For three games, Maxi Clipper didn’t do much for the Dallas Mavericks. But in Game Four of the Western Finals, the knot blew and the MAF team instantly won against the Golden State Warriors. If Clipper confirms his hot hand, Dallas still has a chance in the series.
Friday night, the Mavs are once again fighting for survival in the West Finals. After a 1-3 in the series against the Warriors, Dallas is doomed to win. Game 5 will be live tonight 3am dazn!
They haven’t given up hope in Dallas, so why would they? Hardly anyone expected that the Texans in the Conference Finals, after their initial three defeats against the Warriors, would stop pressing anyway. “We take it every game,” Luka Doncic said of the upcoming match(s).
The Mavs are now 1-3 in the West Finals against Dubs, who comfortably won their first three matches on paper. But arguments can also be made that Dallas themselves should lead 3-1 in this series, based on location data. the quality want to trust.
Manufacturers have developed an analytical tool that uses the pitcher and position in the field to determine the percentage of the probability of a pitch passing through the trap. Based on this, the ShotQuality score and the probability of winning the game are calculated. This is very similar to the way goals are predicted in football.
The Mavs had the best ShotQuality score in every game and were supposed to win all the other games except Game 1 (50:50) if they hit their shot as expected. So it’s not an empty phrase from coach Jason Kidd when he repeatedly emphasized in his deck of cards that the team would play good throws.
Maxi Kleber at the Mavs: Sometimes hot, sometimes cold
Open throws are mostly due to players like Dorian Finney-Smith, Reggie Bullock or Maxi Kleber, who have taken advantage of Luka Doncic’s charisma and the Mavs’ strategy of playing primarily with five shooters.
Kleber is the Mavs’ pulse, so to speak, and his stats are usually a good indicator of whether Dallas won or lost. If he throws a lot, and if he does well, the Mavs usually win and look like contender in the finals. Texas is aware of this. “I told him to throw ten times. Honestly, I’m glad the ball went through the ring again,” Vinnie Smith said after winning 119-109 in Game 4.
Not much happened in the first three matches, Kleber only scored two of his 14 shots, all three. The 30-year-old must have been relieved when his first two attempts at Game 4 passed the trap. Clipper eventually had 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks and sank five of his six throws, including the first three attempts from the two pointers area.
“I have to keep throwing when I’m open,” Kleber says. “It’s the right play, I have to take the shot.” In the playoffs, Big Man now stands at 43.4 percent of downtown on 4.5 attempts per game. The differences between victory and defeat are staggering. In the case of victories, Clipper reaches nearly 58 percent, and in the case of bankruptcy only 29 percent.
The Mavs also look bad in return when the distance throws from Kleber and Co. This can only be hidden to a limited extent by his defense. Kleber’s offense currently consists almost entirely of Doncic’s divergence, although it remains understated.
Maxi Clipper: The only Big Kid he trusts
Kleber generates 1.36 points per game of pick’n’roll in the playoffs, often a third-line pick’n’pop, but also has the sportsmanship of driving to the basket, even if that’s a rare case. At the age of 30, he’s slightly deteriorated physically after a few injuries and isn’t a threat anymore, but Clipper with his irreplaceable three-dimensional qualities to Dallas.
Dwight Powell continues to start, but is almost unplayable, and behind him there is only glue in the big situations. Marquis Chris and Boban Marjanovic don’t matter, Davis Bertans is big but in defense is exactly what Patrick Beverly said Chris Paul – cone.
Kleber is the opposite, only a few players have as good foot movement as the former Bayern Munich player, who also acts as the ring protector, but unfortunately is also prone to (unnecessary) errors. In addition to his susceptibility to injury, this is also one of the reasons Kleber broke the 30-minute mark just four times in these playoffs.
Except for Game 2 in San Francisco, these were all Mavs victories, another sign of German importance. While his impact against Golden State is slightly less than it was against Phoenix, given Stephen Curry’s dynamic warrior guards and Jordan Ball who can beat Clipper one-on-one, he remains a better option than Powell.
Despite this, Kidd five won’t change his starts. why? Dallas wasn’t as hopeless as the interim 0-3 score and blasts might have suggested. Kleber knows it too: “In the second game, we had a huge lead, and we should have won that. In the third game, we shot poorly. We have the means to beat Golden State. We just have to keep our confidence.”
Warriors vs. Mavericks: The Series at a Glance
| Game | Date | the time | Homepage | Away | calendar |
| 1 | May 19 | 3 o’clock | Golden State Warriors | Dallas Mavericks | 112: 87 |
| 2 | May 21 | 3 o’clock | Golden State Warriors | Dallas Mavericks | 126: 117 |
| 3 | 23. May | 3 o’clock | Dallas Mavericks | Golden State Warriors | 100: 109 |
| 4 | 25. May | 3 o’clock | Dallas Mavericks | Golden State Warriors | 119: 109 |
| 5 | May 27 | 3 o’clock | Golden State Warriors | Dallas Mavericks | – |
| 6 * | May 29 | 3 o’clock | Dallas Mavericks | Golden State Warriors | – |
| 7 * | 31. May | 2 o’clock | Golden State Warriors | Golden State Warriors | – |
*If necessary