How will Luka respond?

As he often does after a less-than-spectacular showing, Luka took blame for the Mavericks loss against the Clips.

”You can’t make every shot, but I took some terrible shots. I didn’t score…this one is on me.”

To be fair to our guy, he didn’t play that poorly in the game. But he did have a rough final few minutes, featuring lots of missed shots and turnovers, a bit out of character for him this season.

Perhaps Luka’s greatest trait as a player is his ability to adapt and adjust on a game-by-game basis. It’s remarkably really that he can always manage to bounce back after a tough game. Especially one where he is publicly critical of himself.

If that trend holds, 77 has some special stuff in store tonight.

Can the Mavericks minimize “the others?”

The Clippers boast one of the league’s most dynamic pairings in Kawhi Leonard & Paul George. If you want to have any chance of beating them, you have to limit those two as best you can.

What you really can’t afford to happen however, is the supporting cast heating up. And the Clips have some guys that can do that. Marcus Morris, Lou Williams, Nic Batum, Reggie Jackson, etc… are all established NBA vets. And they killed the Mavericks on Monday.

The non-Kawhi/PG Clippers combined for 69 points    in that contest. And only one of them shot below 50%. The Mavericks by contrast only saw 52 points from their “others,” with Hardaway doing the majority of the work at 21 points.

Tbis is an issue that needs to be rectified if the Mavericks want to win this season series with L.A. We all know they can…It’s just a matter of doing it.

Can the Mavericks find more shots for KP?

KP continued his strong offensive output Monday night. A welcome sight for everyone involved with the organization.

I think it’s fair to say they could be milking his unique offensive talent even more than they currently are though. KP only saw 13 attempts Monday. He made nine of them, which is great, but that’s too small a number. Especially when you consider the burden Luka has to carry against such an elite set of defensive wings.

This falls some on Carlisle, some on KP, and even some on Luka. He tends to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders sometimes and can miss good attack opportunities for KP.

I don’t know if that means more direct play-calls, post-ups, or just looking for him more in their “flow,” but either way…they’d be better off if they got him some more chances.