MAVS 107, BULLS 117

[mavsluvr]

MAVS SMACKED BY BULLS IN SECOND-HALF COLLAPSE
KIDD DELIVERS SCOLDING 

Our Mavs began a stretch of 6 games out of seven on the road at the United Center in the Windy City. They were fresh off two wins at home, hoping to establish some away presence against the Bulls’ loaded squad. They hung in for a while, but ultimately succumbed to  the Chicago buzz saw. 


GAME NOTES

Both teams came in with 7-3 records. In terms of point differential, however, it was Mavs -23, Bulls +70. Brian Dameris opined that, at just 10 games in, the point differential is not yet worrisome, but that they’ll hope to improve on that as they move forward. DeRozan and Lavine are one of the highest-scoring duos in the league, so the Dallas defense looks to be up for a test. 

Maxi continued out with his back strain, as expected. Zach LaVine was playing through a thumb sprain in his off hand. Kidd elected to go with the “normal” starting lineup — Luka, THJ, DFS, KP, DP. 

FIRST QUARTER

KP is first on the board with 2 free throws. DFS hits from the corner! Gets the same shot again and misses. 8-13 7:39

Mavs shooting 2-10 so far. Bullock comes in for KP. Brunson enters for Tim. Mavs doing a good job drawing fouls. 8-8 FTAs. 13-20 5:38

Now Dallas is 2-12. Bulls 5-8 from three. Wow. WCS comes in, misses a dunk. Vucevic doing a number on us. Bullock loses the ball. Luka hits his second completed shot of the game. Brunson gets on the board with a couple of freebies. Luka-WCS lob-dunk! Sterling and Frankie enter the game. All-bench unit. Brunson rack attack! And another, with a foul! Woo-hoo! Ntilikina to the basket! KP back, hits from long distance! Sterling puts the Mavs ahead with a pull-up three! Brunson closes the period with a free throw. 33-32 after one. 

So, Mavs have come back from an 11-point deficit to a 1-point lead. Good, good. Jalen leads the Mavs with 8 points. Vooch has 9 for Chicago. Mavs earned 13 FTAs in the quarter, and completed 12 of them. 

SECOND QUARTER

JB drive again! KP slam from Frankie! Chicago coach not liking what he sees. 37-34 10:38

Lonzo has a DEEP three. Tie game. FN gives us a little rim protection! KP dashes in for a put back of a missed Brunson three! Hardaway three disallowed due to DeRozan fouling JB before the shot. KP with a jumper. Hardaway strikes again! Lonzo Ball lethal from three. Hits one over Sterling. DFS with a dramatic block! Zach LaVine called for fouling DFS on a closeout to the corner — Lavine’s third. He stays in. Hits from three. Powell dunk from JB lob. Luka-Powell! Good stuff. Luka draws a hard foul on a drive. 1-2 from the line. LaVine drives and scores. Justifies Coach Donovan's decision to leave him out there. 51-51 4:39

Powell rejects Ball. LaVine has 9 points since he picked up his third foul. Really? DeRozan over KP. Green at the basket over Luka. Bulls making a run. THJ on a give-and-go from Luka. Luka dunk off DFS OR. Waved off. 54-61 at halftime. 

Mavs end the half 1-10. KP leading Mavs scorer with 11, but accumulated 3 fouls in 2 minutes to close the half. Ball and LaVine have 15 each. Mavs 4-17 from three, Bulls 9-17. Dallas with made free throw advantage of 8. Ball 5-6 from long range. Tim-Luka-Bullock combine to go 4-19 from the floor. This Mavs offense still looks pretty shaky, tbqh. Bally Sports crew congratulate Dallas for being down only 7. Aargh. 

THIRD QUARTER

Starting lineup back out. Vooch to the basket. Powell corner three from KP! THJ off good ball movement. Season high in scoring for Ball, who just hit his sixth three of the game. Timmy with another three off the bounce. Luka draws a shooting foul posting up Green. Hardaway pull-up off brush screen from Powell! DP swats away a DeRozan dunk! 68-73 7:29

Ball corner three over Luka. Powell from the opposite corner! Wow! LaVine reverse layup. Vooch-Green alley-oop. 71-80 5:39

Bulls 11-20 from three. Ball taking a rest on the bench. Yay! Luka off the window! DFS misses an open three in transition. Luka with a rainbow! Bulls just drilling us from the three-point line. Caruso hits. Luka-DP again! Lavine appears to travel on a drive to the basket. The refs wave bon voyage to him. Caruso an open three. Vooch posts up over Willie. Boban enters! Caruso and-one over a double team.  JB turns it over. Caruso makes it 5-5. 80-95 after three. 

Bulls ended quarter on 15-4 run. Bulls shooting 52% from three. This game looks to be getting out of hand rapidly. 

FOURTH QUARTER

Caruso from three again. The Caru-show. Brunson to the basket. 87-102 8:26

Bulls score again after the Mavs fail to secure a DR. KP hits. Bulls rim score over Brunson and Luka.  KP dunk gives him a season high. Hardaway three! Rookie three over Brunson. Luka overthrows cross-court pass, turnover. Vooch hook shot over KP. 94-111 5:17

This Bulls team looks really good.  Tim with another three. Luka looks like he might have gotten a knock. He and Vooch are yukking it up, so must be okay. 99-111 4:19

Starting lineup on the floor. LaVine dances past our defenders. Lonzo with a 360 degree dunk at the basket. 101-115 1:50

LaVine teed up for complaining. Timmy takes the technical free throw, misses. Deep bench released. 107-117 FT


ANALYSIS

Allowing the Bulls to shoot 48% from three was a killer, especially when Dallas shot a league-average 36%. The Mavs gave themselves a chance in the game with a 24-14 advantage in FTAs. Maverick point differentials were -8 on points from twos, -9 on points from threes, and +7 on made free throws. There’s your ball game. 


