THE SLIDE CONTINUES
MAVERICKS UNRAVEL IN THE CLUTCH
The Mavs let another one slip away. And they needed a win in the worst way. I just don’t know.
GAME STORY
Maxi was still out, but was seated on the bench in street clothes, so that’s a step in the right direction, I guess. KP was rested on the SEGABABA. Booker and Saric were out for Phoenix. The starting lineup consisted of Luka, Richardson, Hardaway, DFS, and WCS.
The first quarter was close, with the Suns maintaining a small lead for most of the period. The scoreboard showed a 29-28 Phoenix advantage after one. Hardaway had ten points in the quarter. Burke had a buzzer-beating three. The Mavs made a little run in the second, building an 8-point lead at 5:11, but ended the half tied at 55-all. Willie had a tip-in right before the horn. Luka was on the bench for the last 3:28 due to foul trouble.
The third period was all about Luka. He took over, scoring 18 of the team’s points and taking 10 of their 19 shots. A man on a mission. The team had a game-high 15-point lead halfway through the period, but squandered 10 from their cushion by the end of the frame. Mavs led 82-77 going into the fourth.
Dallas lost their remaining advantage within the first minute of the final period. The game was played on a knife-edge for the next stretch, with neither team building more than a three-point lead. At 3:41, the scored was tied at 96-96. Then, we were treated to the following:
Richardson missed three
DFS missed three
Luka missed turnaround shot
DFS missed three
Meanwhile, Phoenix scored on 4 out of their 5 possessions, and Crowder sank a dagger three to put his team up 9 with 1:05 left. A couple of possessions later, they had to start playing the foul game, and the Suns came through with their free throws. The finishing lineup was Luka, Richardson, Hardaway, DFS, and DP/WCS.
STATISTICS
The Mavs shot poorly from deep again, hitting only 9 of their 29 attempts (29%), while Phoenix were firing away at a 45% clip on their 22 efforts. Free throws were the real killer, with the Suns drawing 31 freebies (6 from intentional fouls), and the Mavs being awarded only 14. To add insult to injury, Dallas completed an embarrassing 57% of those shots. In point differentials, the Mavericks were +16 in points from twos, -3 in points from threes, and -19 in made free throws. The reffing was a little puzzling on both sides at some points during the games, but I don’t think this was any kind of ref conspiracy. Getting to the line consistently involves applying specific skills in doing that, and apart from Luka, most of the Mavs do not play that way. The Mavs also lost 15 points off turnovers, which didn’t help anything.
PLAYERS
HARDAWAY. Tim was hot in the first quarter, scoring 10 points, and had a team-leading 7 in the fourth. He had a pretty good night box-score-wise, with 19 points on 8-19 shooting, with 4 rebounds and 4 assists in a team-high 36 minutes. He was three of ten from three, although he was stuck having to take a difficult quick shot more than once. He somewhat faded from view in the middle quarters.
RICHARDSON. JRich is still getting his legs back under him, and it showed. He still hasn’t found his range, missing all three of his deep shots, including clanking an open three In the clutch that had been created after lovely ball movement. I’m going to cut this guy some slack for now, because he hasn’t had a fair chance to show what he can do yet, but I hope his “normal” is considerably better than this, or the Mavs are going to have to do some re-jiggering.
DFS. I thought Doe-Doe had a pretty good showing, especially considering he is barely back. He went 9/5/1 and showed great effort on the defensive end. Perhaps most importantly, he was able to play for 34 minutes, and he hit 2 of his 4 three-point attempts. It was only six points, but I think it’s part of a bigger picture. I notice that some of these guys who aren’t hitting their threes are getting gun-shy about taking them, and either drive into traffic, make some crazy pass, or leave Luka or Tim in a bad way tossing them the rock at the end of the shot clock. If the Mavs have any chance this season, these 3&D guys HAVE to take and make shots at an average-or-above clip, and maybe Finney-Smith’s night will be a place to start.
DONCIC. Luka had an excellent stat line, as usual, at 29/8/7 and was the fourth-highest guy in minutes at 33. It was an interesting game for him. He spent a lot of the first half arguing with the refs, and it boiled over in the second quarter. At 3:37, he was called for an offensive foul, and expressed his disagreement in a manner that resulted in his being teed up. He was called for his third foul a few seconds later. Rick yanked him, and he didn’t seem too happy about it. I thought it was totally the right move, as Doncic’s emotions did not seem to be in control, and it appeared highly likely he would be in further trouble soon if he didn’t take a few to cool off.
