MavsBoard

MAVS CRATER IN FOURTH QUARTER
MISERABLE SHOOTING FROM DISTANCE

The Mavericks wanted to make an impression on the home crowd and the TNT audience, after losing four consecutive games at the AAC. They led by 17 at one point, and were ahead by 11 after three quarters, but managed only an embarrassing 13 points in the fourth. 


GAME NOTES

Willie (personal reasons) and Sterling (foot) were out for the evening. The Mavs were thrilled to welcome Luka and KP back to the active lineup. Tim Hardaway was also able to join the team, despite being initially listed as questionable due to a knee bruise. Kidd went with the “new” starting lineup — Luka, Bullock, DFS, KP, Powell. 

FIRST QUARTER

The Mavs get on the board first. Dorian makes it 5-0 with a corner three. Durant opens Brooklyn’s account. KP puts back a Reggie miss. Mavs missing a bunch of jump shots. Nets turn it over, Bullock for the transition basket. Luka off the window! Luka gripping his knee, doesn’t look comfortable. Reggie Miller yammering on, trashing Luka sixteen ways from Sunday. KD in transition, all by his lonesome. Luka posts up, scores. Harden off the glass. Both teams a combined 1-11 from three. 15-10 5:18

Brunson to the basket! Aldridge puts back a miss, and-one, foul on Maxi. Good ball movement, but Mavs missing the kick-outs. Maxi called for his second, on Harden. He stays on the floor. Mavs missing threes, Nets getting to the basket, Nets tie the game. If the Mavs could only make a shot, they would be in good shape. 1-10 from three. Wide-open looks. 17-17 2:35

KP from Brunson. Timmy misses an open corner three. Nets turn it over with a dribbling violation. KP on a roll, from Tim. Durant over Dorian. Doe-Doe corner three! Again! Woo-hoo! 

27-21 after one

Thanks to DFS, who has three triples, Mavs are 3-13 from distance. Nets 0-7. Dorian’s 9 points lead all scorers. Aldridge has 7 for Brooklyn. Can’t say this low-scoring affair is what I expected. 

SECOND QUARTER

Hardaway dunk from KP! Claxton responds from Harden. James Johnson puts up the Nets’ first three. Brunson-Hardaway on the run! Brunson from downtown! KP block, run, pass to Timmy for a gorgeous finish! 36-26 8:36

Josh Green has been on the floor for Dallas, along with Frank. Harden three, and Josh Green fouls him on the shot. Four points. Both Luka and KP off the floor. Nets to the rack. Powell draws free throws. Two of two. Harden gets by Bullock, Powell fouls. One of two. Luka is back. Luka-DP connection! Luka pull-up! Johnson at the rim over Maxi. Blood control time-out. 42-37 5:14

Luka-DP again! Luka draws free throws. Hits both. Mavs screw up a three-on-one transition basket. Powell puts back a Luka miss. Durant and Doncic collide near the sideline. Luka called for the foul. Johnson three, Bullock doesn’t close out well. Luka-Reggie — yes! Luka feed to KP! 52-44 2:10

Luka stripped but Brooklyn turns it over at the other end. Luka to the rack! Hardaway in the paint! Luka from way back! Luka!!!! Off the glass three over Aldridge!!! WOW!!!

62-50 HT

Mavs have 16 assists and one turnover. Both teams shooting 25% from three, right around 50% from the floor. Mavs have nine more shots, Nets have 8 turnovers. Luka leads all scorers with 18 points. Aldridge and Johnson combine for 25 for Brooklyn. KP at 8-7-5. Luka and Zinger looking good out there. TNT studio crew spending halftime bashing KP. Really?

All this trashing of Luka and KP sounds like remarks that were scripted before they even started the game. 

