Sudden progress! D-class god deal, the lone ranger makes a lot of money!

Basketball Big History Ball

2024-05-12 22:30Published in Fujian

In the second round of G3, the Mavericks defeated the Thunder 105-101 at home.

If you remember, before G1, the Mavericks had a 22-point defeat to the Thunder, and after the loss, Doncic, Irving, and Gafford talked and laughed on the bench, and we said at the time that this series will definitely not be as simple as the G1 point difference reflects.

Sure enough, G2 and G3, the Mavericks took away the victory in two consecutive games, of which this G3, the Thunder led by 10 points at the halfway point of the third quarter, and then the Mavericks played a wave of 16-0 overtake, and never fell behind again.

In this match, the performance of the Eastern European combination is still excellent.

Doncic played 40 minutes, shooting 7-of-17 from the field, 1-of-4 from three-point range and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line to finish with 22 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Doncic has been playing with a knee injury since the end of the regular season, and he can be seen bleeding from his left knee from time to time, and this game was no different.

What's worse is that in the last quarter of the game, Doncic fell to the ground after being trapped, his right knee was also suspected to be injured, and he walked with a limp, but he still insisted on finishing the game, and he didn't stop for a second in the last quarter, absolutely tough guy.

Irving also played 41 minutes in the game, shooting 10-of-17 from the field, 2-of-6 from three-point range, and no free throws, finishing with 22 points, five rebounds and seven assists.

In the crucial fourth quarter, Irving shot 4-of-4 and scored 8 points in a single quarter, and he singled out Jay in the final moments and hit a left-handed throw to widen the gap from 3 points to 5 points and kill the game.

So far in the playoffs, Irving has averaged 23.3 points per game, ranking 13th in the league, but he has averaged 17.0 points per game in the second half, ranking fourth in the league, including 8.1 points per game in the fourth quarter, second only to Brunson (9.9 points) in the second round.

Back in G3, the Mavericks have one more outburst in this game, PJ Washington.

In the whole game, Washington played 40 minutes, shooting 11 of 23 from the field, 5 of 12 from three-point range, with 27 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, and his score even surpassed Doncic and Irving.

It is worth mentioning that this is the second game in a row in Washington, after G2, also Washington, was 11 of 18 from the field, 7 of 11 from three-point range, and scored 29 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

What is the concept? PJ Washington has scored just 46 points in his previous five playoff games, but in the last two games alone, he has scored 56 points and made 12 three-pointers.

So far in the playoffs, Washington's progress has been the biggest surprise for the Mavericks.

In the nine playoff games that have ended so far, Washington has averaged 14.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game, shooting 47.6% from the field, 41.4% from three-point range, and 59.3% from the field.

For comparison, in the 29 regular season games after joining the Mavericks, Washington handed over the data: 11.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, shooting 42.1% from the field, 31.4% from three-point range, and 52.2% from three-point range.

It should be said that this is only the first playoff game of Washington's career, but he has no stage fright at all, but instead plays more efficiently and harder than the regular season, and even left the famous scene of "hugging arms and taunting".

For the Mavericks, getting a real god deal from Washington this season.

Before the trade deadline, the Mavericks and the Hornets made a deal that sent Gwee, Seth Curry, a 2027 first-round pick (top-two protected), and PJ Washington, two second-round picks.

After the deal was completed, ESPN gave the Mavericks a D-grade rating.

To be honest, it is understandable that PJ Washington does have more offensive means than Gwee, but he is not technically proficient, and his projection is average, and after entering the league, the three-point shooting rate has not improved, but it has also declined year by year, with a shooting rate of only 34.8% in the 22-23 season and only 32.4% before being traded.

For a player who has been declining year by year with three points and no playoff experience, he gave up a forward who has played in the Finals, is not physically bad, and has a similar contract, and also took a 2027 top-two protection first round, which is normal to think that it is not worth it at the time.

It is worth mentioning that Gwee was a free agent signed by the Mavericks in the offseason, but after only playing half a season, he had a conflict with the team, so at the time, it was believed that the Mavericks were helpless to maintain the harmony in the locker room.

However, in terms of results, the arrival of PJ Washington (and Gafford from another trade) directly revitalized the Mavericks, who finished with a 21-9 record in the league after the trade deadline, and interestingly, it was the Thunder (22-9) who came in third.

Of course, I'm afraid the Mavericks at that time couldn't have imagined that Washington also had its own playoff explosive attributes - many shooters couldn't shoot in the playoffs, and the sudden improvement of Washington's three-point shooting percentage of 10 percentage points in the playoffs was sometimes really difficult to explain.

Talking about this series, it's clear that the Mavericks can't be happy too soon.

There are still a few questions for the upcoming series: How long can PJ Washington's form last? Owen was so brave at the end of the field? How long will Doncic's knee last? Will the Thunder's role players continue to slump?

Doncic's form was the most worrying, as he said of his knee after the game: "It hurts everywhere, I hurt my knee again, and I need to take advantage of all the rest time I can. ”

As with the record shown after the trade deadline, the two teams are close in quality, one has a strong ability to adjust in Eastern Europe, and the other is young and energetic but lacks experience, and the next G4 game will be very important, and if the Mavericks can still win, then the Western Conference should be stable.

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