10-23-2021, 10:01 PM
MAVS REBOUND WITH WIN IN TORONTO
The game began with another slog through the mud, and any number of miscues. In the second half, the team picked up their energy, and with a little help from the shooters, eased to a comfortable win. Now, that's more like it!
GAME NOTES
The Mavs were all healthy and ready to go. Pascal Siakam was out for Toronto, which was on the second night of a B2B. Harp, Skin, and Followill made their season debut on the broadcasting side, with all three sporting stylish facial hair.
First Quarter
Mavs get off to an unimpressive start. 2-11 at 7:26. Defense is all but nonexistent. Offense getting a few good looks, but no one can finish a shot. Mavs have an intercepted pass, two airballs, and a frustration foul under their belt. Yikes.
13-22 with about three minutes left. Luka’s and-one broke a 1-10 shooting drought for the Mavs. DFS looking very good on the offensive glass. Luka’s defense forces a turnover. Looking a little better.
18-25 at the buzzer. All the Mavs points have come in the paint, or via free throws. Mavs shooting 30%. Hmm.
Second Quarter
26-36 with seven minutes remaining. Bench unit anchored by KP looked better on defense, but could barely score. KP has six of the Mavs’ eight points, via two threes. Luka back in after three minutes. Anunoby doing a number on us. Brunson makes it to the rim a couple times, but can’t finish over the trees.
39-43 at 3:27. Mavs still shooting only 28%. Only one bench point for the entire half, so far. Anunoby and Barnes on the bench, in foul trouble. Offensive rebounding playing a significant part for Dallas.
KP and Mykhailiuk suffer a clash of heads, leaving KP on the ground and the Raptor bloodied. A wild sequence of turnovers ends the half. Highest-scoring quarter of the season for Dallas, at 27. Mavs 4-17 from deep. Dallas has 11 offensive rebounds. Have also drawn 15 FTAs, to Toronto’s 7. Devin Harris detects an uptick in energy. Callie Caplan tells us Luka is very unhappy on his way to the locker room, even declining Bobi’s high five. Dang. 45-51.
Third Quarter
62-62 halfway through the period. Timmy starting to get his groove on. Luka ties the score with a dance to the basket. Slow and steady wins the race, or so they say.
Kidd made a successful challenge on an out-of-bounds call. Powell rewards him with a dunk off a lob from Luka. Mavs lead for first time in game. Mavs completed a 12-0 run in this stretch. Brunson declined a wide-open three — what’s that about? Anunoby called for his fifth foul. That may be a killer. Several Raps in foul trouble, actually. 74-72 after three.
Fourth Quarter
Hardaway coming to the rescue with his threes. Brunson took a charge by Achiuwa, survived a challenge by Nurse. 88-78 with six minutes remaining. THJ leading the Mavs with 10 points in the quarter. Raps look like they’re running out of gas.
97-78 with four to go. Mavs’ shooting has come alive, and the Raps can’t buy a bucket, scoring only 4 points so far. I think this one is in the books, folks.
Raps go on a 6-0 run, as Mavs appear to have relaxed a little. Timeout. Mavs get back in gear. They’ve got this. Mavs closing lineups were the starters, with first Maxi replacing KP, and then KP coming in to replace Powell, followed by Brunson replacing Maxi. The Raps had a late little burst, but the hole was too deep. 103-95
ANALYSIS
After a pretty terrible first half, the Mavs showed up at the ball game in the second twenty-four, comfortably putting the contest away in the fourth quarter. Several Raptors were in foul trouble for much of the second half, which really contributed to taking the starch out of their game.
The stats were remarkably similar in most categories. Dallas did get their ball movement going in the second half, and the team had 24 assists, compared to Toronto’s 17. The Mavericks had 40 points in the paint, with little shot-blocking presence on the Raptors team. Dallas had some turnover issues early, but ended up with only 9 giveaways, losing only 3 points on that account.
Kidd said it was mostly a matter of the shots going down in the second half, whereas the same good looks were not falling in the first. He particularly complimented Luka for his aggressive game and Hardaway for his shooting. He also commended his players’ mental toughness in continuing to fight the good fight, and KP for his defensive activity in the second half.
The Bally Southwest studio crew attributed the comeback victory to a veteran team opposing a group of youngsters, and they may have something there. Let’s not try to style-point this one — it’s a good win.
PLAYER NOTES
DONCIC. Luka accumulated 27 points, despite going 2-10 from distance. He was just shy of a triple-double with 12 assists and 9 rebounds, and largely maintained his cool in a stressful game. The Raptors, of course, had no one who could match him.
