This was a big part of why the Mavs outscored the Wolves by 13 in the second half. They ran this play over and over after stoppages (free throws, ball out of bounds, etc). Wolves couldn't stop it.
The setup is two ballscreens, using Gafford or Lively as the second screener. That gets Gobert involved in ballscreen defense. They use two screens to make it more difficult for Jaden McDaniels to stay attached to Luka/Kyrie, with Gafford/Lively also mixing it up occasionally by slipping that second screen and going straight to the rim.
The play is called double drag most commonly, also called 77 or more simply a double ballscreen.
That’s why people have been saying Luka needed a rim running big because it takes his playmaking to a whole new level. He has so many ways to pick apart a defense now it’s very impressive
It really is crazy that EVERYONE could see this and was calling for a good rim running big after how Luka made Dwight Powell look, and it took them 5 years to get one. Now, it’s paying off.
everyone know but those bigs don't grow on trees man without a price. Look at GSW just wanted someone like Lively but they got a bum instead with that high pick in James Assman
Not hitting on Wiseman hurts, but they have TJD and he looks like he’s going to be a good one, too.
His energy and intelligence reminded me a lot of Lively, tbh.
this is also retrospectively correct because Luka won an Euroleague with Walter Tavares and Anthony Randolph who were not superstar bigs of European competition back then
The Clippers were the most effective stopping it they just needed Kawhi to roll that 1 in 35 chance that he'd be healthy & they coulda been finals bound lmao
Hell even if it was Kawhi instead of PG
They looked so good in 21 before he went down, even afterwards the rest of the team looked great. I’m pretty sure they’d have won it all that year if he didn’t go down.
I think something might be wrong with Minny too. When the Kings played the Wolves in their first regular season matchup, the Kings spammed a similar double high ball screen against the Wolves about 17 times in the second half. Kings scored on almost every possession and won the game.
Here's a short highlight video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgmRF8Y_LgA
It's one of the most busted plays in basketball right now other than a good PnR.
The fact that Kyrie is involved makes it even more impossible to guard.
Awesome post! Thanks for putting this together
Great seeing how Luka and Kyrie use their strengths differently. Luka used his height and vision to pass directly over Gobert to Lively in the paint.
Kyrie being shorter has harder time making that pass, so he uses his handles and shiftiness to get a step on Gobert and pass to the big on weakside/draw a foul
What’s the counter if the wolves pre-switched the ball screen so Rudy is with the first screener? Does the second screener just bail and it becomes a typical p&r?
I’m curious to see how/if the wolves can stop this, because if not this is a sweep.
Fight over the first screen and let the second defender slip back with the screener. Either that or commit to the corner guy coming in and play help and let Rudy recover to the corner instead or if it’s djj, let him shoot instead. Could also blitz on the first screen since that one isn’t really being involved in the action and it’s the second screener who’s getting the dunk. Let pj make decisions instead of lukai
The Mavs have destroyed zone every time they've faced it post-ASB. They killed Miami (who run the most disciplined zone in the league) by just feeding PJ in the middle and letting him make plays/floaters near the charge circle. Also did well against Clips and OKC zone looks.
Have defenders big enough to guard Gafford/Lively and also mobile enough to switch onto Luka. Switching negates the screens, but the Wolves don't want Gobert switched onto Luka for obvious reasons.
the mavs arent even setting real screens because they know exactly what the wolves are gonna do, its extremely predictable by the end. luka and kyrie can anticipate how they’re going to attack it before it even happens
if the wolves just came out one play and said stick to your man and fight through the screen, theyd at least make the ball handler have to think and adjust, and would probably have their preferred defender on the ball handler for at least another few seconds
edit: actually i guess there was a couple plays where mcdaniels stuck to luka. one resulted in a shooting foul, and the other a missed 3 albeit an open one. still seem like the best defended plays out of these
The Wolves had a phenomenal defense this season but it seemed very bread and butter and flat just effective. A lot of the talking heads are saying this series is just a personnel mismatch and Wolves are struggling to adapt their defense. Did no one have a similar plan to the Mavs' current strategy or did other WC teams not have the personnel to execute to this degree?
The games have been close on the scoreboard obviously but it seems as soon as the Mavs download enough info and get into their rhythm they don't even blink at double digit comebacks.
What changes can the Wolves realistically make at this point? I'm fully expecting the Wolves to tie up the series this week because I'm a doomer but I'm just not seeing the path they can take besides Ant and KAT just clicking all of a sudden.
I saw my Kings spam a similar action to kill the Wolves in the regular season so I was wondering why the Nuggets didn't try it as well. Is it just a personnel issue?
They ran this a ton especially a few years back with Kleber and Powell (I think, back before he regressed/everyone knew he could only finish on an easy lob) and it looked legit unstoppable when Luka was on and the big were making good choices.
His finger, wrist and arm strength are ridiculous. The reason why anyone can barely anticipate his short passes is because he doesn't show any signs of doing it, when he decides to do it, he does it instantly, the ball is already in transit when defenders see it.
There’s another post recently with Luka swishing a behind the back, one armed shot from half court during warmups. His arm is a cannon.
That man is insane.
Some small part of me kinda wishes for another lockout just so we can get another month or two of guys like Luka messing about travelling around the country going viral playing streetball, soccer, flag football the way Bron and KD were last time.
Mavs play the most simple form of basketball there is. Back to the basics. When you got 2 guys that have mastered the fundamentals, you can run the same stuff with a little flair and voila, it’s the 5th dunk of the quarter
It’s honestly beautiful. Reminds me of when JVG would say “everyone says they want to win but what they mean is they want to win their way”. Mavs really seem to not care about doing anything other than what works.
The addition of lively and gafford changed this team to it's core. I picked the Mavs to beat the Timberwolves because that lob threat would freeze most defenders when Kyrie or Luka enters the paint. It's too much pick your poison. It's like playing the old rockets but with two hardens
I think Kidd deserves a lot of credit. I feel NJ nets play back in the day with Kidd leading the charge had some similar elements with exploiting the defense, staying simple with what works, and obviously the lobs.
Usually the defense adapts and changes their approach. Wolves never did. It’s on both the coaching staff and the players for not recognising that the first defender can’t hedge but has to switch and Gobert needing to be higher on the level of the second screen. To give time for the second defender to recover. But they feared to give the switch so much that they got killed by this double drag.
It’s even more ridiculous that in the last play they easily gave the switch to Luka after trying to avoid it like the pest for the whole game. It makes zero sense.
If the Wolves lose this series, most will blame their defense but the issue is their offense.
They take pride in their defense but at some point they have to realize they won’t be stopping Luka. Luka is gonna diagnose and dissect any defense when he wants to.
Wolves need to figure out how to score 110-115 points a game.
Yeah everyone is shitting on Rudy for yesterday but nobody stepped up offensively *again* in the second half for Minnesota. Game one Ant and KAT combined for 5/20 shooting, 15 points and yesterday they went 3/11, 14 points.
You can't expect to win many games when both your scorers are not scoring, and Naz Reid is why you're even in the game.
Sidenote: Second half, PJ and DJJ went 2/9, but the rest of the Mavs shot 25/31 (80.6%). The Wolves look *gassed*.
