Suns vs Mavericks

Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic has a lot of respect for Phoenix Suns' Mikal Bridges, but is ready for the matchup.

With how the Mavericks like to use perimeter players as screeners to draw switches, the whole Suns' defense will be put to task, whether making the switch or in show and recover. Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson found ways to attack, but the whole Mavericks' offense including Spencer Dinwiddie was clearly uncomfortable attacking deep on a drive. Brunson has struggled at times against long defenders and perhaps Bridges could attempt to neutralize him by taking on that assignment. Given how important Doncic is to the Mavericks' offense, it is difficult to envision Bridges not guarding him primarily at some point. “But I think he’s smart on the defensive end. The NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award went to Marcus Smart this season, but Phoenix Suns' Mikal Bridges would have been a well-deserving recipient had he won it.

Luka Doncic scored 45 big points, but Suns held big lead all game long. The game was not as close as the final scores.

It looks to me, as a NON-expert on this stuff, that the Suns plan is a try to defend Luka with one guy and only a little bit of help. Paul and Booker straightened out the Suns a bit, pulling back to a 10-point lead, but Doncic was in total attack mode at this point. Chris Paul has only played 21 minutes in this one (12/4/3). The Cams have shot well in this one, with 22 points on 14 shots combined. But the back side defenders aren’t trusting it enough, and they’re sinking into the paint to try to help but ending up in no-mans land — not close enough to stop Luka without reaching in (foul) but too far away from the three-point shooter to contest. Dallas’ goal in this game is clearly to get side open back side threes and they’re getting them, but nothing else is quite working and the Suns offense is totally humming. The Mavs then turned to Maxi Kleber at center so they could spread the floor with their three playmakers and try to break down the Suns the way they broke the Jazz. It didn’t work. Luka grabs so much attention, the Suns defense is sinking too low to contest. By then, the Mavericks had used 9-17 three-point shooting to pull back to 51-47. At the end of one, the stars did their thing — Luka with 14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and Booker with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Finally, on their third small-ball possession, the Mavs got a corner three from Kleber on a Doncic drive. Ayton scored on an and-one roll to the basket and it’s 12-4 Suns. In the final seconds, they got it down to 5.