Shortstaffed Mavs Fall to Hornets After 32-Point Comeback
Oof! To paraphrase Charles Dickens, it was the worst of times, it was the best of times. Then the worst of times again. Heartbreaking loss for our boys.
Game Story
Mavs were missing KP (knee), THJ (hammy), and Broekhoff (fibula).
Rick's starting lineup was the same as last game -- Barea/Doncic/DFS/Jackson/Powell. They came out with a lack of energy, looking almost like they were taking the game for granted. They hung in for the first half of the first quarter, but fell apart when Luka went out, and didn't recover when he came back in. The home team could neither score nor get stops. The first period ended with Dallas trailing 20-32. The second period was a little better, but still unimpressive. The Mavericks went down a game-high 20 points, before recovering late, to an extent. A Maxi buzzer-beating three reduced the deficit to 44-57 at the half. Not sure when was the last time the Mavs produced a 44-point half. Yikes!
Whatever happened at halftime, Kleber replaced Jackson in the starting lineup in the third, and the Mavericks came out strong, in fact erasing the deficit, putting together a 40-point quarter, and gaining an 84-80 edge at the end of the frame. They started the fourth in similar fashion, and the lead was up to 12 with 9 minutes left in regulation. The advantage was frittered away in a flurry of missed long threes, turnovers, and giving up offensive rebounds. Luka's step-back three for the win rimmed out at the buzzer. To overtime.
The Mavs gave up 20 points in the five-minute overtime period. They also scored 17, but a number of those points were scored when the Hornets gave them two-point shots at several times when the Hornets were up three. The Mavs played the foul game until the bitter end. Seth got the chance to tie the game again with a three at the end, but the Hornets fouled him before he could get a shot off, and he did not try to miss the second free throw with 4 seconds left. The last offensive Mavs play was a desperation heave from 55 feet by Luka.
Analytics
Statistically, the Mavs looked very good offensively around the basket, shooting 70% on twos and earning 60 points in the paint. They also put up 15 more shots than the Hornets, and 25 more 3PTAs. However, they shot dismally from three (15-50), had an 18-point disadvantage in free-throw attempts, and were out rebounded. At the end of the day, they were +12 on points from threes, -17 on made free throws, and and +2 on points from twos. Period-by-period Mavs scoring was 20, 24, 40, 19, 17. Very uncharacteristic lack of offense by Dallas. Three-point shooting ranged from excellent (Maxi, 6-12) to respectable (DFS, 3-8) to decent (LD, 5-15) to abysmal (rest of team, 1-15). The Charlotte back court flamed the Mavs for 56 points, and got to the basket seemingly at will.
Players
Luka (43 min) had a monster line (39-12-10), and was entertaining to watch, with his ridiculous passes, crafty finishing, step-back threes, and joyful grins during the Mavs' big run. He broke the franchise's record for triple-doubles in one season, passing Jason Kidd with his tenth such game. Luka denied caring about that, as the big stats came in a loss, and Doncic was, in fact, the only starter in negative +/-, at -5.
Luka attributed the loss to his own "terrible decisions." While the loss can't be blamed on Luka, as the Mavs would not have been in it without him, one does have to question the game disintegrating into hero ball in the clutch. Several commentators suggested he may have run out of gas after playing long minutes, although he denied it. Cedric noted that Rick was going to Seth at the end, and Luka may have been tired, or else Rick may have figured the Hornets were going to get the ball out of Luka's hands, anyway, so he might as well use the Slovenian as a decoy. It was postulated that Luka may have started settling due to fatigue and/or frustration at not getting calls (6 FTAs all night), although this isn't really a one-game issue.
Rick remarked before the game that other teams are "beating the s__t out of Luka every game," and that it isn't right. Luka dismissed the concern, saying he just has to keep going (rather than let the officiating get in his head). The Hornets are not an especially physical team, as far as this specific game is concerned, but with KP and THJ out, he was double-teamed to death, and many of his teammates did not step up.
DFS (38 min) looked pretty good, with 15 points and 8 boards. He crashed the offensive glass for Dallas, earning 6 ORBs, and had a couple of crowd-pleasing put back dunks to go with his three threes. He had his hands full trying to defend the Charlotte guards, but as the Mavericks' best perimeter defender, he gave it his best shot. He said after the game that the team should have come out with more energy, and should have won in regulation, even without two of their best players.
Powell (38 min). Powell had a respectable offensive night, putting up 11 points on 5-7 shooting. However, he was unable to protect the rim, and was less than intense on the glass. He did execute three steals, but fouled out on an intentional take in overtime. For stretches, DP served as the squad's only big on the court, and it didn't work out great. KP, with his rebounding and rim protection, plays such an important role in freeing up DP for his screen-and-roll game, and the team missed the big Latvian.
