04-27-2021, 02:23 AM
DEPLETED MAVS LETHARGIC IN LOSS AT SACRAMENTO
Well, this is why we can’t have nice things. The short-handed Mavericks put on a very lackluster performance and were put in their place by one of the league’s worst defensive teams. The franchise appeared to look off this game, with their eyes on the next night’s engagement in San Francisco. They parked three of their important players — Kris, J Rich, and Redick — on the bench, played Maxi only 10 minutes, and delegated much of the battle to such seldom-seen personages as Green, Burke, and Boban.
The deep bench players actually stepped up pretty admirably, but the constantly changing, jerry-rigged, seldom-or-never-used lineups did not make for much team chemistry, and the team as a whole didn’t seem to play with much urgency. Maybe they figured that a match against an opponent that was missing its best scorer, was on the second night of a back-to-back, and was the worst defensive team in the NBA would be a pillow fight. SMH.
GAME STORY
KP and Richardson continued out with their injuries, and Redick joined them with some aggravation of his heel soreness. Luka, DFS, and Maxi were all listed as questionable earlier in the day, but were able to go. D’Aaron Fox was out for Sacramento.
One characteristic of this version of the Mavs is that they pretty much just refuse to come out ready to play, preferring, to quote Harp, to spend the first few minutes getting ready to play. Within the first two minutes, the Mavs were down 2-8, triggering an early timeout. To no avail. Before the period was halfway over, Dallas was trailing 3-20. To the Kings. Not the start Carlisle wanted, by a long shot. Your boys were on the wrong end of a 17-31 scoreline after one. The Mavs were 0-9 from three, whereas Sac had a 7-11 performance from deep. Dallas also had 7 turnovers in the period.
The second did not begin any better. Within the first three minutes, the Mavs gave up a three-attempts basket to the Kings. Dallas broke out their zone, but Delon Wright immediately drove to the basket for a layup over Willie. Eventually, the visiting team managed to gain a little traction, thanks to unlikely saviors Trey Burke and Boban. They whittled the deficit to 3 at a couple of points, but the Kings made a run at the end, and the Mavericks went into halftime down 52-59. Carlisle opted for a bench-heavy lineup in the frame, with Maxi, THJ, and Powell on the bench the entire 12 minutes. Only three Mavs scored in the quarter, but they scored fast and furiously, with 15 points from Burke and 10 apiece from Luka and Boban.
The Mavericks came out sizzling in the third, and quickly gained their first lead of the game. However, Sac went on a 8-0 run about five minutes in, and maintained a cushion for most of the period. Dallas put together a nice run to end the quarter, highlighted by two Cauley-Stein slams. They had drawn within 2, at 85-87. Harrison Barnes went to the locker room at 6:30 and did not return. We later learned that he had an abductor injury.
Dallas retook the lead for one possession at 10:25 in the fourth, but never led again. The Mavericks entered the last five minutes down 5 and lost the rest of the game 9-11. The clutch unit was Luka, Burke, Hardaway, DFS, and Willie. The Mavs were 0-7 from three in the quarter.
STATISTICS
The Mavs played a pretty good possession game, getting 11 more shots up than the Kings, and 13 more 3PTAs. However, their very poor shooting from distance and at the line took its toll. They were 62% inside the arc, 29% from three, and 57% from the line, while comparable percentages from Sac were 56/45/89. Maverick point differentials were +4 on points from twos, -3 on points from threes (despite having 13 more attempts), and -8 on made free throws. The visitors went to the line for only 14 attempts, and missing 6 of those in a 7-point loss didn’t help matters.
All five starters were in deep negative territory, although the bench were all positive. Sac turned the ball over 18 times for a loss of 23 points, but the Mavs somehow were not able to capitalize. The Kings have the dubious distinction of being the league’s worst team in transition defense, yet they led the Mavs 16-11 in fast-break points. Turrible.
PLAYERS
We’ll list the players in order of minutes tonight, in order to put into focus the resources that the team brought to bear in this match.
DONCIC (37 minutes). Luka had a 24/7/8 line, but had 4 turnovers, and was only 8-20 from the field. His clutch management in this game was not his best. In the last five minutes, he had five points — a midrange floater, one of two free throw attempts, and a late layup, —no assists, and two missed threes in the final minute. In more cheerful news of late, he was chosen Western Conference Player of the Week for the fourth time in his NBA career.
DFS (33 minutes). Doe-Doe had a respectable 10/7/4 line, along with a couple of steals. He had a highlight minute in the first quarter when he grabbed a rebound and danced all the way down the court for a bucket. He also had a great cut in that period to receive a pass from THJ for a basket. However, on the defensive end, he was getting blown by pretty regularly.