He channeled that anger into basketball energy, and came out huge in the third, serving as a scoring machine. Far from playing with his usual joy, he did the best Russell Westbrook glare imitation that his boyish cheerful countenance could muster. In the fourth, he was matched against one of the best clutch players in the league in Chris Paul, and Paul put on a clinic in late game management. After the game, Luka said that they had gotten a little unlucky that their shots didn’t fall, and there is an element of truth to that, but hopefully he picked up a trick or two from the maestro.
WCS. One thing about high-variance players — occasionally, they produce an outlier in the positive direction, and we get to enjoy it. This had to be one of the games of Trill’s career, as he put up 14 points on 7-8 shooting and had 9 rebounds and 4 blocks, along with doing some effective work against Ayton in 30 minutes on the floor. Even on a relatively high-effort night from the team, he stood out, and should probably receive the Energizer Bunny award, since they don’t give out the DPOG prize after losses. He fouled out after intentionally hacking Chris Paul with 18 seconds left.
BENCH. Brunson led the bench with 26 minutes, and had a 7/3/3 line. Met expectations, I would say. Johnson had 19 minutes as part of the second unit. After watching James through 20 games, I think he has done a workmanlike job in playing his increased role, but I don’t love it when he orchestrates the offense, and he is usually good for a few head-scratching mistakes per game. Once Maxi makes it back, it wouldn’t surprise me to see his role diminish into irrelevance in the absence of injuries. Powell did a pretty decent job as backup, and played very hard, as is his wont. It is possible that he would have been part of the finishing lineup, had he not fouled out at 5:32. Burke got an early hook, and played only a couple of minutes in the second half.
SUNS. Chris Paul led his team with 29 points, 12 assists, and a brilliant performance in the fourth quarter. Additionally, throughout the game, he hit some insanely difficult shots against good challenges. Five of the Suns were in double figures. They won the game beyond the arc, at the free-throw line, and with canny veteran leadership late in the game. This is a good team, but a beatable one. At least without Booker, anyway.
OBSERVATIONS
Rick was very disappointed for his guys, since they had “fought so hard,” and had such a good attitude. He thought it was a shame that they had a significant lead in the third quarter, but allowed the Suns to get the momentum back with some loose possessions and some poor defensive possessions. He admitted that Paul got the better of the Mavs, but said that they were up against one of the league’s great players, who is in great shape and knows how to win.
He said that they have made some defensive adjustments, and he liked the defensive effort on the night. He thinks the three-point shooting will improve as guys get their conditioning back, and he isn’t especially worried about it. However, they did have an offensive session working on it in practice. Although he was sad about the loss, he seemed to see a light somewhere around the end of the tunnel.
Luka, who had called the team out after the second Utah game for playing like they don’t care, was pleased with their “way, way better energy” in this contest. Especially as they were all still a little tired from being in Utah and playing a back-to-back.
Cuban was moved to comment on the state of the team before the game. He undertook to give unhappy fans some facts about COVID. DFS had said it felt like a very severe cold, but Cuban says it is not like a cold, where a person is ready to go as soon as it is over with, and described it as “brutal.”
He pointed out that the time between a positive diagnosis and returning to play is about three weeks, and two of those involve “sitting in a room” and not being active, and then there are more days before the player can be around the team. They have had one of the worst outbreaks in the league, and he opined that things were going to look “out of balance” for a while. He realizes that they are not playing well, and a lot of things are wrong, but they plan to keep grinding away until they can dig themselves out of it, and predicts that they will be ready to go in “crunch time.”
Although I am disappointed with yet another loss, I don’t feel as discouraged as I thought I might. On the bright side, they exhibited much better energy and effort than they have been lately, and two of the virus guys were able to play a normal contingent of starter minutes. Some of the third-string guys aren’t out there flying by the seat of their pants any more, and for all the problems, you can see the outlines of a good team starting to develop. It may be getting too late in the day for the Mavs to achieve the record they had hoped for, but this still needn’t be a lost season. I think we will see them climb out of this, although it may be a step forward here and a step backward there for a while.
I don’t know what to think about the game on Monday against the selfsame team. Maxi is expected to be back, although he is not in game shape. Devin Booker might be back for the Suns. Hope for the best, I guess.
The Mavericks are 8-12. This is no country for the fainthearted.
Onward and upward, Mavs Fans!