PLAYER NOTES

DONCIC (33 min).  Luka flirted with a triple-double, at 20-8-10, along with 4 steals. He had a rough shooting night, at 6-18 (1-6 3PTA). The Slovenian led the team in FTAs, but missed three of them (7-10). Bally thinks Luka’s struggles are mostly a matter of what the coaches are asking him to do, which doesn't come naturally to him or to the rest of the roster at this point. 

Kidd had some very pointed remarks after the game. Said we always expect Luka to be superhuman, and he was just average tonight (by his own standards, which means still better than most). Criticized the team for failing to step up and for having the wrong attitude. Said if the reporters want to know why Luka’s FG% is down, they should ask Luka. Wants Luka to keep staying aggressive. They would like to start posting him up more, so that he can have a little easier time creating for himself and his teammates. Luka is having to work too hard, and others need to expect themselves to contribute.

Brian Dameris commented that that unusual speech was not directed at Luka, but rather at his teammates. Acknowledging that KP and Tim had done their parts, Kidd  was making a public observation that Bullock, DFS, and the rest of them need to get with the program and take responsibility for putting points on the board themselves, rather than acting like that’s mostly Luka’s job. Shots across the bow!

HARDAWAY (33). Timmy had a 21-point outing, and was 5-9 from long distance. Looking very smooth, and taking responsibility for carrying a scoring load. Kidd thought he was “great.”

PORZINGIS (32). KP led the team with 22 points (9-16), and double-doubled with 12 boards. Season highs in both points and rebounds. Looked as good as we’ve seen him this season. Seemed confident, diversified his attack, moved well, and provided at least some rim protection. Kidd thought he had a very good evening, and complimented him for being aggressive and stepping up offensively. 

DFS (29). Dorian had 3 steals, and played some defense, but remained a non-factor offensively, taking only 5 shots and putting up only 5 points. 

BRUNSON (29). Brunson came out aggressively, and had 12 points (4-8) and 7 assists on the night. He looked good in the first half, but totally disappeared in the second (2 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 12 min). The Bulls had no problem repeatedly shooting over him. Love how JB has come along this season, but think the jury is still out, at least wrt the playoffs. Can get obliterated on defense against big, long guys, and his scoring is limited  or disappears when the opponent focuses on stopping him. 

POWELL (22). I thought Dwight acquitted himself well tonight. He had 12 points (5-6), including two corner threes (!), and also collected 4 rebounds and had two dramatic blocks. His presence enables him and Luka to execute PNR and alley-oop moves that they are actually comfortable with, and Dwight is efficient offensively. Mavs Twitter-Verse to the contrary, he doesn't deserve scapegoating for this loss. 

BENCH. Except for Brunson (arguably), the bench were fairly unimpressive in this one, except for stretch toward the end of the first quarter. REGGIE was 0-4 in 23 minutes, and otherwise had 2 rebounds and a turnover. STERLING put up 5 points and 4 boards in 17 minutes. All the other 7 players received less than 10 minutes each, and combined for 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 dimes, 1 steal, and 3 turnovers, counting 2 minutes of garbage time for BURKE, MOSES, and GREEN. 

BULLS. This was another Miami-type game. The Mavs just ran into a more talented team, and probably did reasonably well to keep their final deficit respectable. Zach LaVine was a beast, with 23 points on 8-12 shooting. It was too bad the Mavs couldn’t take advantage when he was playing through foul trouble. Lonzo Ball was a killer with 21 points, 6 boards, and 6 assists, highlighted by 7-10 three-point shooting. Just unstoppable. Nik Vucevic impressed with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 8-14 shooting. DeMar DeRozan had a mediocre shooting night (7-20), but still managed to put up a 17-7-6 line. Alex Caruso stepped up in the second half, and had 16 points and 6 steals off the bench. This squad looks to be one of the terrors of the Eastern Conference this season. 


OBSERVATIONS

The Bally studio crew critiqued the Mavs for surprisingly coming out lackadaisically on a night when they needed to be hitting on all cylinders. Thought the team were not nearly aggressive enough, and gave up too much three-point shooting. 

Kidd said he thought the team played 22 minutes of high-level basketball. Then allowed a Bulls run to close the second half and never recovered. Disappointed that during the Bulls runs, the team didn’t make shots and didn’t take advantage of the opponents on the floor. Overall, they should have defended Ball and LaVine better, and generally didn’t demand enough of themselves. The team (coaches and players) are going to have to do better than this to be competitive. 

For me, this was another tale of two halves. Dallas got off to another slow start, but managed to catch up and take the lead. They hung in for most of the first half, got within four early in the third, and then just cratered. Kidd was correct in his position that the players (at least those not named Luka, Kris, or Tim) need to demand more of themselves. If they had played at their best, it would have been more satisfying, and at least show some progress, but it’s hard to say whether they were up to getting the win in any case, without a whole basketful of things going just right. 

There are some things to be positive about. KP looks like he is coming along really well, which could be quite big for the team. Hardaway looks to be on a very good trajectory, not just with three-point shooting, but with a variety of attacking and passing moves, and wrt leadership on the court. 

We got some more intelligence about Luka’s struggles, including that he is being asked to do a lot of things that neither he nor the team is yet comfortable with, he is having to work too hard and that is affecting his play, he can’t humanly be Superman every single night, and the guys who are shooting blanks offensively need to step up and assume their share of the load. Luka is one of the planet's smartest basketball players, and I think he will work his way out of this. As for some of the other guys — TBD. 


NEXT. The Mavs face the Spurs on Friday. This is one of the “easier” matchups in the this stretch of the season, and our boys need to take advantage. I’m betting on them to do that.