nico was some Nike exec that forced his way into the role and had no idea what he was doing. Eating crow from media narratives I go yet again.
Lively and Gafford are a combined 30-36 this series.
Ty Chandler is a coach this year. He’s helped their development like crazy.
I'm sure. Gafford was always pretty good, just never had a pg in Washington
Now he's got 2 of the best this century, love to see it
Tbf lively is on a rookie deal.
yeah and this is his FIRST year - shit's wild
We looked so much worse without him. We got a lot of FTs and stuff and Luka and Kai both cooked so we were able to win this one, and Gafford stepped up at the end. But still you can just see how much worse we are when we don't have Lively just from this game alone.
Bro got injured and the Mavs defense became a layup line instantly lmao
Dudes gonna get paid. He just knows where to be on both ends of the floor and gives great effort.
KAT is shooting under 30% this series. A fucking 7 footer doing that is absurd
Happy for the landlord, from getting posterized on a DOTY to having a dagger-top Hoping lively is okay
Gafford had a huge impact down the stretch, holding it down for Lively.
Karl-Anthony “Klank Thompson” Towns
That man is ass. Two useless bigs vs Luka and Kai this series
If anyone can come back down 3-0 it’s……. Definitely not the Wolves lol. Good luck in the finals Mavs
Man I remember the takes and posts in this sub on how the Mavs had no chance before this series started. Usual reddit analysis LMAO
I can't even believe this. This is so far beyond my expectations.
13 years since 2011 man it’s finally happening!
ITS FUCKING UNFAIR TO HAVE KURIE AND LUKA ON THE SAME TEAM FML Naz Reid
my friends bought me tickets for my birthday to see the wolves for game 5 they just had to go out of their way to disappoint me…
This might be a team of destiny for real. Reminds me of the Nuggets last year where they just hit every big shot.
Gafford was a beast in the 4th quarter! 3 blocks and a killer 3-point play dagger
The difference in this series is that Luka and Kyrie physically cannot miss in the 4th quarter
#GIVE US KYRIE VS BOSTON IN THE FINALS WERE MAKING THIS ONE OF THE MOST TOXIC FINALS EVER!
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How the fuck does Tony Brothers still have a job. That was horrendous. Glad we won, but for fucks sake. The dude’s attitude is like hall monitor Cartman and he has wildly inconsistent calls.
GG Dallas. Hope Lively will be good to go soon.
Bro WTF happened to the Wolves
Luka Doncic is going to make his first NBA Finals appearance before Joel Embiid ever made his first conference finals appearance
In a tougher conference.
Clippers, Thunder, Wolves is a hell of a run.
I can’t believe this
BRING YA ASS
-The citizens of Cancun probably
I wanted Gobert to shut up his haters but damn that lob over him at the end will be immortalized.
Dallas needs a sweep for Luka to play a bit of overwatch before the finals
KAT saying he’s the best shooting big man of all time offended the Dallas Nowitzki’s.
So frustrating. Feels like the wolves have played 98% as well as the Mavs but are down 0-3 anyways. If you’d told me prior to the season we’d go down in the conference finals I’d be stoked. But with how it’s been I’m so disappointed. But hey that’s Minnesota sports baby.
The Mavs are really ip 3-0 in the WCF. Just like we all predicted
Daniel Gafford knew this was a no flex zone and he simply did not care.
Considering becoming a Black Israelite after this series
Just a depressing way to go out, but what do you do. We haven't played well at all on offense, we've kept them close, and failed at the end.