THJ (29 minutes). When I looked at Tim’s box score, I was somehow surprised it wasn’t worse. He had 19 points, but was 8-20 overall and 3-12 from distance. I had halfway expected Rick to cut him from the closing unit again, but I guess they were desperate for scoring at that point, and who else was there? I hope they can think of something to break Timmy out of this slump. The Mavericks badly need him to play well.
BURKE (28 minutes). Trey came out of semi-retirement from the rotation to bedazzle the arena with a 15-point second quarter. His 19 points on the night made this his third-highest scoring game of the season. Harp deemed him the best player on the floor on the night. Rick and Coach Jenny both commended him for always remaining engaged and staying positive, saying that the coaching staff unanimously thought he would be ready for this game.
WCS (27 minutes). Willie had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals in his de facto role as primary big man on the night. His most passionate moment was probably when he put Buddy Hield on a poster with a vicious tomahawk dunk in the third. He was active at the rim all night, on both ends of the court, and gave it the old college try.
MELLI (21 minutes). Nico did not score, and indeed took only three shot attempts, but had 6 rebounds and a steal.
BRUNSON. (18 minutes). Another rather meh game for Jalen, who had 7 points and 3 assists, and was 3-9. He did have a defensive highlight in the first quarter, when he drew an offensive foul on his defender in the opponent’s backcourt.
GREEN (16 minutes). Josh got some substantial minutes here, and had 2 points and 3 rebounds for the evening. Most of his impact appeared to be on the defensive end. For example, late in the third quarter, Josh forced a shot clock violation with aggressive defense against Haliburton, drawing cheers from the bench. In the fourth, he tied the game on a transition slam for an offensive contribution. Rick said he put Green in the mix with Richardson and Redick out, and thought he showed good energy.
POWELL (13 minutes). Dwight had 5 points and 5 rebounds, as the Kings’ switch-heavy defense really exposed him. Must have been a downer, after his game against the Lakers on Saturday.
KLEBER (10 min). Maxi was a game-time decision with his back bruise, and he only played in the first quarter. Rick said the German wasn’t moving well, so he elected to give him a rest and go with another scorer in Trey Burke. It seems clear that his back injury is truly hampering him.
BOBAN (9 minutes). Bobi had 10 points, all in the first half, on 4-4 shooting. He was an offensive terror in the second quarter, as the Mavs repeatedly found him for a shower of easy baskets. With Sacramento’s tendency to play small, athletic players, it was a good matchup for Bobi offensively, although not so hot defensively. Coach Jenny said she wasn’t sure why Carlisle didn’t go back to Boban in the second half, speculating that Rick was struggling to find any effective lineup, and cited the defensive matchup in Bobi’s case.
KINGS. The Kings’ leading scorer, D’Aaron Fox, was out for COVID protocols. Another of their most important contributors, former Mav Harrison Barnes, had to leave the game early and played only 24 minutes. He managed to put up 19 points and 6 rebounds on 7-10 shooting in his abbreviated time on the court. Richaun Holmes lit the Mavericks up with 24 points on 9-12 shooting and 6-6 FTAs. That was one point less than the Mavs’ 4 big men combined. Buddy Hield registered 16 points, and rookie Tyrese Haliburton had 14 points and 10 assists.
NBA ITEM
Sad news came down today that a long-time Mavs media commentator, Jonathan Tjarks of the Ringer, has been diagnosed with stage four cancer, thought to be a sarcoma. Thoughts and prayers to Jonathan, his wife, and his one-year-old son.
OBSERVATIONS
Carlisle labeled the contest “very disappointing,” laying the primary blame on the very bad start. He admitted that it is frustrating being a broken record on the subject.
Coach Boucek descried her team’s “subpar” performance. She echoed Rick’s disappointment in the lack of a sense of urgency, resulting in a very slow start. She thought the Kings showed a lot of passion and played very well, but still thought the Mavs "should have" won. Down the stretch, she criticized the squad’s inability to get stops, very bad shot selection, and poor offensive decision-making. She cited Richaun Holmes as a player that the Mavericks never had an answer for, noting that Willie and Powell both had difficulty defending Sac’s athletic bigs. She observed that several of the players are “dinged up,” but sees no excuse for the lack of aggressiveness and punch, ascribing it to a “maturity issue.”
This is a loss that should embarrass the Mavs organization, from tip to toe. The players, for the most part, were disappointing. However, one can also point a finger at the coaches and higher-ups for bringing a water gun to a knife fight -- both in terms of guys not playing, and in the attitude of the guys who did play. I guess the other possibility is that the sitting Mavs really were too hurt to play, which is an even more discouraging prospect.
It remains to be seen who will even play on Tuesday night — Carlisle told the reporters not to ask about that because he is tired of talking about who will play on any given night. Okay, then. In any case, Portland and the Lakers both won and increased their records vis-a-vis the Mavericks by a whole game.
