02-26-2021, 12:53 AM
MAVERICKS BLOWN OUT IN PHILADELPHIA
Sometimes you run into a better team. This was one of those times.
GAME STORY
Porzingis was out again with lingering back stiffness. Rick broke out a new starting lineup with Luka, Josh, DFS, Maxi and Boban. I regret to report that they did not impress. In a harbinger of things to come, the Mavs had two shot clock violations in the first two minutes, and four turnovers in the first five minutes. Rick subbed three guys out before the quarter was half over. Somehow, both teams slogged through the rest of the period. An offensive exhibition it was not. Dallas trailed 22-23 after one.
The second quarter began with three Mavs turnovers, and four in the first five possessions. Still, our boys managed to hang in for a while, and were down only one point at 6:23, at which time the Sixers went on a 19-3 run. The Maverick possessions in this stretch were a microcosm of the problems in this game —
Doncic bad pass turnover
Bobi layup and-one
Richardson missed pull-up
DFS bad pass turnover
Bobi blocked shot
Luka lost ball turnover
Bobi blocked shot
Bobi lost ball turnover
WCS lost ball turnover
Just painful to watch. The score was 43-59 at halftime.
Rick put Johnson in rather than Bobi to start the third, in an effort to get more aggressive. The Mavs made a little headway, and cut the deficit to seven about halfway through the period. But then the game got away from them for good, and the quarter ended with — what else? — two Mavs turnovers. 68-86.
Luka, Maxi, and THJ never went back in, and the fourth quarter constituted extended garbage time.
NOTABLE ITEMS
STATISTICS. The story of the game was turnovers, as the Mavs butter-fingered their way through the contest. Normally a low-turnover team, they had a season-high 22 on the night, and gave up 22 points on that account. The Sixers were aggressive defensively, registering 11 steals, but the Dallas squad also looked sloppy and unfocused most of the night. There were several instances of blown layups and dunks and various unforced errors. We gave up 24 fast-break points, and were beaten in PIP 50-26. Our mighty offense went missing, but on the brighter side, I thought they played about as well as one might expect defensively, holding the Sixers to 111 points.
PLAYING STYLE. If post-ups are no longer a thing in the NBA, the Sixers didn’t get the memo. Over and over, they created mismatches, and took advantage of the Mavs’ smaller players. They particularly targeted Brunson in this way, but other players suffered the effects as well. Philly also plays with more of a defensive style than most teams this season, and their long, rangy, athletic players were able to discombobulate the Mavs. The Dallas offense wasn’t flowing, and the opponent deserves credit for imposing their will on the hapless Mavericks.
DONCIC. Luka had an off night by his standards, recording a 19/3/4 line, and committing 7 turnovers. I thought the Sixers were very effective at limiting him, particularly Ben Simmons. Rick said after the game that he thinks the Mavs are too dependent on Luka, and that they are trying to work on getting others to share the load. KP’s offense was missed, and no one else stepped up.
I have to say I agree with Rick about the over-dependence on Luka. This is what the top teams will do to a one-man show on offense in the playoffs, or in this case, even in the regular season. Ideally, the Mavs should be able to count on KP for 20, THJ for 15-20, and a couple other guys to step up with 10-15 points each on any given night. In this particular match, after Luka’s 19, you had Josh with 13, THJ 12, Brunson 11, and no one else in double digits. Not good enough.
GUARDS. The guards had 64 of the team’s 97 points. They all shot decent to good percentages, although Josh was 0-4 from deep. Timmy played for only 21 minutes and took only 8 shots. The Sixers were giving him extra attention, but without KP on the floor, the team’s only other elite scorer has to get more of an opportunity/be more aggressive, as the case may be. Josh had 13 points and 6 boards, but had a couple of turnovers and did not seem very decisive. Brunson had 11 points in 23 minutes off the bench, but had only five shot attempts and was getting overpowered defensively. The guards weren’t great, but they at least did their thing to a limited extent.
BIGS. The big-man rotation was really exposed in this match. To start with, no KP. Maxi played 22 minutes, and had 6 points and 4 rebounds to show for it. He had some good defensive plays, which I guess is the main reason he’s out there, but he missed a few open threes and was pretty much a non-factor offensively. WCS played 17 minutes off the bench, and recorded 2 points and 5 boards. He took 4 shots, but was able to finish only one. He went to the bench in the first quarter after giving up an offensive rebound and score after a Sixers missed free throw. Just didn’t seem focused.
Boban had 17 minutes, grabbed 12 rebounds, and made an impact defensively with his big body clogging the paint. However, he was surprisingly ineffective offensively, going 3-11 from the court and scoring only 7 points. James Johnson filled in for 15 minutes, and had 3 points on 1-5 shooting. Powell played 10 minutes and had 6 points (all at the line), 1 rebound, and 2 turnovers. He was just unable to stand up to Embiid and Howard — not nearly strong enough, and besides, he inexplicably blew a couple of dunks.