Maxi (35 min) stepped up offensively, with another career-high scoring night (24 points on 8-13 shooting, including six threes). He was also instrumental defensively, serving as the only Mav big man who was capable of doing so. Carlisle complimented his all-around play, although for all his massive points, he was bottom of the team with respect to +/-, at -12. The Mavs ran some three-point plays for him, which I believe is something new, and reflects his increasing performance beyond the arc. Lot of hard work going on there.
Barea (33 min) had 11 points, and assisted the Mavs with playmaking, with 9 dimes and only 1 turnover. I don't love the Luka-Barea lineup, as it tends to take Luka out of the play, and is a turnstile defensively. However, there arguably wasn't much in the way of options, as Dallas badly needed a player other than Luka who could create off the dribble. His role should diminish once THJ returns.
Jackson (29 min) had 6 points and 5 boards, and was 0-6 from long range. He wasn't really up for a starting role, and was overmatched by the Hornets. Rick replaced him with Maxi to start the third quarter. A dubious foul on Justin in the fourth had Carlisle yelling furiously at the ref. Officiating aside, the absences of the stars has a domino effect, and guys like Jackson (necessarily) get asked to fill responsibilities they may not be ready to handle. It is to be noted that Rick continued to play him big minutes, and even ran some plays for him, perhaps hoping it would serve a development purpose.
Seth (26 min) had 12 points off the bench on 5-8 shooting, but took only two 3-point shots the whole game, missing both. Don't know what was going on there. During halftime, Jet pleaded with Seth to be more aggressive, as the team was unlikely to survive with only Luka and Maxi wiling to step up on the scoring end.
Brunson (14 min) had two points, and seemed to be neither here nor there. He didn't make any particularly bad mistakes that I can remember, but was mostly invisible.
Wright played only 7 colorless minutes, presumably because he was still fighting a sore foot. In the Locked on Mavs podcast, they mentioned a report that Carlisle asked him if he could go in the fourth quarter, and he demurred. Too bad, because this was a game in which his talents would have been useful.
Boban had a disastrous 3 minutes, during which the Mavs went down 8 points. Not really Bobi's fault, he just isn't able to guard the pick and roll very well, due to his lack of mobility. His only stat was 1 foul.
Remarks
Carlisle said the game was lost in the first quarter. (Luka disagreed, opining that the match was lost in overtime). He thought the team got way behind, expended a great deal of energy digging out of that hole, got a lead, and then couldn't make plays when they needed to. Squandering the lead was on the whole team, in Rick's opinion, and he declined to discuss individual mistakes, as he said that every lapse gets magnified in a situation like this, and there were enough to go around without pointing fingers at a particular player. He said you have to give credit to the Hornets for playing so well and never giving up.
There are a number of things that went wrong in this contest, which the Mavs had been heavily favored to win. The biggest issue was the absence of KP and THJ, both of whom were sorely missed. At least, that problem should be solved before too long, although further injuries are, unfortunately, likely through the rest of a long season.
The slow home start is puzzling, though not shocking, as this has been a characteristic of the Mavs. One commentator thought this was a trap game, to which I would say that I am not sure the Mavericks are good enough to have trap games. The Hornets have a pretty tepid roster, but they are, for the most part, young guys that play hard, and it is dangerous to underestimate a squad like that. The starting lineup left much to be desired, but Carlisle had limited choices, and I don't think we will see this one again unless injuries require it.
The poor performance in the clutch is very Mavs-like. They have lost 11 of their last 12 overtime games, lost all of them this season, and are 28th in the league in offensive rating in clutch minutes, scoring 90 ppp. Yuck. Rick seemed unfamiliar with that stat, but said he would take a look at it and see if he could come up with an answer. If they don't find an answer to closing out games, especially when they have a substantial lead in the fourth quarter, they aren't going to make much noise this season. The failure to rebound or get stops killed the team down the stretch, along with too much settling for very long threes and turning the ball over in pressure situations. The frustrating part is that these games usually don't play out as a superior team dominating Dallas in the last eight minutes -- rather the collapse of the Mavs into a lot of unforced errors and poor decision-making. Same song, umpteenth verse. I have to think some of these issue recede once the team is fully healthy.
Defense continues to be so-so, and was not helped by the small lineups and lack of rim protection.
The good news is that the potential answers to a lot of the Mavs' problems were sitting on the bench in suits. Also, that even without the two stars, Dallas was able to come back from a 20-point deficit and gain a double-digit lead in the fourth. Most teams that rely heavily on three-point shooting are inevitably going to be a little on the streaky side, especially with two of the better shooters out of action.
Next. The Bulls, on Monday. Chicago has the 5th best defensive rating in the league, so we'll see if the Mavericks' vaunted offense can get the better of them.
