By james art Pinson: “But you’re paying him $40 million, $50 million, you better get out there and figure it out.”
Lively: “No, it doesn’t.”
There were some profanities in Pinson’s rhetoric.
Gobert, 7-foot-1, winner of his fourth NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, the recipient of a three-year extension in which he accepted less than maximum dollars, came out very tense to make things better early on.
The Mavs had the following strategy to make things difficult for Gobert: Run the floor with the center. Gafford, the starter, did that for three buckets in the first quarter.
Gafford, 6-foot-10 and muscular, was a second-round pick out of Arkansas in 2019. The Mavericks were desperate for size in the middle and traded a first-rounder and Washington backup to get him at the Feb. 8 trade deadline .