All this leads me to admit that I have grown seriously concerned about the Mavs front court rotation. They looked particularly bad in this game, but this pattern isn’t all that unusual. All 5 guys combined for 24 points, and that included a substantial amount of garbage time. They had 27 rebounds, 12 of which were secured by Bobi — so, 15 for the rest of the group put together. They just aren’t making much of an impact offensively, or in the rebounding department, and we’ve been over the defensive issues ad nauseam. Next to Philadelphia’s talented bigs, they don’t appear to be on the same level. The Mavericks will need to address this issue, imho.
SIXERS. The Sixers have the best record in the East for a reason. They’re really good. I thought the Mavs actually did a pretty good job of limiting Embiid, who had “only” 23 points, but was 5-20 from the floor. He was 11-12 from the line, and grabbed 9 rebounds. The Mavs do not really have an answer for the beasting behemoth type of player that he is. Former Mav Seth Curry had 15 points on 6-9 shooting. He said he bears the Mavericks no ill will for trading him, but thinks they made a bad business decision, lol.
Ben Simmons had 15 points and did a job on Luka. I had practically forgotten that Dwight Howard was still in the league, but he torched us with 14 points and 8 boards off the bench. Shake Milton also had 10 points.
OBSERVATIONS
Rick found the game disappointing. He thought the guys battled pretty well in the first quarter, but the second was their undoing. The third quarter started well but ended badly, and he was proud of the guys in the fourth for fighting hard. He called attention to the turnover problem, and said the team generally did not execute well and suffered from poor spacing and lack of ball movement.
The FSSW crew were puzzled at the squad’s disposition. Devin Harris commented on the players being loose with the ball, looking mentally off, missing rim shots, not moving to the right place, just not ready to go. They weren’t moving the ball and had only 17 assists in the game. The pundits pointed to a few individual examples, like Willie being caught not paying attention a couple of times, Luka throwing a pass behind Boban, and guys being careless with the ball. Not sure what to make of all this.
I feel like I'm being somewhat on the grumpy side, even though I'm trying to put a decent face on it. I wasn't really expecting us to win this game, but I was hoping they would give a little better account of themselves. If I'm just out of sorts, feel free to reply and cheer me up.
Another tough one is coming up, as the Mavs visit the Nets next. Fasten your seat belts, Mavs fans — it could be a bumpy night.
Sometimes you run into a better team. This was one of those times.
GAME STORY
Porzingis was out again with lingering back stiffness. Rick broke out a new starting lineup with Luka, Josh, DFS, Maxi and Boban. I regret to report that they did not impress. In a harbinger of things to come, the Mavs had two shot clock violations in the first two minutes, and four turnovers in the first five minutes. Rick subbed three guys out before the quarter was half over. Somehow, both teams slogged through the rest of the period. An offensive exhibition it was not. Dallas trailed 22-23 after one.
The second quarter began with three Mavs turnovers, and four in the first five possessions. Still, our boys managed to hang in for a while, and were down only one point at 6:23, at which time the Sixers went on a 19-3 run. The Maverick possessions in this stretch were a microcosm of the problems in this game —
Doncic bad pass turnover
Bobi layup and-one
Richardson missed pull-up
DFS bad pass turnover
Bobi blocked shot
Luka lost ball turnover
Bobi blocked shot
Bobi lost ball turnover
WCS lost ball turnover
Just painful to watch. The score was 43-59 at halftime.
Rick put Johnson in rather than Bobi to start the third, in an effort to get more aggressive. The Mavs made a little headway, and cut the deficit to seven about halfway through the period. But then the game got away from them for good, and the quarter ended with — what else? — two Mavs turnovers. 68-86.
Luka, Maxi, and THJ never went back in, and the fourth quarter constituted extended garbage time.
NOTABLE ITEMS
STATISTICS. The story of the game was turnovers, as the Mavs butter-fingered their way through the contest. Normally a low-turnover team, they had a season-high 22 on the night, and gave up 22 points on that account. The Sixers were aggressive defensively, registering 11 steals, but the Dallas squad also looked sloppy and unfocused most of the night. There were several instances of blown layups and dunks and various unforced errors. We gave up 24 fast-break points, and were beaten in PIP 50-26. Our mighty offense went missing, but on the brighter side, I thought they played about as well as one might expect defensively, holding the Sixers to 111 points.
PLAYING STYLE. If post-ups are no longer a thing in the NBA, the Sixers didn’t get the memo. Over and over, they created mismatches, and took advantage of the Mavs’ smaller players. They particularly targeted Brunson in this way, but other players suffered the effects as well. Philly also plays with more of a defensive style than most teams this season, and their long, rangy, athletic players were able to discombobulate the Mavs. The Dallas offense wasn’t flowing, and the opponent deserves credit for imposing their will on the hapless Mavericks.