HARDAWAY. Tim joined Luka in leading the team with 40 minutes each, and came in and saved the day with his sharpshooting (7 threes, including a dramatic bank shot from downtown). He had 25 points altogether, and the W would have been a L without his scoring.
PORZINGIS. KP was lively, with 18 points, 10 boards, and 4 blocks in 29 minutes. He probably hoped for better efficiency (7-20), but it looks like they’re still getting his role in the offense figured out, and he was looking better on the defensive end by the time the game was over. He was off the floor during the Mavs' major runs, and was the only starter who was in negative figures (-3). Kidd was pleased with his effort, though.
DFS was the only other Mav besides Luka and THJ who played heavy minutes, appearing on the court for 36. He had 11 points (5-9), and his defensive work and rebounding were critical to the victory. He led the team in +/-, at +15.
POWELL. Dwight had 11 points and 2 rebounds in 25 minutes, and had six free-throw attempts, which was the most by any Mav. It looks like they’re also still working on fitting him into the scheme, and we’ll expect good things.
BENCH. Brunson served a sixth-man role, playing 23 minutes. He had 5 points and 4 assists, and seemed to be having a little trouble finishing at the rim, and also a little hesitation shooting. Not really one of his best nights. Maxi had 20 minutes, during which he went 5 and 5. There were three lineups in the closing minutes — Maxi was part of two of them, and Brunson was included in the last one. Bullock was in for 17 minutes, but had only 1 point. Sterling Brown and Willie rounded out the rotation. Neither scored.
The bench, more defensively oriented than the starters, accounted for only 11 points, but contributed 18 rebounds and had a collective +/- of +15.
RAPTORS. Anunoby, Barnes, and Van Vleet looked good and combined for 60 points, but all ran into serious foul trouble (thank goodness). Possible Mavs target Dragic had a quiet game, going 2-2-1 in 14 minutes. The Raps were missing their star in Pascal Siakam, and were a worthy opponent.
OBSERVATIONS
This wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but it was a solid victory nonetheless. Hopefully, the Mavs are working the kinks out of their systems, and will gel quickly. Thank goodness for Tim Hardaway in this one. I expect the Mavs will have a number of different heroes on the various nights, and he is my nominee for Game #2.
NEXT. The Mavs will welcome the Rockets to their home opener on Tuesday at the AAC
The game began with another slog through the mud, and any number of miscues. In the second half, the team picked up their energy, and with a little help from the shooters, eased to a comfortable win. Now, that's more like it!
GAME NOTES
The Mavs were all healthy and ready to go. Pascal Siakam was out for Toronto, which was on the second night of a B2B. Harp, Skin, and Followill made their season debut on the broadcasting side, with all three sporting stylish facial hair.
First Quarter
Mavs get off to an unimpressive start. 2-11 at 7:26. Defense is all but nonexistent. Offense getting a few good looks, but no one can finish a shot. Mavs have an intercepted pass, two airballs, and a frustration foul under their belt. Yikes.
13-22 with about three minutes left. Luka’s and-one broke a 1-10 shooting drought for the Mavs. DFS looking very good on the offensive glass. Luka’s defense forces a turnover. Looking a little better.
18-25 at the buzzer. All the Mavs points have come in the paint, or via free throws. Mavs shooting 30%. Hmm.
Second Quarter
26-36 with seven minutes remaining. Bench unit anchored by KP looked better on defense, but could barely score. KP has six of the Mavs’ eight points, via two threes. Luka back in after three minutes. Anunoby doing a number on us. Brunson makes it to the rim a couple times, but can’t finish over the trees.
39-43 at 3:27. Mavs still shooting only 28%. Only one bench point for the entire half, so far. Anunoby and Barnes on the bench, in foul trouble. Offensive rebounding playing a significant part for Dallas.
KP and Mykhailiuk suffer a clash of heads, leaving KP on the ground and the Raptor bloodied. A wild sequence of turnovers ends the half. Highest-scoring quarter of the season for Dallas, at 27. Mavs 4-17 from deep. Dallas has 11 offensive rebounds. Have also drawn 15 FTAs, to Toronto’s 7. Devin Harris detects an uptick in energy. Callie Caplan tells us Luka is very unhappy on his way to the locker room, even declining Bobi’s high five. Dang. 45-51.
Third Quarter
62-62 halfway through the period. Timmy starting to get his groove on. Luka ties the score with a dance to the basket. Slow and steady wins the race, or so they say.