Edit sidenote: Luka has outscored Ant and KAT *combined* in the second halves of each game. Whether Ant is tired or hurt, Minny needs way more aggression from him.
The Mavs have figured out the Wolves offensively. Pack the paint, funnel Towns and Edwards into the rim protectors, and then the Wolves just start chucking 3s.
Denver started to solve Edwards defensively but they just don’t have the defensive personnel Dallas does. Now he’s in jail.
Only insane shooting from Naz and Jaden has kept their offense afloat.
If both those guys come back to earth, MN will score in the low 90s.
Naz shoots damn near 50% from 3 against us for his career. Even shooting just that would've been him cooling off. 7/8 from 3 before that final attempt was just insane.
With Maxi being out, I thought Towns would eat us alive because we only really have PJ to guard him. Despite that, he's been struggling even though it feels like every made 3 of his feels like 6 points.
For whatever reason towns has been ass at home these playoffs. In 7 home games he’s averaging 14 ppg while averaging 25 ppg in 6 away games. He even only scored 10 points in 29 minutes in the wolves 45 point win in game 6 vs Denver.
Seems like he’s almost too hyped / trying too hard to make “big” plays at home. Then plays smarter on the road.
(Over his playoff career (29 games, 14 home 15 away) his ppg is comparable with 17.3 to 19.6. But at home he shoots 42.5 FG% and 30.8% from 3, compared to 51% and 40.8% from 3 away)
If only jokic can be an average defender that last series is a wrap for them. Mavs have elite rim protection which negates those slashing of edwards and KAT.
This may be a controversial take especially given the fact that he was key to helping the Wolves make the WCF but I think trading KAT this off season might be the move to get Ant more help
KAT was good against a specific matchup in the Nuggets but they’re not the only team in the West and wing/guard heavy teams that have a great defenses can exploit his weaknesses
He would actually fit well with the spurs. If he shoots 40% from 3 on high volume and has someone that can catch high level passes which he would in wemby, pop could make it work. big/big action between them would be nutty.
It seems like Ant is going thru what Lebron went thru against teams early in his career - streaky shooter, we’ll live with jumpers, just don’t let this mf get downhill. Lucky for Ant, he’s playing in an era where it’s all about pace, space, and 3pt shooting, he just hasn’t figured out how to capitalize.
Give credit to Dallas. They copied off of Nuggets homework. They blitzed, which worked until games 6 and 7, where the Wolves finally got good at abusing that advantage. Dallas said ok cool, we’re not gonna hard double or blitz we’re just gonna have someone shading hard when you have the ball. On Ant, his teammates and coaching staff to figure out how to solve the puzzle. Easier said than done, but it’s certainly doable.
Good point - to add to it, they’ve got tall ass wings who play great defense (both on ball and off ball) DJJ and PJ.
Still though, there’s a reason we’ve all heard the saying “take what the defense gives you” in basketball - no scheme is perfect, you have to give something up. Up to the wolves to figure out how to exploit it like they did last series w/ Denver.
The defense is giving their role players 3s and they're making them. The problem is that they just can't stop the Luka/Kyrie screening actions on the other end. Their roster is too big heavy to defend Dallas which is built around systematically targeting the mismatches that these ball screen actions generate (either 4v3 if you double, 2v1 downhill if you drop, or a slow-footed big on the perimeter if you switch).
On the available evidence you need to field a switchable 1-5 lineup with at least 2, preferably 3, jumbo-sized wing defenders in it to slow the Luka pick and roll down (like Kawhi/George/Mann in 20/21 or Wiggins/Draymond/Klay in 22). Like Chuck said it's all about match-ups. Wolves were built in a lab to defend Jokic but not a perimeter superstar. In a way they were unlucky with seeding which meant they faced Jokic in the semi rather than WCF: it's a pretty freak occurrence that the Nugs lost to the Spurs.
The Wolves should situationally throw out a switch everything defense with Naz, SloMo, McDaniels, Ant and NAW lined up 5-1. What's the worst that could happen?
The Luka Kyrie actions are incredibly tough to defend - Luka especially is so good at once he gets around, the defender chasing is an afterthought. He’s either in jail bcuz Luka is purposefully using his own body to keep him behind, or if he manages to get around, Luka uses the defenders momentum against him with a bump + fade/lay up.
In the former situation where he’s stuck behind - you pick. Luka floater, Luka lay up, Luka jumper, Luka lob pass for a dunk. All have pretty high success rates.
In short, Luka is pretty damn good at basketball
Yeah, and there's a general sense that ant and kat just aren't showing up, but the reality is it's a matchup problem. As you said, Denver was already beginning to solve for ant. Now, dallas has built on that, and with their 2 rim protectors (which Denver didn't have), they've completely closed down the paint for ant.
KATs issue is a little more straightforward, and that's that he struggles against guys who match his size but have more athleticism. Every time he tries to drive against Washington, he gets the ball stripped from him. Washington has him locked up.
Series is over for KAT, but i think ant could potentially recover and learn how to beat this defense.
Even then, the only reason these two games were close is because Dallas kept missing wide open threes, 24.1%, while Minnesota shot 44.7%. If those numbers came back to earth, Minnesota figuring out Mavs converge for Ant and Kat won't be enough.
Have the Mavs even played a single "great" game by their standards yet? I think Legler was saying something similar, where the Mavs are playing nowhere near their actual potential because of how much they keep missing easy shots.
We haven’t. We have either been good or bad the whole playoffs. We haven’t been elite as you said.
It’s the playoffs though but Wolves had that elite game against Denver. We are due for one.
The problem for them is our defense is gassing them out. We basically want them to shoot from 3 while we cover the paint. Our rotations are slow sometimes, but everyone on D is doing their part and putting in the effort.
There's no reason ANT and KAT are having 2 back to back below average games. We are effectively hurting their style and no matter how hot Nas Reid is from 3 he can't shoot 80% the entire series.
We are letting Reid and Conley have what they want while we rotate to KAT and ANT and keep them guessing. I could be wrong, I'm still learning a lot of the intricacies of the game despite being a fan for 20 years. I just don't normally watch this much basketball. I only watch a few games per year unless the Mavs are in it. But Football (Cowboys) are letting me down so I'm learning more Basketball to fill that shitty teams void.
The problem is Dallas is mostly losing offense on missing good looks from 3, which probably won’t continue. Even if they’d lost both these games away they’d have a lot to be encouraged by, having won them and playing well on both ends with some bad shooting luck is what really makes it look favorable.
The wolves had success game one with a KAT and Gobert pick and roll. I don’t get why they don’t run it a few more times a game. Especially when Ant is out or offense is stalling.
no they need a decent Ant MOMENT at the end of games in the clutch. So far, Lukai has outclutched AntKat and therefore won by basically one bucket each time
People say that, but people are making the assumption that a McDaniels or Reid are also going to continue career shooting nights like they did game 1 and 2. Or PJ and DJJ will continue to blank on their wide open looks. Ant can go off, but it will be offset by these other anomalies not maintaining themselves. Luka's health might prevent it, but he's due a supernova game that he has not had yet, but is well overdue. These recent games he's had are just par level performances for him.