The Mavs face Golden State on the SEGABABA. I really don’t know what to expect.
Well, this is why we can’t have nice things. The short-handed Mavericks put on a very lackluster performance and were put in their place by one of the league’s worst defensive teams. The franchise appeared to look off this game, with their eyes on the next night’s engagement in San Francisco. They parked three of their important players — Kris, J Rich, and Redick — on the bench, played Maxi only 10 minutes, and delegated much of the battle to such seldom-seen personages as Green, Burke, and Boban.
The deep bench players actually stepped up pretty admirably, but the constantly changing, jerry-rigged, seldom-or-never-used lineups did not make for much team chemistry, and the team as a whole didn’t seem to play with much urgency. Maybe they figured that a match against an opponent that was missing its best scorer, was on the second night of a back-to-back, and was the worst defensive team in the NBA would be a pillow fight. SMH.
GAME STORY
KP and Richardson continued out with their injuries, and Redick joined them with some aggravation of his heel soreness. Luka, DFS, and Maxi were all listed as questionable earlier in the day, but were able to go. D’Aaron Fox was out for Sacramento.
One characteristic of this version of the Mavs is that they pretty much just refuse to come out ready to play, preferring, to quote Harp, to spend the first few minutes getting ready to play. Within the first two minutes, the Mavs were down 2-8, triggering an early timeout. To no avail. Before the period was halfway over, Dallas was trailing 3-20. To the Kings. Not the start Carlisle wanted, by a long shot. Your boys were on the wrong end of a 17-31 scoreline after one. The Mavs were 0-9 from three, whereas Sac had a 7-11 performance from deep. Dallas also had 7 turnovers in the period.
The second did not begin any better. Within the first three minutes, the Mavs gave up a three-attempts basket to the Kings. Dallas broke out their zone, but Delon Wright immediately drove to the basket for a layup over Willie. Eventually, the visiting team managed to gain a little traction, thanks to unlikely saviors Trey Burke and Boban. They whittled the deficit to 3 at a couple of points, but the Kings made a run at the end, and the Mavericks went into halftime down 52-59. Carlisle opted for a bench-heavy lineup in the frame, with Maxi, THJ, and Powell on the bench the entire 12 minutes. Only three Mavs scored in the quarter, but they scored fast and furiously, with 15 points from Burke and 10 apiece from Luka and Boban.
The Mavericks came out sizzling in the third, and quickly gained their first lead of the game. However, Sac went on a 8-0 run about five minutes in, and maintained a cushion for most of the period. Dallas put together a nice run to end the quarter, highlighted by two Cauley-Stein slams. They had drawn within 2, at 85-87. Harrison Barnes went to the locker room at 6:30 and did not return. We later learned that he had an abductor injury.
Dallas retook the lead for one possession at 10:25 in the fourth, but never led again. The Mavericks entered the last five minutes down 5 and lost the rest of the game 9-11. The clutch unit was Luka, Burke, Hardaway, DFS, and Willie. The Mavs were 0-7 from three in the quarter.
STATISTICS
The Mavs played a pretty good possession game, getting 11 more shots up than the Kings, and 13 more 3PTAs. However, their very poor shooting from distance and at the line took its toll. They were 62% inside the arc, 29% from three, and 57% from the line, while comparable percentages from Sac were 56/45/89. Maverick point differentials were +4 on points from twos, -3 on points from threes (despite having 13 more attempts), and -8 on made free throws. The visitors went to the line for only 14 attempts, and missing 6 of those in a 7-point loss didn’t help matters.
All five starters were in deep negative territory, although the bench were all positive. Sac turned the ball over 18 times for a loss of 23 points, but the Mavs somehow were not able to capitalize. The Kings have the dubious distinction of being the league’s worst team in transition defense, yet they led the Mavs 16-11 in fast-break points. Turrible.
PLAYERS
We’ll list the players in order of minutes tonight, in order to put into focus the resources that the team brought to bear in this match.
DONCIC (37 minutes). Luka had a 24/7/8 line, but had 4 turnovers, and was only 8-20 from the field. His clutch management in this game was not his best. In the last five minutes, he had five points — a midrange floater, one of two free throw attempts, and a late layup, —no assists, and two missed threes in the final minute. In more cheerful news of late, he was chosen Western Conference Player of the Week for the fourth time in his NBA career.
DFS (33 minutes). Doe-Doe had a respectable 10/7/4 line, along with a couple of steals. He had a highlight minute in the first quarter when he grabbed a rebound and danced all the way down the court for a bucket. He also had a great cut in that period to receive a pass from THJ for a basket. However, on the defensive end, he was getting blown by pretty regularly.