THIRD QUARTER

KP over Durant! Mavs have a good play going, but DFS called for an illegal screen. Luka overthrows one to Powell. Luka great no-look kick to Reggie, who bricks the corner three. KP draws a foul on Aldridge. Hits ‘em both. KP turns it over, Harden in transition. Luka draws a foul on Bembry, who has four now. Two of two. More blood control. 68-54 8:04

Bullock disrupts Durant, but ball goes out off Dallas. KP from three! KD and Harden with a quick 5 points. KP fouls Durant. Luka down on the floor behind the play, furious at the no-call. 71-59 6:19 

LMA jumper. Nets on a 7-0 run. Powell draws a foul on Harden. Hits both. Durant fouled by DFS, competes his freebies. Brunson dance to the paint, and-one! Mavs give up an OR and dunk. Brown reach-in on Luka. Makes it 12-12 from the line for Dallas. Nets draw within single digits. Luka called for a technical foul for shoving Claxton. He’s still arguing, after the free throw. Brunson to the rim! Luka still arguing. Harden draws a foul on Timmy. 80-70 2:27

James hits both free throws. Tim Hardaway with a jumper as he is knocked to the floor. Makes the and-one. DFS three! 86-75 1:12

Brunson-Kleber for the layup. Not counted! Maxi misses both free throws. 

86-75 after three

Mavs lose the quarter 24-25. Both teams abysmal from three. 

Luka still leads all scorers with 22 points, but only 4 in the period. He has 8 assists and 1 turnover. Harden high scorer in the quarter with 10.

FOURTH QUARTER

Durant hits. Harden to the rack. I despise this lineup — Brunson-Green-Reggie-Hardaway-KP. Green steal and finish in transition. Durant three. Frank misses wide open corner three. Mills hits. 10-2 run for the Nets. 88-85 9:32

Luka back on the floor. Luka feed to DFS — yeah, baby. Claxton steps out of bounds. Claxton over KP at the rim. Mavs get an OR but can’t make it count. Mavs 8-39 from three (21%). 90-87 7:16

Durant brings the Nets within one. Reggie’s shot blocked by KD. Harden fouled by Luka (his fourth). He gives the Nets their first lead with his free throws. Luka draws a reach-in from Johnson. One of two. Tie game. Mills jumper. Luka three — his first basket of the half! Dorian intercepts a Harden pass, then draws a foul. One of two. Durant ties. Powell draws Claxton’s fourth foul. Luka posts up Mills, two points. Luka draws a foul from Harden. 97-95 3:15

Brunson-THJ-Luka-DFS-KP on the floor. Mills gives Nets back the lead with a three. Tim misses a jumper. Harden misses. DFS misses kick-out three from JB. Harden to the rack. 97-100 1:22

KP draws a foul, but should have made the basket. One-point game. Brunson off, Bullock on. Durant fadeaway over Doe-Doe. Luka draws a foul on Harden. Nets challenge. 99-102 50 seconds

Challenge successful. Jump ball at center court. Doncic fouls Claxton at the rim. Claxton misses the first. Then misses the second. Timeout Dallas. 99-102 20 seconds

Maxi inbounds. Luka misses a three. KP OR. Back to Luka. THJ has an open three, but misses at the buzzer. 

99-102 FT


ANALYSIS

It would be really nice if the Mavs could make an open three, because just a couple more going in would have won the game. 9-46 from distance (less than 20%) just doesn’t cut it. The individual stats on 3PTAs are embarrassing:  THJ 0-7, Bullock 0-6, Frank 0-3, Maxi 0-2, KP 1-5, Luka 3-11. Woof. The really sad thing is that the Nets were only 31% themselves. The Mavs shot 20 more threes than the Nets (!), and had only one extra three to show for it. 

The Mavs stayed in the game via 9 more FTA and scoring 14 points off 12 Nets turnovers.

Dallas actually looked pretty good for three quarters. But a dismal 13-point fourth period (oof!) did them in. The Mavs had 4 made baskets out of 21 shot attempts. They were still up 2 within the last four minutes, but couldn't execute down the stretch. Yikes. 


PLAYER NOTES

DFS (38 min). Dorian did pretty well in this one. He was the only decent three-point shooter (4-9), and had 6 rebounds and 3 steals. They took him out for the last possession and put Maxi in for reasons that presumably made sense to them. 