And Kyrie has been bad/okay in G2, if there is a regression to the mean for both teams, Mavs comes out on top imo but by a slight margin. An outlier is needed for the Wolves (like McDaniels G1 or Reid G2) because they need to win 4/5 now
Also keep in mind Dallas have not played well either. Shooting 24% from 3 is going to average out.
It's basically the opposite. ANT and KAT are struggling and being kept in the game by their role players. Luka and Kyrie are keeping us in the game while our role players struggle (offensively).
Just depends on which team keeps struggling in those areas or if flip flopping those struggles will continue to go our way.
> Luka is gonna diagnose and dissect any defense when he wants to.
This is exactly what so many of us were arguing before he was drafted. It's never about athleticism, it's about the fact this dude would run his team better than anybody in the league. When at the age of 17 you already know about running point more than anyone in the world bar LeBron, and you're 6'7, everything else is kinda redundant. No, teams wanted to draft Ayton and Trae freakin Young.
Mavs are winning this series with their defense. They have Edwards in jail and Towns in Guantanamo.
Yes, they will have some offensive success with a good coach and probably the most talent in the western conference. But that’s not the big story.
I don't expect him to keep shooting 75% from 3. He'll regress and if ANT or KAT don't step it up then they won't be this close in games. Our role players are only shooting 24% from 3 right now.
It's going to be a blowout if any one of our role players get hot while ANT or KAT are still coming up short offensively. I don't think that happens, but the Wolves need to do something to fix their star players.
Not much they can do to fix either in the next 72 hours.
Edwards will get better with more experience. Towns—this is who he is. We’re surprised when he plays well during the postseason.
Sorry for making an obvious point, but this strikes me as being ridiculously difficult to defend, especially when an all-time great read-maker like Luka is on-ball.
Serious question for the Reddit coaches: How the fuck does a defence even try to shut this down?
Okay, but then you are doubling against against Luka as one screener pops and the other one rolls.
With his height and passing IQ, I kinda feel like Luka picks this apart.
He absolutely will, which is why you're kind of screwed with whatever you try. You have to mix things up and try to catch him off guard.
If there were a solution that completely solved this play, I promise you the coaching staff would have already implemented it faster than some random dude like me.
Wolves have to pick their poison, either let Luka keep killing them or invest everything into shutting him down & seeing if someone else can do it.
With Kyrie on the floor, Minnesota doesn’t have the personnel to stop both.
Yea, OKC made it work by shutting down Kyrie and Luka was not only hobbling, but trying to survive 15 fouls a possession by Dort. And then that left PJ Washington open.
Yep. You're always going to give something up unless you are willing to switch both screens. The main thing the Wolves need to do in my opinion is commit more to the roll man. Of course that's means than you give up other things but the Mavs 2 bigs combined for 11 dunks last night. Not all of those were on pick and rolls but you can't give up so many easy ones.
Need to give him worse options. Make Luka pass it to his 2nd option or at this point (with our 24% 3pt shooting role players) pass it to an open 3. We haven't been making 3's if your name isn't Kyrie or Luka.
Luka's going to pick any defense apart, the best success is getting the ball into someone's hands that won't make the shot when they take it.
Hard Show and recover and jam the initial screen (shove the screener off center) so that your team has enough time to recover.
The way they defended the first play was literally horrific.
Ant Jaden and Rudy had no idea if they should switch or blitz so all 3 are staring at Luka while he passes it to Lively.
They never even adjusted to it. Rudy has to show and recover because they will take advantage of him not being in the paint. Even if the Mavs miss since Rudy is out the paint that’s an easy offensive rebound.
Poor defensive execution
It’s just bad defensive execution, a ton of teams run this all the time in the NBA it’s inexcusable to not know how to defend basic actions at this point. Most common way teams defend is to switch the first screen then you can treat it however you want as a regular pick and roll but knowing the second screen usually doesn’t get set. I personally like having a big on a non shooting wing and having him tag the action then have the screened off player rotate to the helper, the counter to this would be to have both players pop but teams never run this without at least 1 non shooter.
Dude, no joke, the Mavs used this EXACT double screen play all through the playoffs in 2011 when Jason Kidd was point guard. I'm sure you can find videos of it. It's no surprise that Kidd went to this as the coach.
This is the same thing the Kings did during the in season game vs the Wolves. Domas and HB coming up top for a Fox double screen. They couldn’t stop it.
Watching this Mavs series I’ve been wondering why the corner 3’s from PJ and DJJ just haven’t been there. It’s this play right here. They aren’t getting to the corner and that’s where our 3’s from the top of the arch are coming and not splashing. I don’t dislike it but now I see. Thanks for this.
Mavs know that the Wolves don't want both Conley or Gobert to have to switch onto Luka. Puts a ton of pressure on the defense by putting them both in the action and they're going to get some kind of advantage out of it. That's why Lively and Gafford are getting so many dunks. Wolves are bringing Gobert up high to help McDaniels out while he navigates the two screens but Luka is too good at making that bullet pass to the roller. And if you commit too much to the roller than you leave the weakside corner 3. Ball moves faster than the players do and the Wolves can't recover.
If you find that guy entertaining then I think that's great but I would not recommend trying to learn any tactical stuff from him. There are a lot of A+ YT channels that break down the game much more accurately.
Thinking Basketball, Halfcourthoops, Basketball Immersion (more college but the Xs and Os absolutely cross over to NBA), Coach Daniel (he's very sporadic these days but old videos still hold up and his new videos are great), Mo Dakhil's One Mo Thing segments off the top of my head.
That yelling coach guy is very popular but he's teaching the wrong concepts most of the time. Don't want to seem like I'm gatekeeping because my whole thing on here has been opening up access for everyone to try and do this type of work, but also I don't want people studying the wrong answers to the test.
If only Thinking Basketball made one fucking video about dallas other than their 2 worst quarters lol. I don't watch their podcast but i haven't seen a positive video about dallas and Luka in a while.
They've been positive on the Mavs. They just haven't released a pod since the end of round 2 and their two previous ones were mostly focused on the Wolves/Nuggets series for good reason.
I'm over here just desperately wanting them to spend more than 2 minutes on the Celtics but the east is ass so I get it lol.
Thinking basketball has irrationally annoyed me this playoffs hes made two videos on how okc and clippers shutdown the Mavs but zero on all the adjustments made after.
Can almost guarantee there’s one coming after these past two Mavs wins. Ben and co love Luka, even if the team based videos don’t fully reflect that.
Edit: [Two hours later and here we go](https://youtu.be/A5stStUZt80?si=wA68NoSGY9NY9EOR)
Cody was hot on the Mavs before the playoffs started, saying he considered them to be contenders along with Denver and Boston (and maybe Knicks? I forgot his 4th team)
Ben wasn't really buying it at the time, but does love Luka
Those gafford/lively/djj feeds are destroying the wolves. Ant is still learning how to deal w the double and i hope he studies the tape of what luka and kyrie are doing here. i get that rudy may have butter fingers but if ant can learn to replicate this sort of playmaking with kat/reid/mcdaniels itll take his game to the next level. he's shown flashes of making the right play by passing out to the 3pt line but thats not the only direction he should be making plays. in general i think the wolves coaching needs to work w ant/conley + kat/naz/mcdaniels to develop a better two man game than what ive been seeing. either replicating murray/gordon/joker or kyrie/luka + gafford/lively/djj
Wolves arent even fighting to get over the screens… its like they have no idea thats its the same play over and over again.
