12 thoughts and numbers from two wild Game 1s

Haliburton, the hunter. Haliburton, the hunted. Edwards' settling. Dallas' zone defense. Much more!

Dallas Mavericks 108, Minnesota Timberwolves 105

1) Unusual shot charts

This was a pretty weird game! Dallas dominated in the lane with a 62-38 points in the paint advantage, while Minnesota made it rain from outside (18 made triples to Dallas’ six). That plays somewhat against type for both teams.

Interestingly, though, Dallas wasn’t always at the rim despite their paint presence. An astonishing 29% of their shots were from the short midrange. Irving and Doncic didn’t care to challenge Rudy Gobert (who was a by-far team-best +10 in his minutes) too often, but they compensated by hitting an absurd variety of floaters and midrange jumpers. Here are the respective shot charts for the two teams (thanks, Synergy Sports!), which I find fascinating:

Dallas:

Minnesota:

Minnesota’s shot chart has the 3s-and-layups look of more modern NBA offenses. Dallas’ chart looks like a throwback to the early 2010s, yet the Mavs emerged triumphant.

2) Edwards’ lack of rim pressure

Three of Edwards’ four last games have been pretty pedestrian, and he looked straight-up gassed on Wednesday despite two days off. Edwards was just 6-for-16 from the field, and only four of his shots were two-pointers. Even more concerningly, just two were at the rim, and both attempts were blocked as Edwards went into a wall of bodies.

(Ant did get to the rack one other time and was fouled by Daniel Gafford, but those were the only free throws he earned all game. Despite his strength and physicality, Edwards has never been as good at drawing freebies as you’d hope. It needs to be a point of emphasis for him in the offseason if he wants to make the super-duper-star leap everyone’s expecting.)

The lack of rim attacks was deeply concerning, and I’ll be monitoring it as the series progresses.

Dallas deserves some credit. The Wolves haven’t faced actual rim protection yet in these playoffs, waltzing and salsaing to the rim against the hapless Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets in Rounds 1 and 2. They looked rusty going up against the Mavs’ pair of springy shotblockers, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively. Edwards, in particular, probed and settled rather than forcing the issue.

The Mavs also did a great job keeping bodies in front of Edwards even if it meant helping off Rudy Gobert, knowing that Ant is one of the worst lob-throwers in the game and can’t make them pay for it:

But I didn’t think the individual defense on Edwards was as tight as it could’ve been (it wasn’t Basketball Poetry favorite Derrick Jones Jr.’s best night on that side). Edwards just wasn’t as impactful as he needed to be, particularly when Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic both had strong spurts.

3) Explosive Kyrie is back

After a bit of a lackluster performance against Oklahoma City, Irving looked like a new player in Game 1, driving past and around Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and every other Wolf repeatedly, often on fifty-foot sprints that seemingly caught the Wolves off guard every time:

The best thing about Irving is his willingness to push the pace, even at 32 years old. He understands that his handles and quickness give him advantages in space that are harder to find in the clutter of the halfcourt, and he will push the gas when given the opportunity. Minnesota gave him lots of opportunities. They’ll have to clean that up for Game 2.

4) Dallas zone?

Something that caught my eye: Dallas ran a few possessions of 2-3 zone defense during this game, something Jason Kidd rarely does except on dead balls (Per Synergy, Dallas only ran zone on 1.5% of their possessions in the regular season, nearly all on out-of-bounds plays.)

Minnesota did a pretty good job of recognizing the zone but couldn’t take advantage of it. This play illustrates Dallas’ risk in going with a 2-3:

Minnesota’s Kyle Anderson sees what’s happening and sets a flare screen for Karl-Anthony Towns in the corner. Towns doesn’t quite get his feet set correctly on the catch and doesn’t get the shot off smoothly, but that’s not due to anything the defense does. Notice that the Mavs’ center, Lively, sprints out to try and contest Towns. I don’t think that’s Lively’s responsibility; with him pulled so far from the basket, it also leaves the Mavericks vulnerable on the offensive glass.

Dallas is lucky to have both survived the shot and gathered the rebound. Technically, it was a successful possession, but the process wasn’t sound. This wasn’t the only zone possession that resulted in wide-open threes for a good shooter, but the Wolves rarely capitalized, so what do I know?