DONCIC (37). Luka was the game’s top scorer with 28 points, but was 9-21 from the field and 3-11 from three. He did draw a game-high 8 free throws, completing 7. He also had 9 assists and only 1 turnover. I thought Luka played well (aside from getting distracted arguing with the refs), and made a lot of really good passes. Unfortunately, no one he got those great looks for could stick a landing. 

PORZINGIS (31). KP had a 17-12-5 line, but was 6-17 from the floor (1-5 from three). He and Luka had a good game going for a while, but it faded as the contest went on. Porzee did not make a basket in the fourth, scoring two points from free throws. Defensively, I thought he was mostly pretty good. 

BULLOCK (28). Reggie had six points on three two-point baskets, going 3-10 (0-6 from three). I am so tired of seeing this guy brick every open shot that is created for him. He did have a nice block of a KD jumper. 

THJ (28). Tim had 11 points, and shot 5-14 (0-7 from three). He had the last chance to tie the game, but recorded the seventh of his 0-fer. 

BRUNSON (24). Jalen put up 10 points, and his shooting wasn’t bad (4-8, 1-3 from three), but he had only 3 assists and pretty much faded from view.

POWELL (23). Dwight had ten points and six rebounds, shooting 3-3 FGAs and 4-4 from the line. He and Luka had their PNR game cooking for a while. 

MENTIONS. MAXI (14) played only a few minutes — not sure what the issue was. He had no points and 1 rebound. FRANK (11) filled in at guard for a little bit. He did not score, and had 1 assist. GREEN (7) got a little burn. He had one made shot, and fouled James Harden shooting a three. 

BROWN, BURKE, BOBAN, and OMORUYI were DNP-CDs. No timetable on a return for STERLING and WILLIE. 

NETS. Kevin Durant had 24 points and was his usual assassin self, scoring 11 of his points in the final frame. James Harden had a 24-9-12 line, with 16 points in the second half. LaMarcus Aldridge had 15 points and 5 boards on 7-12 shooting. James Johnson surprised the Mavs with 12 points off the bench. Patty Mills did not shoot well (4-11), but still accumulated 10 points. 


OBSERVATIONS

One might look at the score line and think that this must have been a moral victory over the mighty Nets. The defense could hold up its head, holding the Nets to 102 points, although in some respects they got lucky that Brooklyn were having an off night of their own. The truly terrible three-point shooting and the supreme collapse in the fourth quarter keep this from being a match that they can be proud of, for me. On the brighter side, Luka and KP did have some good moments. 

The Mavericks dip below .500 with this one. Hope they can regroup in time to face the Grizz in Memphis tomorrow night.

If Seth Curry played instead of Bullock, this game was long over, it would have not even been close at the end. And you can say that about many other games this season as well. We had so many open shots, and so many great passes inside under the rim, that were not converted. it's incredible Mavs lost this game!

What a terrible shooting the team is making, with so many great looks. This is dragging the entire team down.

A part of me is happy about this loss, and of this nature, because with every loss like this, we’re getting closer and closer to finally tearing it all down and making the BIG changes, that we so desperately need…

(12-08-2021, 08:18 AM)Paul Gasol Wrote: [ -> ]A part of me is happy about this loss, and of this nature, because with every loss like this, we’re getting closer and closer to finally tearing it all down and making the BIG changes, that we so desperately need…

This offseason, has really not been the best. I hope you are right we will make some big changes soon. Besides of 2-3 players, this is rather a below average NBA squad.

Mavs have to fix their three ball.  Cannot have 37 empty possesions just on threes.  We could say it was a bad game but the Mavs are inconsistent and trend this season toward bad shooting rather than average to good.  37 times the defense gets to rest watching us miss the shot.

There were several times last night the Mavs made excellent offensive rebounds to clank and clank again.  Kidd has to be pulling his "hair" out as the Mavs are wide open on many of these attempts.  

Even if we make a trade, many of the remaining team still have been shooting below their career averages.  Whatever that newish team might look like.  

It is the new ball, right Cuban?