DONCIC. Luka had an off night by his standards, recording a 19/3/4 line, and committing 7 turnovers. I thought the Sixers were very effective at limiting him, particularly Ben Simmons. Rick said after the game that he thinks the Mavs are too dependent on Luka, and that they are trying to work on getting others to share the load. KP’s offense was missed, and no one else stepped up.
I have to say I agree with Rick about the over-dependence on Luka. This is what the top teams will do to a one-man show on offense in the playoffs, or in this case, even in the regular season. Ideally, the Mavs should be able to count on KP for 20, THJ for 15-20, and a couple other guys to step up with 10-15 points each on any given night. In this particular match, after Luka’s 19, you had Josh with 13, THJ 12, Brunson 11, and no one else in double digits. Not good enough.
GUARDS. The guards had 64 of the team’s 97 points. They all shot decent to good percentages, although Josh was 0-4 from deep. Timmy played for only 21 minutes and took only 8 shots. The Sixers were giving him extra attention, but without KP on the floor, the team’s only other elite scorer has to get more of an opportunity/be more aggressive, as the case may be. Josh had 13 points and 6 boards, but had a couple of turnovers and did not seem very decisive. Brunson had 11 points in 23 minutes off the bench, but had only five shot attempts and was getting overpowered defensively. The guards weren’t great, but they at least did their thing to a limited extent.
BIGS. The big-man rotation was really exposed in this match. To start with, no KP. Maxi played 22 minutes, and had 6 points and 4 rebounds to show for it. He had some good defensive plays, which I guess is the main reason he’s out there, but he missed a few open threes and was pretty much a non-factor offensively. WCS played 17 minutes off the bench, and recorded 2 points and 5 boards. He took 4 shots, but was able to finish only one. He went to the bench in the first quarter after giving up an offensive rebound and score after a Sixers missed free throw. Just didn’t seem focused.
Boban had 17 minutes, grabbed 12 rebounds, and made an impact defensively with his big body clogging the paint. However, he was surprisingly ineffective offensively, going 3-11 from the court and scoring only 7 points. James Johnson filled in for 15 minutes, and had 3 points on 1-5 shooting. Powell played 10 minutes and had 6 points (all at the line), 1 rebound, and 2 turnovers. He was just unable to stand up to Embiid and Howard — not nearly strong enough, and besides, he inexplicably blew a couple of dunks.
All this leads me to admit that I have grown seriously concerned about the Mavs front court rotation. They looked particularly bad in this game, but this pattern isn’t all that unusual. All 5 guys combined for 24 points, and that included a substantial amount of garbage time. They had 27 rebounds, 12 of which were secured by Bobi — so, 15 for the rest of the group put together. They just aren’t making much of an impact offensively, or in the rebounding department, and we’ve been over the defensive issues ad nauseam. Next to Philadelphia’s talented bigs, they don’t appear to be on the same level. The Mavericks will need to address this issue, imho.
SIXERS. The Sixers have the best record in the East for a reason. They’re really good. I thought the Mavs actually did a pretty good job of limiting Embiid, who had “only” 23 points, but was 5-20 from the floor. He was 11-12 from the line, and grabbed 9 rebounds. The Mavs do not really have an answer for the beasting behemoth type of player that he is. Former Mav Seth Curry had 15 points on 6-9 shooting. He said he bears the Mavericks no ill will for trading him, but thinks they made a bad business decision, lol.
Ben Simmons had 15 points and did a job on Luka. I had practically forgotten that Dwight Howard was still in the league, but he torched us with 14 points and 8 boards off the bench. Shake Milton also had 10 points.
OBSERVATIONS
Rick found the game disappointing. He thought the guys battled pretty well in the first quarter, but the second was their undoing. The third quarter started well but ended badly, and he was proud of the guys in the fourth for fighting hard. He called attention to the turnover problem, and said the team generally did not execute well and suffered from poor spacing and lack of ball movement.
The FSSW crew were puzzled at the squad’s disposition. Devin Harris commented on the players being loose with the ball, looking mentally off, missing rim shots, not moving to the right place, just not ready to go. They weren’t moving the ball and had only 17 assists in the game. The pundits pointed to a few individual examples, like Willie being caught not paying attention a couple of times, Luka throwing a pass behind Boban, and guys being careless with the ball. Not sure what to make of all this.
I feel like I'm being somewhat on the grumpy side, even though I'm trying to put a decent face on it. I wasn't really expecting us to win this game, but I was hoping they would give a little better account of themselves. If I'm just out of sorts, feel free to reply and cheer me up.
Another tough one is coming up, as the Mavs visit the Nets next. Fasten your seat belts, Mavs fans — it could be a bumpy night.