Game Thread SEEDING GAME# 7: BLAZERS @ MAVERICKS - AUGUST 11, 2020 - TUESDAY, 3:30, TNT & NBCSNW

This is the biggest game of the season. There's no way of getting around that. If we beat these guys then we're likely in. The Nets are a much easier win and I still don't think we'll sleep on them with the play-in positioning on the line and so close. The Mavs should be motivated and rested but we should be too. God I wish we'd start Gary tomorrow and bring CJ off of the bench or even bring Melo off the bench. I just want Gary covering Luca, Dame on Seth and one of the other two against Hardaway on D. I think Melo could better exploit Seth, Hardaway or Luca on offense. Anyway, I doubt Stotts will budge from his rotations but I wish he would. Gary on Luca makes the most sense right?

 

damn. I agreed with him until you posted this and turned the lightbulb on.
@TorturedBlazerFan

i take back what i said this morning.
Lol.

 

The Nets have been very good in the bubble. Aren’t they 4-2?

 

They beat Sac and the Wizards... not impressed, the Bucks who played Giannis 16 minutes and also rested the rest of their starters, then played the end of their bench about as much as Giannis played... again not impressed and their other win was against the Clippers who had Kawhi but not PG13, we lost to a worse Clippers team so I am impressed to some degree with this win. One impressive win in six games. Also they got blown out by the Celtics and also blown out buy the Magic who didn't score for the last seven minutes of the game and still won by ten... not impressed. I know we will beat the Nets unless Dame can't play or we lose two or more of our other 6 guys that really matter. I'm not saying our team has been really impressive either, I'm just saying that we will beat the Nets.

 

Dame on Doncic

 

You think that's better than Gary? I mean maybe it is but Luca torched us twice and played well in the other game. Dame was assigned Luca at some point in all of those games and it didn't go well if I remember correctly but as the numbers show no one in the league has done too well against Luca. I just thought Gary could do the best and putting Dame on maybe the best offensive player in the league this season might not allow Dame to do as well on offense where he's pretty damn good himself. I don't know though because Dame did do well against Dallas this season. I do know that Gary is the best perimeter defender we have and I'd like to have him start in this very important game.

 

Gary is too feisty, Luca's pace is slower

 

Biggest game of the season. We need to win

 

That's what I'm thinking, Gary gets up in Luca's shit and takes him out of his comfort zone. Speeds him up a little and causes some disruption. If we don't have one guy do that to him, then we will end up having to trap, blitz or some other form of doubling the guy and then he'll just pick us apart with his passing ability. I say run Gary at him hard and if that gets Gary into foul trouble or gasses him out then we bring in Little to put pressure on him. That's the only way I see us limiting his scoring and at the same time keeping him from killing us with his fantastic passing. Maybe Stotts has a better idea, he is the professional but I imagine his idea will be to just approach this game like every other game and play the best straight-up man to man defense we can and if that doesn't work he'll go to a zone and if that doesn't work he'll go back to the straight man to man... maybe he'll thrown in some blitzing double teams that will result in easy threes or inside dunks but hey, who knows maybe whatever Stotts devises will work. Most likely Luca will light us up, Dame will light them up and it will come down to the rest of the team, which in this situation, I think we will win. We have more big time options in Nurk, CJ, Melo, and Gary while they have more depth but I think the big time performers shine in the big games.

 

This Game basicly decides our season. I'm convinced that Luka and Porzingis are gonna play, because the Mavs are trying to avoid the Clippers, and by reading on reddit, they are trying to play the Nuggets. They can get the 6th seed with a win against the Blazers, and another problem is, if the Nuggets get the 2nd seed, the Mavs will tank in the last game to get back to the 7th seed, and who they play in the last game? Yeah the Suns, I know it's all just hypothetical, but it's still funny to think about all these scenarios. That being said, no matter if Doncic and Porzingis are playing or not, we definetly can not play the way we did against Denver, Clippers und the 76ers, we need big time improvement and especially Defense, better Shooting

 

From O-Live:

Carlisle pointed out that the league doesn’t want teams to sit stars for nationally televised games. Tuesday’s game against Portland will be on TNT, as well as NBCSports Northwest, so expect both Doncic and Porzingis to play against the Blazers

 

That stupid, putrid loss to the Clips looms large. The Blazers are in this position because of the winnable games they have pissed away.

 

Glass half empty or half full i guess?
Blazers are also in this position because they have won 4 games out of 6 and can put this thing to rest with another win.

 

The team didn't look all that great with the 3 warm up games and nobody expected Phoenix to do what they have been , so we control our own destiny and will have to own it.
Dame has been huge in many games but they will be forgotten unless he brings us to win our last two, then he will cement even more his great a player he is.

 

They could just play both for the first half and rest them after.

FWIW the Suns game is also a TNT game.

 

Their not that good that’s why

 

Well if the NBA works as you allude to, maybe the Blazers should be resting starters more as it would lead to wins?

 

My theory about why playing scrubs doesn't matter against the Blazers is because of defense sucks. Doesn't matter how much you can score on one end if you can't stop the opponent from scoring no matter who is on the floor. Call it "playing down to the competition", but really whether the Mavs have Luka or not they're still going to score against us. We'll probably score pretty well too which is why it will be a close game regardless.