(12-08-2021, 08:48 AM)Hypermav Wrote: [ -> ]Mavs have to fix their three ball.  Cannot have 37 empty possesions just on threes.  We could say it was a bad game but the Mavs are inconsistent and trend this season toward bad shooting rather than average to good.  37 times the defense gets to rest watching us miss the shot.

There were several times last night the Mavs made excellent offensive rebounds to clank and clank again.  Kidd has to be pulling his "hair" out as the Mavs are wide open on many of these attempts.  

Even if we make a trade, many of the remaining team still have been shooting below their career averages.  Whatever that newish team might look like.  

It is the new ball, right Cuban?

It is a crazy phenomenon right now. I think the whole Mavs team has it in its head that they cannot shoot and so the confidence is gone....which massively compounds the problem.

Mavs lost 9 of 11 in 2011 before they went on to win a title. Not saying this team is a contender (the 2011 squad started 19-4 before the losing streak) but good teams can go through tough times. 

I like the defensive effort last night. Bullock, DFS and Ntilikina brought it. Green made a huge mistake but he kept guys out of the paint and seemed to be in the right place. I thought KP did a good job in pick & roll coverage when he played center. Rotations were pretty good. THJ kept his head up. 

Luka and Brunson gave up some blow-bys ... but I'm with JB in believing they'll win a lot of games if they play defense like they did tonight.

Unfortunately, I'm skeptical they'll continue to bring that defensive effort if shots don't start to fall.

https://theathletic.com/3004104/2021/12/...-brooklyn/

"The schemes seem fine. The decisions that don’t make strict basketball sense can mostly be defended with other off-court rationale. But if this roster is buying in like they didn’t under the previous coach and nothing is changing, then it’s a talent problem, one we’ve harped on for years now. If there was ever going to be one single game that made certain this roster needs change, this might have been it."

"This is a team with an offense that doesn’t generate efficient shots near the rim, which means they don’t shoot many turnovers. They’re a team with OK shooters, some who could be hitting more jumpers but not flush with enough elite ones to make them dominant. Luka Doncic hits a lot of difficult shots and creates good ones out of nothing. That’s literally the only thing keeping the Mavericks from being tragically bad at scoring. And he has his own issues, talking after Tuesday’s game about how he might have relaxed too much this offseason and has had to work to get back to an ideal physical level. These same things we keep talking about are clearly and plainly the ones continuing to affect this team most."

(12-08-2021, 08:50 AM)Kammrath Wrote: [ -> ]It is a crazy phenomenon right now. I think the whole Mavs team has it in its head that they cannot shoot and so the confidence is gone....which massively compounds the problem.

Second that!

It has to be on everyone's mind in the locker room.

https://twitter.com/johnhknox/status/146...85441?s=21

https://twitter.com/mavsfilmroom/status/...40709?s=21

(12-08-2021, 09:40 AM)Hypermav Wrote: [ -> ]This is a team with an offense that doesn’t generate efficient shots near the rim

This is THE "smoking gun" with the Mavs offense IMO. I think it is mostly caused by two things:

1) Luka losing his burst and being a step slow. He often cannot get to the rim in one-on-one situations anymore and isn't beating double teams off the dribble the way he has at times in the past.

2) Shooters sucking ass has caused defenses to cue onto Luka's penetration even more, clogging things up further for him. 

It is a vicious cycle right now, a feedback loop of offensive hell. 


The way forward is twofold:

1) The shooters have to find their shot. They have to keep grinding and working, taking thousands of practice shots and building confidence.

2) Luka needs to get his body back to where it needs to be. The compounding problem with this is that Luka's legs are not only tired, they are injured some. Another vicious feedback loop....if Luka is hurting, getting himself into shape is going to be harder because he needs rest.

Couldn't watch 4Q, till then mavs were good. My bad...

If someone prior the game told me mavs could win nets with 23% 3P shooting I would proclaim him crazy. But mavs shoot only 19% and they lost for 3p. So good was mavs game us nets yesterday in most other aspects of the game exc. 3p shooting. Yesterday against Nets. Nets are no joke.

Tnx ML.