Kidd made a successful challenge on an out-of-bounds call. Powell rewards him with a dunk off a lob from Luka. Mavs lead for first time in game. Mavs completed a 12-0 run in this stretch. Brunson declined a wide-open three — what’s that about? Anunoby called for his fifth foul. That may be a killer. Several Raps in foul trouble, actually. 74-72 after three.
Fourth Quarter
Hardaway coming to the rescue with his threes. Brunson took a charge by Achiuwa, survived a challenge by Nurse. 88-78 with six minutes remaining. THJ leading the Mavs with 10 points in the quarter. Raps look like they’re running out of gas.
97-78 with four to go. Mavs’ shooting has come alive, and the Raps can’t buy a bucket, scoring only 4 points so far. I think this one is in the books, folks.
Raps go on a 6-0 run, as Mavs appear to have relaxed a little. Timeout. Mavs get back in gear. They’ve got this. Mavs closing lineups were the starters, with first Maxi replacing KP, and then KP coming in to replace Powell, followed by Brunson replacing Maxi. The Raps had a late little burst, but the hole was too deep. 103-95
ANALYSIS
After a pretty terrible first half, the Mavs showed up at the ball game in the second twenty-four, comfortably putting the contest away in the fourth quarter. Several Raptors were in foul trouble for much of the second half, which really contributed to taking the starch out of their game.
The stats were remarkably similar in most categories. Dallas did get their ball movement going in the second half, and the team had 24 assists, compared to Toronto’s 17. The Mavericks had 40 points in the paint, with little shot-blocking presence on the Raptors team. Dallas had some turnover issues early, but ended up with only 9 giveaways, losing only 3 points on that account.
Kidd said it was mostly a matter of the shots going down in the second half, whereas the same good looks were not falling in the first. He particularly complimented Luka for his aggressive game and Hardaway for his shooting. He also commended his players’ mental toughness in continuing to fight the good fight, and KP for his defensive activity in the second half.
The Bally Southwest studio crew attributed the comeback victory to a veteran team opposing a group of youngsters, and they may have something there. Let’s not try to style-point this one — it’s a good win.
PLAYER NOTES
DONCIC. Luka accumulated 27 points, despite going 2-10 from distance. He was just shy of a triple-double with 12 assists and 9 rebounds, and largely maintained his cool in a stressful game. The Raptors, of course, had no one who could match him.
HARDAWAY. Tim joined Luka in leading the team with 40 minutes each, and came in and saved the day with his sharpshooting (7 threes, including a dramatic bank shot from downtown). He had 25 points altogether, and the W would have been a L without his scoring.
PORZINGIS. KP was lively, with 18 points, 10 boards, and 4 blocks in 29 minutes. He probably hoped for better efficiency (7-20), but it looks like they’re still getting his role in the offense figured out, and he was looking better on the defensive end by the time the game was over. He was off the floor during the Mavs' major runs, and was the only starter who was in negative figures (-3). Kidd was pleased with his effort, though.
DFS was the only other Mav besides Luka and THJ who played heavy minutes, appearing on the court for 36. He had 11 points (5-9), and his defensive work and rebounding were critical to the victory. He led the team in +/-, at +15.
POWELL. Dwight had 11 points and 2 rebounds in 25 minutes, and had six free-throw attempts, which was the most by any Mav. It looks like they’re also still working on fitting him into the scheme, and we’ll expect good things.
BENCH. Brunson served a sixth-man role, playing 23 minutes. He had 5 points and 4 assists, and seemed to be having a little trouble finishing at the rim, and also a little hesitation shooting. Not really one of his best nights. Maxi had 20 minutes, during which he went 5 and 5. There were three lineups in the closing minutes — Maxi was part of two of them, and Brunson was included in the last one. Bullock was in for 17 minutes, but had only 1 point. Sterling Brown and Willie rounded out the rotation. Neither scored.
The bench, more defensively oriented than the starters, accounted for only 11 points, but contributed 18 rebounds and had a collective +/- of +15.
RAPTORS. Anunoby, Barnes, and Van Vleet looked good and combined for 60 points, but all ran into serious foul trouble (thank goodness). Possible Mavs target Dragic had a quiet game, going 2-2-1 in 14 minutes. The Raps were missing their star in Pascal Siakam, and were a worthy opponent.
OBSERVATIONS
This wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but it was a solid victory nonetheless. Hopefully, the Mavs are working the kinks out of their systems, and will gel quickly. Thank goodness for Tim Hardaway in this one. I expect the Mavs will have a number of different heroes on the various nights, and he is my nominee for Game #2.
NEXT. The Mavs will welcome the Rockets to their home opener on Tuesday at the AAC
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