Do something different will ya? Fight over the screen, have Naz Reid show help sometimes and let the corner 3 open. Double Kyrie or Luka at the start so they give it up and let Gafford and Lively handle the ball.
ANYTHING
I feel like Jaden has been getting challenged by screening action in the playoffs a lot more than he did in the regular season. He has been able to stick with his man pretty effectively through the season, but the Mavs have been executing screens very well and they have done a very good job of peeling off Jaden and forcing an advantageous switch. Not sure if it’s something he can improve on, or if it’s just a fact of life with his long gangly body type.
It's not a knock on Jaden there just isn't an individual wing defender in the league that can live with these Luka ball screen actions. The only thing that slows it down is a switch-everything approach like the Clippers or Warriors. I'm not sure you guys have the roster for that.
I dont understand what Conley is doing in the first two plays. He's not hedging, he's not switching, he's barely tagging the roller, i think this would all be a lot simpler if he was willing to switch/hedge on Luka to buy time for Mcdaniels. Shoot, even a trap would be more effective than him just wandering in no mans land tagging people as they run by.
I don't think it's that personally. They're not a slow it down team yet. And it's harder for those teams to really get over the hump as the playoffs get deeper cause transition basketball is really hard to keep up over a seven game series.
Beyond that, Luka and Kyrie just have a deep bag of tricks.
Basketball is about the best players. Luka and kyrie>>>>>>Ant and Kat, and literally always will be.
Wolves are only here because they have a balanced and deep team. When those role players need to be paid it's gonna fall apart.
Even with this, Minnesota has held Dakar to 108.5 PPG. Their season average is 118, and I bet if they were just doing trade deadline on it’s in the 120s. The defense has been fine. It’s the offense that’s lacking because of Ant and KAT.
Wolves defense was not able to tag the roller play after play after the screens. Kinda frustrating.
Also, Rudy being that high up is not optimal. He can defend 1 on 1 but it neuters his best asset as a supersized free safety on the rim.
Props to Dallas for the adjustments.
The play at 3min left is crazy because Lively sees the ball isn’t perfectly sent to him and that signals that there’s someone essentially right behind him on the 3 point line that the pass is for.
the mavs got everything they wanted with this play. the wolves give up the switch too easily, which only makes it easier for luka/kyrie to attack exactly how they want. gobert will never commit to the switch, the minute he’s caught in no man’s land; gafford/lively are open at the rim.
every single time they were able to get gobert, conley in the action and exploit their weakest pnr defenders. while keeping everyone else out the action.
They spammed this play in the second half for eternity as Wolves never changed their approach of hedging. This was so ridiculous to watch. What is the coaching staff even paid for if not for changing schemes on the fly when they recognise that the original one isn’t working.
Conley can’t hedge that one! You just switch it. Like in the last play Anderson did. But god damn it Gobert! where are you even standing and what exactly are you doing? That’s no man’s land. You’re not defending the 3 and you’re not defending the drive as you’re standing too far to the right and giving Kyrie a lane. At this point you’re a 4x DPOY max salary cone. Contain the three and recover back to Lively. Ant needs to rotate back under the basket. If the coaches don’t do any adjustments the Wolves are cooked as the players don’t seem able to adapt in game.
Nice variation sending the strong side corner shooter across to the weak side corner, with a screen on read around the dunker area from the weak side corner man. That clears out a strong side tag man so rollers from the top screens have open space, and it puts pressure on the defender who starts on the weak side corner. He’s now deciding to tag the handler or respect the off ball screen action in a dangerous area. The downside is that it can jam up drives if the handler keeps the ball and isn’t able to get a tight corner off the second screen.
This was a big part of why the Mavs outscored the Wolves by 13 in the second half. They ran this play over and over after stoppages (free throws, ball out of bounds, etc). Wolves couldn't stop it. The setup is two ballscreens, using Gafford or Lively as the second screener. That gets Gobert involved in ballscreen defense. They use two screens to make it more difficult for Jaden McDaniels to stay attached to Luka/Kyrie, with Gafford/Lively also mixing it up occasionally by slipping that second screen and going straight to the rim. The play is called double drag most commonly, also called 77 or more simply a double ballscreen.
77 killing Minnesota with a play called 77 is poetic.
It’s Lukas all the way down
Luka-ception
Crazy how they’re so effective with this
They have all the perfect personnel to be able to pull it off, it is beautiful to watch
That’s why people have been saying Luka needed a rim running big because it takes his playmaking to a whole new level. He has so many ways to pick apart a defense now it’s very impressive
It really is crazy that EVERYONE could see this and was calling for a good rim running big after how Luka made Dwight Powell look, and it took them 5 years to get one. Now, it’s paying off.
everyone know but those bigs don't grow on trees man without a price. Look at GSW just wanted someone like Lively but they got a bum instead with that high pick in James Assman
Not hitting on Wiseman hurts, but they have TJD and he looks like he’s going to be a good one, too. His energy and intelligence reminded me a lot of Lively, tbh.
this is also retrospectively correct because Luka won an Euroleague with Walter Tavares and Anthony Randolph who were not superstar bigs of European competition back then
The Clippers were the most effective stopping it they just needed Kawhi to roll that 1 in 35 chance that he'd be healthy & they coulda been finals bound lmao Hell even if it was Kawhi instead of PG
They looked so good in 21 before he went down, even afterwards the rest of the team looked great. I’m pretty sure they’d have won it all that year if he didn’t go down.
No doubt they would have clapped the Suns, that Bucks/Clips finals would have been such a great series
Luka made some phenomenal passes. You can't cheat covering the big.
He threads the needle on passes so well.
I think something might be wrong with Minny too. When the Kings played the Wolves in their first regular season matchup, the Kings spammed a similar double high ball screen against the Wolves about 17 times in the second half. Kings scored on almost every possession and won the game. Here's a short highlight video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgmRF8Y_LgA
It’s effective cause kyrie and Luka can shoot, can’t give them too much space.
It's one of the most busted plays in basketball right now other than a good PnR. The fact that Kyrie is involved makes it even more impossible to guard.
They're just far more disciplined in their half court offense than the Wolves.
They've been the most disciplined half court team in the playoffs. Nuggets are a close second. Every other team tends to go with 1:1 plays.
Great video man I love this kind of content
Awesome post! Thanks for putting this together Great seeing how Luka and Kyrie use their strengths differently. Luka used his height and vision to pass directly over Gobert to Lively in the paint. Kyrie being shorter has harder time making that pass, so he uses his handles and shiftiness to get a step on Gobert and pass to the big on weakside/draw a foul
Great observation!
What’s the counter if the wolves pre-switched the ball screen so Rudy is with the first screener? Does the second screener just bail and it becomes a typical p&r? I’m curious to see how/if the wolves can stop this, because if not this is a sweep.
