Game 46: Sacramento Kings (25-18) vs. Dallas Mavericks (25-20)

[Scott41theMavs]

Way to waste Grant Williams's breakout game...

[KillerLeft]

I am Hardaway’s #1 fan around here, but this is two stinkers in a row from him.

[Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo]

that THJ miss was okay, but him losing the ball isn't.
sucks the energy out.

[Scott41theMavs]

Luka with the triple double, and he only had to play the whole game on a SEGABABA after making history to do it.

---

Why didn't Exum play?

[Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo]

The refs don't call a foul when they should have LOL.
Figures.

[KillerLeft]

Could’ve been worse.

Way short handed, as usual, and second of a back-to-back.

Lots to complain about, but they didn’t give up.

[omahen]

Good effort by Mavs, unlike some previous games. Fought until the end despite shots not falling greatly. Looks like Luka should have played whole game, because Sacramento made that crucial difference in those two minutes he was resting...

THJ was bad. Gave up two way too easy baskets to Huerter in the fourth, missed wide open three and lost another ball. Josh Green way too hesitant again. He was "guarded" by Sabonis a lot of time who was giving him all the space on the three point line and didn't dare to shoot it. Maxi also with a very bad game.

[Reunion Mav]

Why didn’t Exum play. Whe is 1/3 of our rotation coming back.

[MrGoat]

Resting Luka would have been better, at the very least the 4th quarter. 46+ minutes on the second night of a back to back for nothing. Thibodeau and Nick Nurse eat your heart out.

Granted, maybe that's not fair to Kidd. I'm not 100% sure he even has the authority to tell Luka to sit

[BoredAssistant]

Broadcast said Exum had a sore knee.

[SleepingHero]

The Mavs made it a game.

THJ sold the last 2 minutes. He bricked the corner 3 and then dribbled it off his foot, effectively killing any chance for the Mavs. Even during his heater, I was on board for trading him. I am convinced the Mavs sans Timmy wins more games in the long run. The WCF run is kind of proof of that. He makes some of the most inane choices I've ever seen a player make. He really makes JR Smith look like the highest basketball IQ guy ever. Please get me off of THJ's wild ride. He is the epitome of inconsistency.

This was one of the most horribly officiated games of the year. Total inconsistency and most of it favored the Kings. Given the circumstances Luka did a freaking incredible job not getting tossed.

[Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo]

The Mavs made it a game.

THJ sold the last 2 minutes. He bricked the corner 3 and then dribbled it off his foot, effectively killing any chance for the Mavs. Even during his heater, I was on board for trading him. I am convinced the Mavs sans Timmy wins more games in the long run. The WCF run is kind of proof of that. He makes some of the most inane choices I've ever seen a player make. He really makes JR Smith look like the highest basketball IQ guy ever. Please get me off of THJ's wild ride. He is the epitome of inconsistency.

This was one of the most horribly officiated games of the year. Total inconsistency and most of it favored the Kings. Given the circumstances Luka did a freaking incredible job not getting tossed.

I was out on him since the Clipper series.
To think he performed well and the Mavs were against some of the best defenders in the NBA back then.

But THJ's choices were just losing plays.

[HoosierDaddyKidd]

Way to waste Grant Williams's breakout game...

Yeah, because it will be another 10-15 games before we see anything like it again...

[Chicagojk]

The Mavs are so weird. Williams does look slimmer. Why the f*** they tell him to get fat? Just like they told Porzingis to bulk up, so his frail body could carry more weight. If anything Williams should lose even more weight to have a chance to play SF.

It is really weird.  Really makes me wonder if they communicate well, are all on the same page or know what the F they are doing.  LOL.   Whoever thought Williams should be heavier needs to be evaluated.   

He appears to be moving better.  Is that the less weight or is his ankle better?   We will see if it continues.

Not only have we had a ton of injuries, but it is also frustrating we have role players who play well and then don't play well.  For instance, Wiliams stunk for awhile and then has played ok for a few games.  Maxi missed a ton of time (you need to give him some time after injury) but he has had terrible runs to.   So it is not only that we have players missing games but then we have several role players that we have no idea what we are getting.