THJ (29 minutes). When I looked at Tim’s box score, I was somehow surprised it wasn’t worse. He had 19 points, but was 8-20 overall and 3-12 from distance. I had halfway expected Rick to cut him from the closing unit again, but I guess they were desperate for scoring at that point, and who else was there? I hope they can think of something to break Timmy out of this slump. The Mavericks badly need him to play well.
BURKE (28 minutes). Trey came out of semi-retirement from the rotation to bedazzle the arena with a 15-point second quarter. His 19 points on the night made this his third-highest scoring game of the season. Harp deemed him the best player on the floor on the night. Rick and Coach Jenny both commended him for always remaining engaged and staying positive, saying that the coaching staff unanimously thought he would be ready for this game.
WCS (27 minutes). Willie had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals in his de facto role as primary big man on the night. His most passionate moment was probably when he put Buddy Hield on a poster with a vicious tomahawk dunk in the third. He was active at the rim all night, on both ends of the court, and gave it the old college try.
MELLI (21 minutes). Nico did not score, and indeed took only three shot attempts, but had 6 rebounds and a steal.
BRUNSON. (18 minutes). Another rather meh game for Jalen, who had 7 points and 3 assists, and was 3-9. He did have a defensive highlight in the first quarter, when he drew an offensive foul on his defender in the opponent’s backcourt.
GREEN (16 minutes). Josh got some substantial minutes here, and had 2 points and 3 rebounds for the evening. Most of his impact appeared to be on the defensive end. For example, late in the third quarter, Josh forced a shot clock violation with aggressive defense against Haliburton, drawing cheers from the bench. In the fourth, he tied the game on a transition slam for an offensive contribution. Rick said he put Green in the mix with Richardson and Redick out, and thought he showed good energy.
POWELL (13 minutes). Dwight had 5 points and 5 rebounds, as the Kings’ switch-heavy defense really exposed him. Must have been a downer, after his game against the Lakers on Saturday.
KLEBER (10 min). Maxi was a game-time decision with his back bruise, and he only played in the first quarter. Rick said the German wasn’t moving well, so he elected to give him a rest and go with another scorer in Trey Burke. It seems clear that his back injury is truly hampering him.
BOBAN (9 minutes). Bobi had 10 points, all in the first half, on 4-4 shooting. He was an offensive terror in the second quarter, as the Mavs repeatedly found him for a shower of easy baskets. With Sacramento’s tendency to play small, athletic players, it was a good matchup for Bobi offensively, although not so hot defensively. Coach Jenny said she wasn’t sure why Carlisle didn’t go back to Boban in the second half, speculating that Rick was struggling to find any effective lineup, and cited the defensive matchup in Bobi’s case.
KINGS. The Kings’ leading scorer, D’Aaron Fox, was out for COVID protocols. Another of their most important contributors, former Mav Harrison Barnes, had to leave the game early and played only 24 minutes. He managed to put up 19 points and 6 rebounds on 7-10 shooting in his abbreviated time on the court. Richaun Holmes lit the Mavericks up with 24 points on 9-12 shooting and 6-6 FTAs. That was one point less than the Mavs’ 4 big men combined. Buddy Hield registered 16 points, and rookie Tyrese Haliburton had 14 points and 10 assists.
NBA ITEM
Sad news came down today that a long-time Mavs media commentator, Jonathan Tjarks of the Ringer, has been diagnosed with stage four cancer, thought to be a sarcoma. Thoughts and prayers to Jonathan, his wife, and his one-year-old son.
OBSERVATIONS
Carlisle labeled the contest “very disappointing,” laying the primary blame on the very bad start. He admitted that it is frustrating being a broken record on the subject.
Coach Boucek descried her team’s “subpar” performance. She echoed Rick’s disappointment in the lack of a sense of urgency, resulting in a very slow start. She thought the Kings showed a lot of passion and played very well, but still thought the Mavs "should have" won. Down the stretch, she criticized the squad’s inability to get stops, very bad shot selection, and poor offensive decision-making. She cited Richaun Holmes as a player that the Mavericks never had an answer for, noting that Willie and Powell both had difficulty defending Sac’s athletic bigs. She observed that several of the players are “dinged up,” but sees no excuse for the lack of aggressiveness and punch, ascribing it to a “maturity issue.”
This is a loss that should embarrass the Mavs organization, from tip to toe. The players, for the most part, were disappointing. However, one can also point a finger at the coaches and higher-ups for bringing a water gun to a knife fight -- both in terms of guys not playing, and in the attitude of the guys who did play. I guess the other possibility is that the sitting Mavs really were too hurt to play, which is an even more discouraging prospect.
It remains to be seen who will even play on Tuesday night — Carlisle told the reporters not to ask about that because he is tired of talking about who will play on any given night. Okay, then. In any case, Portland and the Lakers both won and increased their records vis-a-vis the Mavericks by a whole game.
The Mavs face Golden State on the SEGABABA. I really don’t know what to expect.