Fight over the first screen and let the second defender slip back with the screener. Either that or commit to the corner guy coming in and play help and let Rudy recover to the corner instead or if it’s djj, let him shoot instead. Could also blitz on the first screen since that one isn’t really being involved in the action and it’s the second screener who’s getting the dunk. Let pj make decisions instead of lukai
Do the Wolves ever play zone? I feel like they have the personnel for that and could stop some of that action.
feels like Luka would cut up a zone the same way LeBron cuts up zone. Get to the center of the floor and use the space.
The Mavs have destroyed zone every time they've faced it post-ASB. They killed Miami (who run the most disciplined zone in the league) by just feeding PJ in the middle and letting him make plays/floaters near the charge circle. Also did well against Clips and OKC zone looks.
Trivia: What’s the best way to stop it?
Have defenders big enough to guard Gafford/Lively and also mobile enough to switch onto Luka. Switching negates the screens, but the Wolves don't want Gobert switched onto Luka for obvious reasons.
the mavs arent even setting real screens because they know exactly what the wolves are gonna do, its extremely predictable by the end. luka and kyrie can anticipate how they’re going to attack it before it even happens if the wolves just came out one play and said stick to your man and fight through the screen, theyd at least make the ball handler have to think and adjust, and would probably have their preferred defender on the ball handler for at least another few seconds edit: actually i guess there was a couple plays where mcdaniels stuck to luka. one resulted in a shooting foul, and the other a missed 3 albeit an open one. still seem like the best defended plays out of these
The best option for the defense imo is an open 3 for the weak side wing, especially when it's djj
Ironically enough, the Mavs probably have the best personnel to defend it lol
The Wolves had a phenomenal defense this season but it seemed very bread and butter and flat just effective. A lot of the talking heads are saying this series is just a personnel mismatch and Wolves are struggling to adapt their defense. Did no one have a similar plan to the Mavs' current strategy or did other WC teams not have the personnel to execute to this degree? The games have been close on the scoreboard obviously but it seems as soon as the Mavs download enough info and get into their rhythm they don't even blink at double digit comebacks. What changes can the Wolves realistically make at this point? I'm fully expecting the Wolves to tie up the series this week because I'm a doomer but I'm just not seeing the path they can take besides Ant and KAT just clicking all of a sudden.
So like 2 Bam's lmao
I saw my Kings spam a similar action to kill the Wolves in the regular season so I was wondering why the Nuggets didn't try it as well. Is it just a personnel issue?
Shhh... Stop telling them
They ran this a ton especially a few years back with Kleber and Powell (I think, back before he regressed/everyone knew he could only finish on an easy lob) and it looked legit unstoppable when Luka was on and the big were making good choices.
Lukas passing is unreal off the screen. He makes it look so easy
His finger, wrist and arm strength are ridiculous. The reason why anyone can barely anticipate his short passes is because he doesn't show any signs of doing it, when he decides to do it, he does it instantly, the ball is already in transit when defenders see it.
It's actually because how much overwatch he plays, intense finger strength by spamming Genji autos/melee
He mains tank, I think he mains Zarya
When he plays dps he's a genji main, probably why that guy said that.
There’s another post recently with Luka swishing a behind the back, one armed shot from half court during warmups. His arm is a cannon. That man is insane.
Best QB in Dallas.
Was gonna say the same damn thing. Cowboys fans should be willing to sacrifice Jerruh for that arm and accuracy on Dak
Some small part of me kinda wishes for another lockout just so we can get another month or two of guys like Luka messing about travelling around the country going viral playing streetball, soccer, flag football the way Bron and KD were last time.
Their ability to spam what works and keep with it seems simple but so many teams would go away from it or get bored too easily.
Mavs play the most simple form of basketball there is. Back to the basics. When you got 2 guys that have mastered the fundamentals, you can run the same stuff with a little flair and voila, it’s the 5th dunk of the quarter
It’s honestly beautiful. Reminds me of when JVG would say “everyone says they want to win but what they mean is they want to win their way”. Mavs really seem to not care about doing anything other than what works.
That's a banger of a quote.
Indeed. It's beautiful basketball. I can't watch other teams play more than 5 minutes. All I see is 1:1 plays, jack up threes, turnovers.
reminds me of the Cavs with Lebron and Kyrie
The addition of lively and gafford changed this team to it's core. I picked the Mavs to beat the Timberwolves because that lob threat would freeze most defenders when Kyrie or Luka enters the paint. It's too much pick your poison. It's like playing the old rockets but with two hardens
I think Kidd deserves a lot of credit. I feel NJ nets play back in the day with Kidd leading the charge had some similar elements with exploiting the defense, staying simple with what works, and obviously the lobs.
This was one of Lebron's complaints on playoff teams
Usually the defense adapts and changes their approach. Wolves never did. It’s on both the coaching staff and the players for not recognising that the first defender can’t hedge but has to switch and Gobert needing to be higher on the level of the second screen. To give time for the second defender to recover. But they feared to give the switch so much that they got killed by this double drag. It’s even more ridiculous that in the last play they easily gave the switch to Luka after trying to avoid it like the pest for the whole game. It makes zero sense.
Typically the defense and coaches would adjust and react differently making it harder to spam the same play
Their ability to spam that play is an indictment on the Wolves coaching.
If the Wolves lose this series, most will blame their defense but the issue is their offense. They take pride in their defense but at some point they have to realize they won’t be stopping Luka. Luka is gonna diagnose and dissect any defense when he wants to. Wolves need to figure out how to score 110-115 points a game.
Yeah everyone is shitting on Rudy for yesterday but nobody stepped up offensively *again* in the second half for Minnesota. Game one Ant and KAT combined for 5/20 shooting, 15 points and yesterday they went 3/11, 14 points. You can't expect to win many games when both your scorers are not scoring, and Naz Reid is why you're even in the game. Sidenote: Second half, PJ and DJJ went 2/9, but the rest of the Mavs shot 25/31 (80.6%). The Wolves look *gassed*. Edit sidenote: Luka has outscored Ant and KAT *combined* in the second halves of each game. Whether Ant is tired or hurt, Minny needs way more aggression from him.
Big purr and ant-sized man
Just look at Kat on the first play lol.
Luca is definitely hurt as he's schooling them
The Mavs have figured out the Wolves offensively. Pack the paint, funnel Towns and Edwards into the rim protectors, and then the Wolves just start chucking 3s. Denver started to solve Edwards defensively but they just don’t have the defensive personnel Dallas does. Now he’s in jail. Only insane shooting from Naz and Jaden has kept their offense afloat. If both those guys come back to earth, MN will score in the low 90s.
Naz shoots damn near 50% from 3 against us for his career. Even shooting just that would've been him cooling off. 7/8 from 3 before that final attempt was just insane.
He’ll go something like 3/8 and play great D in game 3 and you guys will win by 15. He is making Towns look expendable this off-season.
With Maxi being out, I thought Towns would eat us alive because we only really have PJ to guard him. Despite that, he's been struggling even though it feels like every made 3 of his feels like 6 points.