Edit: PIP nets 40, mavs 46 per espnteamstat

(12-08-2021, 10:23 AM)Kammrath Wrote: [ -> ]This is THE "smoking gun" with the Mavs offense IMO. I think it is mostly caused by two things:

1) Luka losing his burst and being a step slow. He often cannot get to the rim in one-on-one situations anymore and isn't beating double teams off the dribble the way he has at times in the past.

2) Shooters sucking ass has caused defenses to cue onto Luka's penetration even more, clogging things up further for him. 

It is a vicious cycle right now, a feedback loop of offensive hell. 


The way forward is twofold:

1) The shooters have to find their shot. They have to keep grinding and working, taking thousands of practice shots and building confidence.

2) Luka needs to get his body back to where it needs to be. The compounding problem with this is that Luka's legs are not only tired, they are injured some. Another vicious feedback loop....if Luka is hurting, getting himself into shape is going to be harder because he needs rest.

It would also help if we had wing players that can dribble/pass/create. DFS/THJ/Bullock can't drible the rock and put pressure on the opposing team's defense add to that bigs that also can't do much (Maxi/KP/Powell) and we're screwed. Besides Doncic/Brunson it's really bad in that aspect and it shows in game.

(12-08-2021, 09:38 AM)vfromlmf Wrote: [ -> ]Mavs lost 9 of 11 in 2011 before they went on to win a title. Not saying this team is a contender (the 2011 squad started 19-4 before the losing streak) but good teams can go through tough times. 

I like the defensive effort last night. Bullock, DFS and Ntilikina brought it. Green made a huge mistake but he kept guys out of the paint and seemed to be in the right place. I thought KP did a good job in pick & roll coverage when he played center. Rotations were pretty good. THJ kept his head up. 

Luka and Brunson gave up some blow-bys ... but I'm with JB in believing they'll win a lot of games if they play defense like they did tonight.

Unfortunately, I'm skeptical they'll continue to bring that defensive effort if shots don't start to fall.

@"vfromlmf" has been bringing it as well!!

(12-08-2021, 06:16 AM)burekemde Wrote: [ -> ]If Seth Curry played instead of Bullock, this game was long over, it would have not even been close at the end. And you can say that about many other games this season as well. We had so many open shots, and so many great passes inside under the rim, that were not converted. it's incredible Mavs lost this game!

What a terrible shooting the team is making, with so many great looks. This is dragging the entire team down.

Can't worry about what if's, Curry is gone. They need to get Bullock straightened out, that's why he was brought here.

(12-08-2021, 12:32 PM)HoosierDaddyKid Wrote: [ -> ]Can't worry about what if's, Curry is gone. They need to get Bullock straightened out, that's why he was brought here.

I still cannot believe they traded Seth away.

Donnie had some doozies.

December players now available is coming. So new talent is more likely to come but it is all based on team evaluations and coaching adjustments that are ongoing. This truly bad streak is helpful for evaluation thou a really bad 10 game set. So much for consistency or a top 3 seed. 

Shooting is clearly a huge problem but some guys can and do regain their stroke and confidence. I think some good things that happened last night combined with extreme disappointment might just make that happen.

A turning point in this game --

Mavs closed the third quarter up 11.

Then, Kidd starts the fourth with this horrible lineup -- Brunson-Frank-Tim-Green-KP. This is against a Nets unit with both Harden and KD on the floor. Two and a half minutes later, the Mavs have surrendered 8 points of their 11-point lead. They never recovered. 

I still don't know what the thinking was on this.

(12-08-2021, 02:05 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: [ -> ]A turning point in this game --

Mavs closed the third quarter up 11.

Then, Kidd starts the fourth with this horrible lineup -- Brunson-Frank-Tim-Green-KP. This is against a Nets unit with both Harden and KD on the floor. Two and a half minutes later, the Mavs have surrendered 8 points of their 11-point lead. They never recovered. 

I still don't know what the thinking was on this.

Kidd is the Mavs new Tank Commander...

(12-08-2021, 02:14 PM)chaparral Wrote: [ -> ]Kidd is the Mavs new Tank Commander...

They've seen enough and Nico wants in the lottery!