MAVERICKS UNRAVEL IN THE CLUTCH
The Mavs let another one slip away. And they needed a win in the worst way. I just don’t know.
GAME STORY
Maxi was still out, but was seated on the bench in street clothes, so that’s a step in the right direction, I guess. KP was rested on the SEGABABA. Booker and Saric were out for Phoenix. The starting lineup consisted of Luka, Richardson, Hardaway, DFS, and WCS.
The first quarter was close, with the Suns maintaining a small lead for most of the period. The scoreboard showed a 29-28 Phoenix advantage after one. Hardaway had ten points in the quarter. Burke had a buzzer-beating three. The Mavs made a little run in the second, building an 8-point lead at 5:11, but ended the half tied at 55-all. Willie had a tip-in right before the horn. Luka was on the bench for the last 3:28 due to foul trouble.
The third period was all about Luka. He took over, scoring 18 of the team’s points and taking 10 of their 19 shots. A man on a mission. The team had a game-high 15-point lead halfway through the period, but squandered 10 from their cushion by the end of the frame. Mavs led 82-77 going into the fourth.
Dallas lost their remaining advantage within the first minute of the final period. The game was played on a knife-edge for the next stretch, with neither team building more than a three-point lead. At 3:41, the scored was tied at 96-96. Then, we were treated to the following:
Richardson missed three
DFS missed three
Luka missed turnaround shot
DFS missed three
Meanwhile, Phoenix scored on 4 out of their 5 possessions, and Crowder sank a dagger three to put his team up 9 with 1:05 left. A couple of possessions later, they had to start playing the foul game, and the Suns came through with their free throws. The finishing lineup was Luka, Richardson, Hardaway, DFS, and DP/WCS.
STATISTICS
The Mavs shot poorly from deep again, hitting only 9 of their 29 attempts (29%), while Phoenix were firing away at a 45% clip on their 22 efforts. Free throws were the real killer, with the Suns drawing 31 freebies (6 from intentional fouls), and the Mavs being awarded only 14. To add insult to injury, Dallas completed an embarrassing 57% of those shots. In point differentials, the Mavericks were +16 in points from twos, -3 in points from threes, and -19 in made free throws. The reffing was a little puzzling on both sides at some points during the games, but I don’t think this was any kind of ref conspiracy. Getting to the line consistently involves applying specific skills in doing that, and apart from Luka, most of the Mavs do not play that way. The Mavs also lost 15 points off turnovers, which didn’t help anything.
PLAYERS
HARDAWAY. Tim was hot in the first quarter, scoring 10 points, and had a team-leading 7 in the fourth. He had a pretty good night box-score-wise, with 19 points on 8-19 shooting, with 4 rebounds and 4 assists in a team-high 36 minutes. He was three of ten from three, although he was stuck having to take a difficult quick shot more than once. He somewhat faded from view in the middle quarters.
RICHARDSON. JRich is still getting his legs back under him, and it showed. He still hasn’t found his range, missing all three of his deep shots, including clanking an open three In the clutch that had been created after lovely ball movement. I’m going to cut this guy some slack for now, because he hasn’t had a fair chance to show what he can do yet, but I hope his “normal” is considerably better than this, or the Mavs are going to have to do some re-jiggering.
DFS. I thought Doe-Doe had a pretty good showing, especially considering he is barely back. He went 9/5/1 and showed great effort on the defensive end. Perhaps most importantly, he was able to play for 34 minutes, and he hit 2 of his 4 three-point attempts. It was only six points, but I think it’s part of a bigger picture. I notice that some of these guys who aren’t hitting their threes are getting gun-shy about taking them, and either drive into traffic, make some crazy pass, or leave Luka or Tim in a bad way tossing them the rock at the end of the shot clock. If the Mavs have any chance this season, these 3&D guys HAVE to take and make shots at an average-or-above clip, and maybe Finney-Smith’s night will be a place to start.
DONCIC. Luka had an excellent stat line, as usual, at 29/8/7 and was the fourth-highest guy in minutes at 33. It was an interesting game for him. He spent a lot of the first half arguing with the refs, and it boiled over in the second quarter. At 3:37, he was called for an offensive foul, and expressed his disagreement in a manner that resulted in his being teed up. He was called for his third foul a few seconds later. Rick yanked him, and he didn’t seem too happy about it. I thought it was totally the right move, as Doncic’s emotions did not seem to be in control, and it appeared highly likely he would be in further trouble soon if he didn’t take a few to cool off.