Get well, injured Mavs!
Oof! To paraphrase Charles Dickens, it was the worst of times, it was the best of times. Then the worst of times again. Heartbreaking loss for our boys.
Game Story
Mavs were missing KP (knee), THJ (hammy), and Broekhoff (fibula).
Rick's starting lineup was the same as last game -- Barea/Doncic/DFS/Jackson/Powell. They came out with a lack of energy, looking almost like they were taking the game for granted. They hung in for the first half of the first quarter, but fell apart when Luka went out, and didn't recover when he came back in. The home team could neither score nor get stops. The first period ended with Dallas trailing 20-32. The second period was a little better, but still unimpressive. The Mavericks went down a game-high 20 points, before recovering late, to an extent. A Maxi buzzer-beating three reduced the deficit to 44-57 at the half. Not sure when was the last time the Mavs produced a 44-point half. Yikes!
Whatever happened at halftime, Kleber replaced Jackson in the starting lineup in the third, and the Mavericks came out strong, in fact erasing the deficit, putting together a 40-point quarter, and gaining an 84-80 edge at the end of the frame. They started the fourth in similar fashion, and the lead was up to 12 with 9 minutes left in regulation. The advantage was frittered away in a flurry of missed long threes, turnovers, and giving up offensive rebounds. Luka's step-back three for the win rimmed out at the buzzer. To overtime.
The Mavs gave up 20 points in the five-minute overtime period. They also scored 17, but a number of those points were scored when the Hornets gave them two-point shots at several times when the Hornets were up three. The Mavs played the foul game until the bitter end. Seth got the chance to tie the game again with a three at the end, but the Hornets fouled him before he could get a shot off, and he did not try to miss the second free throw with 4 seconds left. The last offensive Mavs play was a desperation heave from 55 feet by Luka.
Analytics
Statistically, the Mavs looked very good offensively around the basket, shooting 70% on twos and earning 60 points in the paint. They also put up 15 more shots than the Hornets, and 25 more 3PTAs. However, they shot dismally from three (15-50), had an 18-point disadvantage in free-throw attempts, and were out rebounded. At the end of the day, they were +12 on points from threes, -17 on made free throws, and and +2 on points from twos. Period-by-period Mavs scoring was 20, 24, 40, 19, 17. Very uncharacteristic lack of offense by Dallas. Three-point shooting ranged from excellent (Maxi, 6-12) to respectable (DFS, 3-8) to decent (LD, 5-15) to abysmal (rest of team, 1-15). The Charlotte back court flamed the Mavs for 56 points, and got to the basket seemingly at will.
Players
Luka (43 min) had a monster line (39-12-10), and was entertaining to watch, with his ridiculous passes, crafty finishing, step-back threes, and joyful grins during the Mavs' big run. He broke the franchise's record for triple-doubles in one season, passing Jason Kidd with his tenth such game. Luka denied caring about that, as the big stats came in a loss, and Doncic was, in fact, the only starter in negative +/-, at -5.
Luka attributed the loss to his own "terrible decisions." While the loss can't be blamed on Luka, as the Mavs would not have been in it without him, one does have to question the game disintegrating into hero ball in the clutch. Several commentators suggested he may have run out of gas after playing long minutes, although he denied it. Cedric noted that Rick was going to Seth at the end, and Luka may have been tired, or else Rick may have figured the Hornets were going to get the ball out of Luka's hands, anyway, so he might as well use the Slovenian as a decoy. It was postulated that Luka may have started settling due to fatigue and/or frustration at not getting calls (6 FTAs all night), although this isn't really a one-game issue.
Rick remarked before the game that other teams are "beating the s__t out of Luka every game," and that it isn't right. Luka dismissed the concern, saying he just has to keep going (rather than let the officiating get in his head). The Hornets are not an especially physical team, as far as this specific game is concerned, but with KP and THJ out, he was double-teamed to death, and many of his teammates did not step up.
DFS (38 min) looked pretty good, with 15 points and 8 boards. He crashed the offensive glass for Dallas, earning 6 ORBs, and had a couple of crowd-pleasing put back dunks to go with his three threes. He had his hands full trying to defend the Charlotte guards, but as the Mavericks' best perimeter defender, he gave it his best shot. He said after the game that the team should have come out with more energy, and should have won in regulation, even without two of their best players.
Powell (38 min). Powell had a respectable offensive night, putting up 11 points on 5-7 shooting. However, he was unable to protect the rim, and was less than intense on the glass. He did execute three steals, but fouled out on an intentional take in overtime. For stretches, DP served as the squad's only big on the court, and it didn't work out great. KP, with his rebounding and rim protection, plays such an important role in freeing up DP for his screen-and-roll game, and the team missed the big Latvian.
