Game 43: Dallas Mavericks (23-19) vs. Charlotte Hornets (10-28) | 11:00 am CST

[HoosierDaddyKid]

This is one they can't let get away.

[KillerLeft]

The last three attempts at ball denial and trapping instead of immediately fouling have actually been pretty inspired and well executed by the Mavericks.

Making for an interesting finish.

[KillerLeft]

I swear this is a stupid team. What idiots not to foul immediately. So low IQ.

You might be correct about the stupidity of the strategy, we’ll see. But, it’s obviously a strategy and not players forgetting to foul.

[KillerLeft]

Welp… That’s kind of the right guy with the ball at the right time. Just missed the shot.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Klay hesitated, had a good look.

[KillerLeft]

This one stings. Should’ve been a win. Kind of hard to blame them with as much flux as the lineup has seen this whole season, but the team is just not very sharp right now.

[Deebo]

Time to consider team tank?

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Bad loss..

[Chicagojk]

man, Kleber is useless with anything related to a ball. 0 points again. Last rebound went up good for it, but lost it. Story of his season. You can't count on him at PF or C moving forward. Need to find an upgrade.

I saw most of the first half and turned it back on with 3 minutes left and saw Din dribble the air out of the ball and then throw a turnover. As much good as he does at time, he just sticks out way too much when he gets extended minutes.

[KillerLeft]

Time to consider team tank?

Not even close. We’re not even to the point of the season when they started playing well last year.

it’s getting tougher to envision them ending in the top four and having home court in the first round, maybe, but the season is far from over.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Beat the Thunder, then lose to the Hornets, won't cut it. The West is too tough. There's five teams in the West with 20 losses now.

[Mavs2021]

Klay gets one shot at this in the play-offs, then we ship him out with Kleber for Simons. We need another play-maker/scorer. Klay is just Robin Hood on steroids. This team is better now, but the 1 on 1 scoring ability/play-making is still so low. Dinwiddie is another crutch that needs removing.

[BigDirk41]

We're about to lose 3 in a row to the T-Wolves, Thunder and Celtics. Then we have 2 winnable games and then a pretty tough schedule in February. This isn't looking too good at the moment and we don't know what Luka will look like when he returns.

[ThisIStheYear]

Let’s face it, missing Luka and DLive with Kidd as your coach, this is about as good as you can expect. They even got Gafford’s best career game and still lost. The Mavs are a bottom 7 or 8 team, a little below the Hornets.  They should be at least middle of the road with good coaching, but they don’t have that. They’re a waste of time until they get so good that coaching doesn’t matter. Even then, the NBA will make it downright Herculean to win a first round series as a road team this year to cut back on all the “load management” and fake injuries the Mavs are a poster child for. It’s not their year. Luka may not ever have a truly dominant year with 60 wins and a title worthy of his quality as a player.

[Smitty]

man, Kleber is useless with anything related to a ball.  0 points again.  Last rebound went up good for it, but lost it.  Story of his season.  You can't count on him at PF or C moving forward.  Need to find an upgrade.

I said before the season started that his ideal role is 3rd Center. Unfortunately all the injuries have everyone having to play different roles. Another unfortunate reality, Maxi has been playing more minutes than he needs to which will lead to another injury soon.

I’m not down on the Mavs this year despite the struggles. When they had their starting 5 and bench unit they went 13-1 or something close to it. It’s a good team. Good coaching.  Bad luck and bad athletic training staff.

[Deebo]

Gotta trade maxi. Grimes. Hardy etc. get a young piece that will be here 2-3 years. Go for it next year. This team isn’t doing anything this year. Next year you think about trading Kyrie if not looking good.

[BigDirk41]

I said before the season started that his ideal role is 3rd Center. Unfortunately all the injuries have everyone having to play different roles. Another unfortunate reality, Maxi has been playing more minutes than he needs to which will lead to another injury soon.

I’m not down on the Mavs this year despite the struggles. When they had their starting 5 and bench unit they went 13-1 or something close to it. It’s a good team. Good coaching.  Bad luck and bad athletic training staff.

I think this is spot on.

[Chicagojk]

I said before the season started that his ideal role is 3rd Center. Unfortunately all the injuries have everyone having to play different roles. Another unfortunate reality, Maxi has been playing more minutes than he needs to which will lead to another injury soon.

I’m not down on the Mavs this year despite the struggles. When they had their starting 5 and bench unit they went 13-1 or something close to it. It’s a good team. Good coaching.  Bad luck and bad athletic training staff.

I think that is fair.  We have seen so little of a fully healthy and a fully in shape team.  Just difficult to see us around 10 games over .500 a month ago and now struggling to stay at .500 while seeing teams like Denve and Houston just zoom away from us.  

Last year, eveything went perfect down the stretch and it was beautiful.  It doesn't always work that perfectly for teams.   Especcially when you need all the breaks.  Also, tough to ask this team to go through that rough road again to the finals with no home court.  Odd against you.

[Chicagojk]

6 for 32 from 3 at 18 percent from one team. 17-39 from 3 from the other team at 43 percent. Sometimes that is the difference in the game. Especially if you don't have a one sided TO or rebounding advantage.

[Chicagojk]

I think we win if Grimes was healthy. Or maybe he wouldn't have gotten minutes anyway