For whatever reason towns has been ass at home these playoffs. In 7 home games he’s averaging 14 ppg while averaging 25 ppg in 6 away games. He even only scored 10 points in 29 minutes in the wolves 45 point win in game 6 vs Denver. Seems like he’s almost too hyped / trying too hard to make “big” plays at home. Then plays smarter on the road. (Over his playoff career (29 games, 14 home 15 away) his ppg is comparable with 17.3 to 19.6. But at home he shoots 42.5 FG% and 30.8% from 3, compared to 51% and 40.8% from 3 away)
Lively had his ass in jail a couple times under the basket in game one
If only jokic can be an average defender that last series is a wrap for them. Mavs have elite rim protection which negates those slashing of edwards and KAT.
This may be a controversial take especially given the fact that he was key to helping the Wolves make the WCF but I think trading KAT this off season might be the move to get Ant more help KAT was good against a specific matchup in the Nuggets but they’re not the only team in the West and wing/guard heavy teams that have a great defenses can exploit his weaknesses
He’s a $55M role player. Not sure how much that’s worth to other teams.
He would actually fit well with the spurs. If he shoots 40% from 3 on high volume and has someone that can catch high level passes which he would in wemby, pop could make it work. big/big action between them would be nutty.
It seems like Ant is going thru what Lebron went thru against teams early in his career - streaky shooter, we’ll live with jumpers, just don’t let this mf get downhill. Lucky for Ant, he’s playing in an era where it’s all about pace, space, and 3pt shooting, he just hasn’t figured out how to capitalize. Give credit to Dallas. They copied off of Nuggets homework. They blitzed, which worked until games 6 and 7, where the Wolves finally got good at abusing that advantage. Dallas said ok cool, we’re not gonna hard double or blitz we’re just gonna have someone shading hard when you have the ball. On Ant, his teammates and coaching staff to figure out how to solve the puzzle. Easier said than done, but it’s certainly doable.
Dallas has the rim protectors to make the strategy work. Denver didn’t
Good point - to add to it, they’ve got tall ass wings who play great defense (both on ball and off ball) DJJ and PJ. Still though, there’s a reason we’ve all heard the saying “take what the defense gives you” in basketball - no scheme is perfect, you have to give something up. Up to the wolves to figure out how to exploit it like they did last series w/ Denver.
The defense is giving their role players 3s and they're making them. The problem is that they just can't stop the Luka/Kyrie screening actions on the other end. Their roster is too big heavy to defend Dallas which is built around systematically targeting the mismatches that these ball screen actions generate (either 4v3 if you double, 2v1 downhill if you drop, or a slow-footed big on the perimeter if you switch). On the available evidence you need to field a switchable 1-5 lineup with at least 2, preferably 3, jumbo-sized wing defenders in it to slow the Luka pick and roll down (like Kawhi/George/Mann in 20/21 or Wiggins/Draymond/Klay in 22). Like Chuck said it's all about match-ups. Wolves were built in a lab to defend Jokic but not a perimeter superstar. In a way they were unlucky with seeding which meant they faced Jokic in the semi rather than WCF: it's a pretty freak occurrence that the Nugs lost to the Spurs. The Wolves should situationally throw out a switch everything defense with Naz, SloMo, McDaniels, Ant and NAW lined up 5-1. What's the worst that could happen?
The Luka Kyrie actions are incredibly tough to defend - Luka especially is so good at once he gets around, the defender chasing is an afterthought. He’s either in jail bcuz Luka is purposefully using his own body to keep him behind, or if he manages to get around, Luka uses the defenders momentum against him with a bump + fade/lay up. In the former situation where he’s stuck behind - you pick. Luka floater, Luka lay up, Luka jumper, Luka lob pass for a dunk. All have pretty high success rates. In short, Luka is pretty damn good at basketball
Minnesota matches up much better with Denver than with Dallas. Their offseason will be spent figuring out how they can beat Dallas.
They might need mavs former GM to build a team to counter the mavs.
Lol if they hire Donnie Nelson get ready for him to underrate size and athleticism and leave you with a team that can't rebound or defend.
Yeah, and there's a general sense that ant and kat just aren't showing up, but the reality is it's a matchup problem. As you said, Denver was already beginning to solve for ant. Now, dallas has built on that, and with their 2 rim protectors (which Denver didn't have), they've completely closed down the paint for ant. KATs issue is a little more straightforward, and that's that he struggles against guys who match his size but have more athleticism. Every time he tries to drive against Washington, he gets the ball stripped from him. Washington has him locked up. Series is over for KAT, but i think ant could potentially recover and learn how to beat this defense.
Even then, the only reason these two games were close is because Dallas kept missing wide open threes, 24.1%, while Minnesota shot 44.7%. If those numbers came back to earth, Minnesota figuring out Mavs converge for Ant and Kat won't be enough.
True, most assuming we played our best games in the two wins. We barely played good games.
Have the Mavs even played a single "great" game by their standards yet? I think Legler was saying something similar, where the Mavs are playing nowhere near their actual potential because of how much they keep missing easy shots.
We haven’t. We have either been good or bad the whole playoffs. We haven’t been elite as you said. It’s the playoffs though but Wolves had that elite game against Denver. We are due for one.
I feel its how hard we are playing on defense and our players just being tired/injured. Playoff basketball is a huge grind.
The problem for them is our defense is gassing them out. We basically want them to shoot from 3 while we cover the paint. Our rotations are slow sometimes, but everyone on D is doing their part and putting in the effort. There's no reason ANT and KAT are having 2 back to back below average games. We are effectively hurting their style and no matter how hot Nas Reid is from 3 he can't shoot 80% the entire series. We are letting Reid and Conley have what they want while we rotate to KAT and ANT and keep them guessing. I could be wrong, I'm still learning a lot of the intricacies of the game despite being a fan for 20 years. I just don't normally watch this much basketball. I only watch a few games per year unless the Mavs are in it. But Football (Cowboys) are letting me down so I'm learning more Basketball to fill that shitty teams void.
You are right, they have to take their offense to another gear if they want to win.
You can be a Mavs and Stars fan without tying yourself to a shitty NFL team yknow
They just stand around so much on offense, they don't move a lot
[удалено]
The problem is Dallas is mostly losing offense on missing good looks from 3, which probably won’t continue. Even if they’d lost both these games away they’d have a lot to be encouraged by, having won them and playing well on both ends with some bad shooting luck is what really makes it look favorable.
Absolutely! Seeing MN on offense has been painful as hell. Dribble for 8 years and then chuck a three
Starts with playing 4 vs 5 on offense because the center can't do anything but set screens.
The wolves had success game one with a KAT and Gobert pick and roll. I don’t get why they don’t run it a few more times a game. Especially when Ant is out or offense is stalling.
Honestly Wolves are just a decent Ant game away from winning games.
no they need a decent Ant MOMENT at the end of games in the clutch. So far, Lukai has outclutched AntKat and therefore won by basically one bucket each time
LuKai >>>> KAnt
KANT win with these kats
Oh god KAnt will be generational slander if they underperform another year or two
People say that, but people are making the assumption that a McDaniels or Reid are also going to continue career shooting nights like they did game 1 and 2. Or PJ and DJJ will continue to blank on their wide open looks. Ant can go off, but it will be offset by these other anomalies not maintaining themselves. Luka's health might prevent it, but he's due a supernova game that he has not had yet, but is well overdue. These recent games he's had are just par level performances for him.