Maxi (35 min) stepped up offensively, with another career-high scoring night (24 points on 8-13 shooting, including six threes). He was also instrumental defensively, serving as the only Mav big man who was capable of doing so. Carlisle complimented his all-around play, although for all his massive points, he was bottom of the team with respect to +/-, at -12. The Mavs ran some three-point plays for him, which I believe is something new, and reflects his increasing performance beyond the arc. Lot of hard work going on there.
Barea (33 min) had 11 points, and assisted the Mavs with playmaking, with 9 dimes and only 1 turnover. I don't love the Luka-Barea lineup, as it tends to take Luka out of the play, and is a turnstile defensively. However, there arguably wasn't much in the way of options, as Dallas badly needed a player other than Luka who could create off the dribble. His role should diminish once THJ returns.
Jackson (29 min) had 6 points and 5 boards, and was 0-6 from long range. He wasn't really up for a starting role, and was overmatched by the Hornets. Rick replaced him with Maxi to start the third quarter. A dubious foul on Justin in the fourth had Carlisle yelling furiously at the ref. Officiating aside, the absences of the stars has a domino effect, and guys like Jackson (necessarily) get asked to fill responsibilities they may not be ready to handle. It is to be noted that Rick continued to play him big minutes, and even ran some plays for him, perhaps hoping it would serve a development purpose.
Seth (26 min) had 12 points off the bench on 5-8 shooting, but took only two 3-point shots the whole game, missing both. Don't know what was going on there. During halftime, Jet pleaded with Seth to be more aggressive, as the team was unlikely to survive with only Luka and Maxi wiling to step up on the scoring end.
Brunson (14 min) had two points, and seemed to be neither here nor there. He didn't make any particularly bad mistakes that I can remember, but was mostly invisible.
Wright played only 7 colorless minutes, presumably because he was still fighting a sore foot. In the Locked on Mavs podcast, they mentioned a report that Carlisle asked him if he could go in the fourth quarter, and he demurred. Too bad, because this was a game in which his talents would have been useful.
Boban had a disastrous 3 minutes, during which the Mavs went down 8 points. Not really Bobi's fault, he just isn't able to guard the pick and roll very well, due to his lack of mobility. His only stat was 1 foul.
Remarks
Carlisle said the game was lost in the first quarter. (Luka disagreed, opining that the match was lost in overtime). He thought the team got way behind, expended a great deal of energy digging out of that hole, got a lead, and then couldn't make plays when they needed to. Squandering the lead was on the whole team, in Rick's opinion, and he declined to discuss individual mistakes, as he said that every lapse gets magnified in a situation like this, and there were enough to go around without pointing fingers at a particular player. He said you have to give credit to the Hornets for playing so well and never giving up.
There are a number of things that went wrong in this contest, which the Mavs had been heavily favored to win. The biggest issue was the absence of KP and THJ, both of whom were sorely missed. At least, that problem should be solved before too long, although further injuries are, unfortunately, likely through the rest of a long season.
The slow home start is puzzling, though not shocking, as this has been a characteristic of the Mavs. One commentator thought this was a trap game, to which I would say that I am not sure the Mavericks are good enough to have trap games. The Hornets have a pretty tepid roster, but they are, for the most part, young guys that play hard, and it is dangerous to underestimate a squad like that. The starting lineup left much to be desired, but Carlisle had limited choices, and I don't think we will see this one again unless injuries require it.
The poor performance in the clutch is very Mavs-like. They have lost 11 of their last 12 overtime games, lost all of them this season, and are 28th in the league in offensive rating in clutch minutes, scoring 90 ppp. Yuck. Rick seemed unfamiliar with that stat, but said he would take a look at it and see if he could come up with an answer. If they don't find an answer to closing out games, especially when they have a substantial lead in the fourth quarter, they aren't going to make much noise this season. The failure to rebound or get stops killed the team down the stretch, along with too much settling for very long threes and turning the ball over in pressure situations. The frustrating part is that these games usually don't play out as a superior team dominating Dallas in the last eight minutes -- rather the collapse of the Mavs into a lot of unforced errors and poor decision-making. Same song, umpteenth verse. I have to think some of these issue recede once the team is fully healthy.
Defense continues to be so-so, and was not helped by the small lineups and lack of rim protection.
The good news is that the potential answers to a lot of the Mavs' problems were sitting on the bench in suits. Also, that even without the two stars, Dallas was able to come back from a 20-point deficit and gain a double-digit lead in the fourth. Most teams that rely heavily on three-point shooting are inevitably going to be a little on the streaky side, especially with two of the better shooters out of action.
Next. The Bulls, on Monday. Chicago has the 5th best defensive rating in the league, so we'll see if the Mavericks' vaunted offense can get the better of them.
Get well, injured Mavs!