[Chicagojk]

THJ was bad. Gave up two way too easy baskets to Huerter in the fourth, missed wide open three and lost another ball. Josh Green way too hesitant again. He was "guarded" by Sabonis a lot of time who was giving him all the space on the three point line and didn't dare to shoot it. Maxi also with a very bad game.

Yeah, those two easy baskets were killer.  On the second one, the Mavs had three chances to score.  On the last miss, there was a long rebound and Hardaway didn't react at all despite being the closest to the ball.  Then going down the court, he looked confused who he was suppose to guard despite being near Huerter.  Huerter got the ball and got an easy basket.  It is so frustrating that Hardaway can excel taking chargers but everything else off the ball defense is a disaster.  He is not the only one either.   Hardy, Luka, Grant, etc all have times were they are terrible being aware on the help side.   It that just players not playing well in the scheme or is it something else?  Last night, Maxi left Huerter to double Sabonis with Grant on him.   Sabonis threw a simple pass back to Huerter who was left with a wide open three.  That can be the plan.

[Reunion Mav]

We are not the only team making a lot of decisions that don’t work on defense. The scoring in the league is really high and the other teams look every bit as bad as we do. Some of it is the defense is damned no matter what they do by all the prolific scorers they can’t touch. Even more of it is all the strategy decisions off side defenders in particular have to make is definitely resulting in the loss of fundamentals defensive decisions we observe above.

I don’t really have answers but I watch enough of the league to know it’s not just us. The Celtics looked totally lost on defense yesterday.

Back to us I think not consistently having Kyrie and Luka is making life really hard for our role players given we don’t really have player number 3 or even 4 so everyone else is a role player. Some nights these guys have to step up to replace star #2. Some nights they need to defer to 2 stars. Almost every night we have different starters. Every night some injured guy is trying to fit back in or trying to regain rhythm. I think this is all very hard on them. The answer to this part of the total dynamic is simply to get a starting group healthy and keep them healthy. Prayers for that anyone ?.

[KillerLeft]

We are not the only team making a lot of decisions that don’t work on defense. The scoring in the league is really high and the other teams look every bit as bad as we do. Some of it is the defense is damned no matter what they do by all the prolific scorers they can’t touch. Even more of it is all the strategy decisions off side defenders in particular have to make is definitely resulting in the loss of fundamentals defensive decisions we observe above.

I don’t really have answers but I watch enough of the league to know it’s not just us. The Celtics looked totally lost on defense yesterday.

Back to us I think not consistently having Kyrie and Luka is making life really hard for our role players given we don’t really have player number 3 or even 4 so everyone else is a role player. Some nights these guys have to step up to replace star #2. Some nights they need to defer to 2 stars.  Almost every night we have different starters. Every night some injured guy is trying to fit back in or trying to regain rhythm. I think this is all very hard on them. The answer to this part of the total dynamic is simply to get a starting group healthy and keep them healthy. Prayers for that anyone ?.

This is a great post. 

My biggest complaint is not the defense (though I don't like it), it's that the ball does not move on offense. There is no offensive system here, really. They have a few actions they really like, sure, but I will continue to believe that the best teams will always be the ones on which everyone touches the ball. It just does soooo much to keep everyone connected (on both ends) and in rhythm.

[loki]

Why didn’t Exum play. Whe is 1/3 of our rotation coming back.

They'll be back right when the next 1/3 is out

[rocky164]

The fact that a win was even possible in this game with the line-up we had to play is a plus. The starting group did ok but watching the bench unit was brutal. At one time in the 2nd quarter we had Maxi-Holmes-Seth-Hardy-and Hardaway. It’s virtually impossible to win an NBA game with that group of 5 on the floor at any time. We simply had too many players out to have a real change at competing.

[KillerLeft]

The fact that a win was even possible in this game with the line-up we had to play is a plus.  The starting group did ok but watching the bench unit was brutal.  At one time in the 2nd quarter we had Maxi-Holmes-Seth-Hardy-and Hardaway.  It’s virtually impossible to win an NBA game with that group of 5 on the floor at any time.  We simply had too many players out to have a real change at competing.

Especially since the group you mention has NO experience playing together.