He channeled that anger into basketball energy, and came out huge in the third, serving as a scoring machine. Far from playing with his usual joy, he did the best Russell Westbrook glare imitation that his boyish cheerful countenance could muster. In the fourth, he was matched against one of the best clutch players in the league in Chris Paul, and Paul put on a clinic in late game management. After the game, Luka said that they had gotten a little unlucky that their shots didn’t fall, and there is an element of truth to that, but hopefully he picked up a trick or two from the maestro.
WCS. One thing about high-variance players — occasionally, they produce an outlier in the positive direction, and we get to enjoy it. This had to be one of the games of Trill’s career, as he put up 14 points on 7-8 shooting and had 9 rebounds and 4 blocks, along with doing some effective work against Ayton in 30 minutes on the floor. Even on a relatively high-effort night from the team, he stood out, and should probably receive the Energizer Bunny award, since they don’t give out the DPOG prize after losses. He fouled out after intentionally hacking Chris Paul with 18 seconds left.
BENCH. Brunson led the bench with 26 minutes, and had a 7/3/3 line. Met expectations, I would say. Johnson had 19 minutes as part of the second unit. After watching James through 20 games, I think he has done a workmanlike job in playing his increased role, but I don’t love it when he orchestrates the offense, and he is usually good for a few head-scratching mistakes per game. Once Maxi makes it back, it wouldn’t surprise me to see his role diminish into irrelevance in the absence of injuries. Powell did a pretty decent job as backup, and played very hard, as is his wont. It is possible that he would have been part of the finishing lineup, had he not fouled out at 5:32. Burke got an early hook, and played only a couple of minutes in the second half.
SUNS. Chris Paul led his team with 29 points, 12 assists, and a brilliant performance in the fourth quarter. Additionally, throughout the game, he hit some insanely difficult shots against good challenges. Five of the Suns were in double figures. They won the game beyond the arc, at the free-throw line, and with canny veteran leadership late in the game. This is a good team, but a beatable one. At least without Booker, anyway.
OBSERVATIONS
Rick was very disappointed for his guys, since they had “fought so hard,” and had such a good attitude. He thought it was a shame that they had a significant lead in the third quarter, but allowed the Suns to get the momentum back with some loose possessions and some poor defensive possessions. He admitted that Paul got the better of the Mavs, but said that they were up against one of the league’s great players, who is in great shape and knows how to win.
He said that they have made some defensive adjustments, and he liked the defensive effort on the night. He thinks the three-point shooting will improve as guys get their conditioning back, and he isn’t especially worried about it. However, they did have an offensive session working on it in practice. Although he was sad about the loss, he seemed to see a light somewhere around the end of the tunnel.
Luka, who had called the team out after the second Utah game for playing like they don’t care, was pleased with their “way, way better energy” in this contest. Especially as they were all still a little tired from being in Utah and playing a back-to-back.
Cuban was moved to comment on the state of the team before the game. He undertook to give unhappy fans some facts about COVID. DFS had said it felt like a very severe cold, but Cuban says it is not like a cold, where a person is ready to go as soon as it is over with, and described it as “brutal.”
He pointed out that the time between a positive diagnosis and returning to play is about three weeks, and two of those involve “sitting in a room” and not being active, and then there are more days before the player can be around the team. They have had one of the worst outbreaks in the league, and he opined that things were going to look “out of balance” for a while. He realizes that they are not playing well, and a lot of things are wrong, but they plan to keep grinding away until they can dig themselves out of it, and predicts that they will be ready to go in “crunch time.”
Although I am disappointed with yet another loss, I don’t feel as discouraged as I thought I might. On the bright side, they exhibited much better energy and effort than they have been lately, and two of the virus guys were able to play a normal contingent of starter minutes. Some of the third-string guys aren’t out there flying by the seat of their pants any more, and for all the problems, you can see the outlines of a good team starting to develop. It may be getting too late in the day for the Mavs to achieve the record they had hoped for, but this still needn’t be a lost season. I think we will see them climb out of this, although it may be a step forward here and a step backward there for a while.
I don’t know what to think about the game on Monday against the selfsame team. Maxi is expected to be back, although he is not in game shape. Devin Booker might be back for the Suns. Hope for the best, I guess.
The Mavericks are 8-12. This is no country for the fainthearted.
Onward and upward, Mavs Fans!