andy larsen's analysis on rudy's winning block against delon wright kinda sums it up nicely
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2020/01/26/jazz-mavericks-analysis/
compared to the last two seasons in which rudy focus primarily on rim protection, he's forced to do more work on the perimeter this season and guard multiple guys at the same time, which ultimately hurts his defense stats. all due to us losing favors and replacing his minutes with bad defenders such as bojan and niang who would rely heavily on rudy to save their lives.
so despite tonight's win, i still view dallas as a bad matchup for us given the number of offensive weapons they have available to really work rudy on the perimeter and the inability of our perimeter defenders to keep up. we can't really expect rudy to consistently pull off that last play on a nightly basis. whenever rudy is drawn out of the paint to contest porzingis, finney smith, kleber, etc, they basically will have an clear path to take all the way to the basketball cuz we got nobody behind to step up and challenge. just in this game, we've seen at least 10 possessions in which doncic just drove to the basket completely unimpeded cuz rudy wasn't there. just way too easy. stuff like that will not work in our favor in a 7 game series.