A brief hug with his coach, more frank gestures with his teammates and here is Isaiah Joe ready to start the match. His 20th career playoff meeting, the first as a starter. In this 5th see-saw round against the Mavs, he was thus preferred to Josh Giddey.
The latter had never started a match on the bench since his arrival in the Great League, regular season (210 matches) and playoffs (8) included. A strong choice on the part of Mark Daigneault for a match at this decisive point, but which was looming in view of the evolution of the Australian's playing time.
“ The coach mixed the starting five so much this year, we had guys injured several times, and so we got used to several starting fives. We have a mentality where everyone is willing to do what they need to do, so it didn't really feel any different. “, cowardly Shai Gilgeous-Alexanderwhose coach has only used 12 different starting fives this season.
A convincing start
However, the choice of this night seemed obvious due to the poor performance of the Australian leader/back. In this series, his points average (6) fell in parallel with his playing time (13 minutes), and especially his skill (38.5% including 18% from distance). Where Isaiah Joe has so far displayed a comparable performance in “scoring”, but with a much better 3-point success (46%), and a more solid defense.
“ This gave us the opportunity to return to classic attacks, shake up the game a bit and generate some fluidity to start the match », Explains Mark Daigneault, who says he appreciated his team's start to the game on offense.
On the first two possessions, “SGA” successively found Chet Holmgren at the head of the racket, then Isaiah Joe precisely in the corner, thanks to his bindings. And a much more stretched game. Josh Giddey on the bench, the Mavs defense could not afford the slightest impasse against five players capable of punishing from afar.
“ This is probably going to sound crazy, because we didn't shoot well, but I thought our offense was very good. We tried to make the right choice throughout the match », remarks Jalen Williams, whose opposing racket seemed to him “ more open “.
Lots of awkwardness from afar
Because the Thunder insisted a lot on 3-points. The hosts tried their luck 40 times that night, their highest volume in this series, but only converted 10 of those shots. To the point of finishing with their lowest total of points scored since the start of the playoffs.
“ We seemed to be ourselves offensively, at least from a style point of view, visually. We clearly didn't score 120 points tonight, we would have liked. But I think we've made progress », Judges the coach, whose new holder did not shine with his skill (6 points at 2/8 by far).
As for the Australian, he did rather well with his 11 points (5/8) in 12 minutes. “ This also gives Josh minutes with the second five where he can play a little when Jalen, Chet, Shai start to come out of the five. I thought it might be beneficial for both parties “, judge Mark Daigneault who plans to analyze this adjustment to take ” the best decision » for Game 6.