And Kyrie has been bad/okay in G2, if there is a regression to the mean for both teams, Mavs comes out on top imo but by a slight margin. An outlier is needed for the Wolves (like McDaniels G1 or Reid G2) because they need to win 4/5 now
Also keep in mind Dallas have not played well either. Shooting 24% from 3 is going to average out. It's basically the opposite. ANT and KAT are struggling and being kept in the game by their role players. Luka and Kyrie are keeping us in the game while our role players struggle (offensively). Just depends on which team keeps struggling in those areas or if flip flopping those struggles will continue to go our way.
> Luka is gonna diagnose and dissect any defense when he wants to. This is exactly what so many of us were arguing before he was drafted. It's never about athleticism, it's about the fact this dude would run his team better than anybody in the league. When at the age of 17 you already know about running point more than anyone in the world bar LeBron, and you're 6'7, everything else is kinda redundant. No, teams wanted to draft Ayton and Trae freakin Young.
Mavs are winning this series with their defense. They have Edwards in jail and Towns in Guantanamo. Yes, they will have some offensive success with a good coach and probably the most talent in the western conference. But that’s not the big story.
Naz Reid is the Mavs destroyer I fear that man
You took his best shot and still won. These were the two tough ones for you.
I don't expect him to keep shooting 75% from 3. He'll regress and if ANT or KAT don't step it up then they won't be this close in games. Our role players are only shooting 24% from 3 right now. It's going to be a blowout if any one of our role players get hot while ANT or KAT are still coming up short offensively. I don't think that happens, but the Wolves need to do something to fix their star players.
Not much they can do to fix either in the next 72 hours. Edwards will get better with more experience. Towns—this is who he is. We’re surprised when he plays well during the postseason.
Sorry for making an obvious point, but this strikes me as being ridiculously difficult to defend, especially when an all-time great read-maker like Luka is on-ball. Serious question for the Reddit coaches: How the fuck does a defence even try to shut this down?
Had some thoughts [here](https://x.com/StephNoh/status/1794360449942823078?t=XzaH10UNk18Sui5UmrWV1A&s=19)
Okay, but then you are doubling against against Luka as one screener pops and the other one rolls. With his height and passing IQ, I kinda feel like Luka picks this apart.
He absolutely will, which is why you're kind of screwed with whatever you try. You have to mix things up and try to catch him off guard. If there were a solution that completely solved this play, I promise you the coaching staff would have already implemented it faster than some random dude like me.
Wolves have to pick their poison, either let Luka keep killing them or invest everything into shutting him down & seeing if someone else can do it. With Kyrie on the floor, Minnesota doesn’t have the personnel to stop both.
Yea, OKC made it work by shutting down Kyrie and Luka was not only hobbling, but trying to survive 15 fouls a possession by Dort. And then that left PJ Washington open.
Yep. You're always going to give something up unless you are willing to switch both screens. The main thing the Wolves need to do in my opinion is commit more to the roll man. Of course that's means than you give up other things but the Mavs 2 bigs combined for 11 dunks last night. Not all of those were on pick and rolls but you can't give up so many easy ones.
Honestly it might be the best idea to just let Luka do Luka things and focus entirely on everyone else. He's injured, he won't score 100 by himself.
Agreed from the Wolves point of view, what they’re trying so far doesn’t work.
Need to give him worse options. Make Luka pass it to his 2nd option or at this point (with our 24% 3pt shooting role players) pass it to an open 3. We haven't been making 3's if your name isn't Kyrie or Luka. Luka's going to pick any defense apart, the best success is getting the ball into someone's hands that won't make the shot when they take it.
Hard Show and recover and jam the initial screen (shove the screener off center) so that your team has enough time to recover. The way they defended the first play was literally horrific. Ant Jaden and Rudy had no idea if they should switch or blitz so all 3 are staring at Luka while he passes it to Lively. They never even adjusted to it. Rudy has to show and recover because they will take advantage of him not being in the paint. Even if the Mavs miss since Rudy is out the paint that’s an easy offensive rebound. Poor defensive execution
It’s just bad defensive execution, a ton of teams run this all the time in the NBA it’s inexcusable to not know how to defend basic actions at this point. Most common way teams defend is to switch the first screen then you can treat it however you want as a regular pick and roll but knowing the second screen usually doesn’t get set. I personally like having a big on a non shooting wing and having him tag the action then have the screened off player rotate to the helper, the counter to this would be to have both players pop but teams never run this without at least 1 non shooter.
Jason Kidd must play 2K.
Dude, no joke, the Mavs used this EXACT double screen play all through the playoffs in 2011 when Jason Kidd was point guard. I'm sure you can find videos of it. It's no surprise that Kidd went to this as the coach.
This is the same thing the Kings did during the in season game vs the Wolves. Domas and HB coming up top for a Fox double screen. They couldn’t stop it.
Watching this Mavs series I’ve been wondering why the corner 3’s from PJ and DJJ just haven’t been there. It’s this play right here. They aren’t getting to the corner and that’s where our 3’s from the top of the arch are coming and not splashing. I don’t dislike it but now I see. Thanks for this.
There have been wide open corner 3s, not as much, but they just haven’t been making them .
Jesus both screeeners get wide open lol
Mavs know that the Wolves don't want both Conley or Gobert to have to switch onto Luka. Puts a ton of pressure on the defense by putting them both in the action and they're going to get some kind of advantage out of it. That's why Lively and Gafford are getting so many dunks. Wolves are bringing Gobert up high to help McDaniels out while he navigates the two screens but Luka is too good at making that bullet pass to the roller. And if you commit too much to the roller than you leave the weakside corner 3. Ball moves faster than the players do and the Wolves can't recover.
This had awful coaching guy have an aneurysm
If you find that guy entertaining then I think that's great but I would not recommend trying to learn any tactical stuff from him. There are a lot of A+ YT channels that break down the game much more accurately.
What’re some channels you’d recommend
Thinking Basketball, Halfcourthoops, Basketball Immersion (more college but the Xs and Os absolutely cross over to NBA), Coach Daniel (he's very sporadic these days but old videos still hold up and his new videos are great), Mo Dakhil's One Mo Thing segments off the top of my head. That yelling coach guy is very popular but he's teaching the wrong concepts most of the time. Don't want to seem like I'm gatekeeping because my whole thing on here has been opening up access for everyone to try and do this type of work, but also I don't want people studying the wrong answers to the test.
If only Thinking Basketball made one fucking video about dallas other than their 2 worst quarters lol. I don't watch their podcast but i haven't seen a positive video about dallas and Luka in a while.
They've been positive on the Mavs. They just haven't released a pod since the end of round 2 and their two previous ones were mostly focused on the Wolves/Nuggets series for good reason. I'm over here just desperately wanting them to spend more than 2 minutes on the Celtics but the east is ass so I get it lol.
their latest video
Thinking basketball has irrationally annoyed me this playoffs hes made two videos on how okc and clippers shutdown the Mavs but zero on all the adjustments made after.
Can almost guarantee there’s one coming after these past two Mavs wins. Ben and co love Luka, even if the team based videos don’t fully reflect that. Edit: [Two hours later and here we go](https://youtu.be/A5stStUZt80?si=wA68NoSGY9NY9EOR)
Cody was hot on the Mavs before the playoffs started, saying he considered them to be contenders along with Denver and Boston (and maybe Knicks? I forgot his 4th team) Ben wasn't really buying it at the time, but does love Luka
they say they love luka but they also don’t seem convinced by his actual impact lol
Those gafford/lively/djj feeds are destroying the wolves. Ant is still learning how to deal w the double and i hope he studies the tape of what luka and kyrie are doing here. i get that rudy may have butter fingers but if ant can learn to replicate this sort of playmaking with kat/reid/mcdaniels itll take his game to the next level. he's shown flashes of making the right play by passing out to the 3pt line but thats not the only direction he should be making plays. in general i think the wolves coaching needs to work w ant/conley + kat/naz/mcdaniels to develop a better two man game than what ive been seeing. either replicating murray/gordon/joker or kyrie/luka + gafford/lively/djj
Luka is way bigger than Ant. That helps with this play.
Wolves arent even fighting to get over the screens… its like they have no idea thats its the same play over and over again. Do something different will ya? Fight over the screen, have Naz Reid show help sometimes and let the corner 3 open. Double Kyrie or Luka at the start so they give it up and let Gafford and Lively handle the ball. ANYTHING
Lol running some 2k shit
2nd play, that pass from Luka, damn. I know it looks easy, but that is just Luka. Unbelievable decision making and execution in the split of a second
/u/savevideo
I feel like Jaden has been getting challenged by screening action in the playoffs a lot more than he did in the regular season. He has been able to stick with his man pretty effectively through the season, but the Mavs have been executing screens very well and they have done a very good job of peeling off Jaden and forcing an advantageous switch. Not sure if it’s something he can improve on, or if it’s just a fact of life with his long gangly body type.
It's not a knock on Jaden there just isn't an individual wing defender in the league that can live with these Luka ball screen actions. The only thing that slows it down is a switch-everything approach like the Clippers or Warriors. I'm not sure you guys have the roster for that.
I dont understand what Conley is doing in the first two plays. He's not hedging, he's not switching, he's barely tagging the roller, i think this would all be a lot simpler if he was willing to switch/hedge on Luka to buy time for Mcdaniels. Shoot, even a trap would be more effective than him just wandering in no mans land tagging people as they run by.
That's all well and good but Skip Bayless told me that the Mavs just wanted the game more on this one.
When your coach is a HoF top 15 all time Point guard. You've got a good chance at breaking down defenses.
Same set totally cooked the Heat in 2011 finals. Kidd remembers.
They don’t even switch sides???
Me in 2K for real
easy money wtf
Must be nice, running plays...
Love this kind of content. Pretty sure I saw Dallas run a horns set atleast once aswell but I might be misremembering.
So just set a ton of moving screens and then roll to the basket. Why doesn't everyone do this?
Because it doesn't get called. Pretty disgusting how teams get away with it and it's viewed as good offense, but hey my team does it too.
This is top tier content, would love to see more posts like this
Gobert on the perimeter is like a Baby Giraffe trying to move. It’s not a pretty watch.
Luka is a fucking cheat code, this guy is too good. It's ridiculous.
Wolves are a low iq team and just aren't talented enough to make up for that.
I don't think it's that personally. They're not a slow it down team yet. And it's harder for those teams to really get over the hump as the playoffs get deeper cause transition basketball is really hard to keep up over a seven game series. Beyond that, Luka and Kyrie just have a deep bag of tricks.
Basketball is about the best players. Luka and kyrie>>>>>>Ant and Kat, and literally always will be. Wolves are only here because they have a balanced and deep team. When those role players need to be paid it's gonna fall apart.
Rudy getting stuck flat footed on the play where Kyrie has the ball at 7:40 in the 4th looked so bad it almost looked staged
If it ends up being Dallas vs Boston I think we’re in for a great series…as long as everyone is healthy.
Cooked that baguette to a crisp
This is Luka's favourite play since he's been in the league. Spain pick and roll.
This isn't Spain. Spain p&r is when you set a backscreen on the rollers man. This is just double drag.
Cool I didn't realise.
Someone tell KAT to protect the paint
Dear Joe show this on repeat run these actions and make Tatum want to become this type of player
I heard Topic is the next Luca.
Gobert has to choose: ball handler or screen roller? He’s screwed either way
Shocker! Another banger from u/StephNoh Appreciate the content like always (and especially that article about/to die hard Bulls fans 💔)
me spamming PK Fire with Lucas on Smash
Even with this, Minnesota has held Dakar to 108.5 PPG. Their season average is 118, and I bet if they were just doing trade deadline on it’s in the 120s. The defense has been fine. It’s the offense that’s lacking because of Ant and KAT.
I’ve been saying it since launch, this shit is overpowered, when is the NBA gonna put out a nerf.
No nerf needed. Just call fouls on the moving screens so this play doesn't produce free automatic space.
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Wolves defense was not able to tag the roller play after play after the screens. Kinda frustrating. Also, Rudy being that high up is not optimal. He can defend 1 on 1 but it neuters his best asset as a supersized free safety on the rim. Props to Dallas for the adjustments.
The play at 3min left is crazy because Lively sees the ball isn’t perfectly sent to him and that signals that there’s someone essentially right behind him on the 3 point line that the pass is for.
the mavs got everything they wanted with this play. the wolves give up the switch too easily, which only makes it easier for luka/kyrie to attack exactly how they want. gobert will never commit to the switch, the minute he’s caught in no man’s land; gafford/lively are open at the rim. every single time they were able to get gobert, conley in the action and exploit their weakest pnr defenders. while keeping everyone else out the action.
They spammed this play in the second half for eternity as Wolves never changed their approach of hedging. This was so ridiculous to watch. What is the coaching staff even paid for if not for changing schemes on the fly when they recognise that the original one isn’t working. Conley can’t hedge that one! You just switch it. Like in the last play Anderson did. But god damn it Gobert! where are you even standing and what exactly are you doing? That’s no man’s land. You’re not defending the 3 and you’re not defending the drive as you’re standing too far to the right and giving Kyrie a lane. At this point you’re a 4x DPOY max salary cone. Contain the three and recover back to Lively. Ant needs to rotate back under the basket. If the coaches don’t do any adjustments the Wolves are cooked as the players don’t seem able to adapt in game.
Incredible, I love it
holy shit, actual basketball content
Someone show this to the wolves coaching staff
Wolves are a good defense but it was insane hearing Bill Simmons say they are better than the MJ bulls on defense 😂
Man I wish I was 6’11” with a vertical. Set screen, run for lob.
Ah, the get Gobert on you so you can fry him offense. Pretty damn effective
Its like a fighting game and their just mashing buttons
I was like "am I watching a loop? When does it start and end?" And I'm not. It never ends.
Nice variation sending the strong side corner shooter across to the weak side corner, with a screen on read around the dunker area from the weak side corner man. That clears out a strong side tag man so rollers from the top screens have open space, and it puts pressure on the defender who starts on the weak side corner. He’s now deciding to tag the handler or respect the off ball screen action in a dangerous area. The downside is that it can jam up drives if the handler keeps the ball and isn’t able to get a tight corner off the second screen.