Mavs Go Out With a Whimper in Disheartening Meltdown
There is so much disillusionment over this disappointing match that I think we won't try to approach its analysis in the usual format.
Instead, maybe we'll concentrate on both the good and the bad, and see if there are any conclusions we can draw from the various strengths and weaknesses, at least as they appeared tonight.
Let's start with the bad, so we can have the catharsis of our frustration, anger and sorrow. Then we can try to end with the less grim aspects of the game, and try to step back from the ledge instead of throwing ourselves off it.
The Bad
Let's get it all out.
Three-point shooting. Live by the three, die by the three. The Mavericks, who are normally a good shooting team from deep, shot a putrid 6 of 31 from beyond the arc. That would be 19%, friends. Pee-ew. Seth put three triples on the board, KP two, and Doe-Doe one. Other than that, it was a horror show. THJ was a horrendous 0 for 8. At least Luka limited himself to three long shots, but he missed all of those. The bench was a collective 0 of 7. I'm at a loss to explain this stinker.
Wright, Maxi, and Burke. This group played 59 of the bench's total 68 minutes. In that combined hour, they combined for 12 points, going 4-15 from the field, including 0-7 three-point attempts. In that same hour, they collectively contributed 8 rebounds, 3 assists, five steals, one block, 5 fouls, and a turnover. In a 2-point loss, they were -14. Defense was mediocre to nonexistent. Mistakes reared their ugly heads. They did a few good things, but overall, the Mavs have to get more out of their second unit.
Tim Hardaway. A night to forget for the ex-Knick. Timmy is supposed to be the Mavs' third scoring option. He was 1 of 12 from the field, and never got to the line, ending with a measly 2 points. One of his missed shots was the last of the game, with a chance to win, but alas, another brick. If this is the version of Hardaway that we get going forward, we might as well just turn the lights off now. He did, weirdly, have 10 rebounds, so maybe there's hope for him yet. Such an uncharacteristically poor outing, surely it is an outlier.
DFS. Yuck. For some reason, Doe-Doe took 8 shots, hitting only two. One of those makes was, bizarrely, a fast-break pull-up three ending a lengthy Mavs scoring drought. It's great that he made it, but it was arguably a shot that might have earned him a trip to the bench if he hadn't. The man made mistake after mistake in the clutch. You can read all about it in that section of this post. Aargh.
Third-quarter meltdown.
According to Rick, the team played "very poorly" in the third, and that it was responsible for their undoing. A la Seth Myers, let's take a closer look.
The Mavs entered the period with a 13-point lead, and were still looking good in the middle of the frame, when Suns stars Booker and Ayton had to take their places on the bench with 5 fouls each. Dallas appeared to be sitting pretty with an 11-point advantage at the 7:17 mark. Then, this meltdown occurred.
7:01 Phoenix made three. DFS missed three.
6:32 Phoenix made three. THJ offensive foul turnover.
6:10 Phoenix dunk. Wright missed three.
5:51 Phoenix grabs two offensive rebounds, and scores a layup on the third try. KP splits a pair of free throws.
5:14 Phoenix collects another offensive board, and tips it in. Wright missed three.
4:44 Wright fouls the shooter. Phoenix completes two free throws.
Mavs were up 11 at 7:01. After a 14-1 Phoenix run in a little over two minutes by the Suns bench, for cripes' sake, Dallas is down 2 at 4:44. Really?
The team was not able to recover during the rest of the period, ending the frame trailing 92-96.
Clutch woes.
Same story, 18th verse.
The Suns maintained their lead in the fourth, but at the 4:00 mark, Dallas had pulled within 2 points.
3:59 Porzingis missed shot.
3:44 DFS pushes Ayton in the back in retaliation for something Ayton did (hard to tell what on the replay). Doe-Doe is called for a flagrant, and the pair get double technicals. Ayton splits the free throws and Phoenix keeps possession. Suns grab two offensive rebounds, and then DFS fouls Booker on a three-point try. Booker makes all three free throws. Yikes.
3:03 Luka called for an offensive foul turnover. Booker misses a shot.
2:30 Hardaway missed three. Rubio also misses.
2:01 Luka layup. Suns miss.
1:26 Booker fouls out on DFS' rebound.
1:18 Luka completes a floater. KP is called for an offensive foul. After an extensive review, DFS is deemed the culprit. Rubio hits both free throws. Mavs down 4 with 1:01 left and possession.
0:40 Luka layup. KP with a clutch block of a Rubio shot. Mavs down 2 with possession and 22 seconds. Mavs take their final timeout.
0:04 KP receives kick-out pass and misses the three. On the way out of bounds, the ball goes off the Suns, giving the Mavs another chance
0:02 Luka gets to the rim and kicks out to THJ, who misses the three. Game over.
Yikes.
The Good
Yes, there really is some.
The first half. Dallas was up 73-60 at halftime. The starters had combined for 59 points. They had 24 FTAs, and completed 22. Booker had 4 fouls, and Ayton had three. The Mavs appeared to be in firm control of the contest.
KP. Porzee continues to impress. He had 30 points, got to the line for 11 FTAs, grabbed 8 boards, and had a game-high 4 blocks, including a great stopper within the last minute. Also had some nice passes. In addition to the stats, I liked his disposition -- confident and aggressive. Looking more like a 1B than a number two. Instrumental on defense, and made an effort to take over when the team was struggling.
Luka. Luka had 40 points on 11-20 shots. He tied his own record for free-throw attempts at 19, and completed 18 of those, which was a great improvement on his usual surprisingly mediocre performance at the stripe. He also recorded 11 assists and 8 boards. He played 38 minutes after being on the court for 42 against Houston, and was still upright at the end of the game. He was very conscious of feeding his teammates and keeping them involved. If anything, he might have been a little too unselfish, turning down good shots of his own to find a teammate, who didn't always reward the sacrifice. Did a beautiful job getting to the rim, despite the Suns' determined efforts to keep him out. The Luka-KP chemistry looking better.
Seth. Curry recovered from his off night against the Rockets, and was the team's third-leading scorer with 16 points, including three triples. Defensively, he was a liability, but that partly comes with being undersized at his position.
Boban. My boy Bobi played only 6 minutes, but racked up 8 points, 3 boards, and an assist in his brief appearance in the first half. His hijinks had the bench high-stepping and high-fiving, to the accompaniment of "cheers" from the virtual fans, lol. Would have enjoyed seeing him again in the second half, but it was not to be.
Free throws. The Mavs earned 37 FTAs, and completed 33 (89%). The 4 missed free throws were more than the difference in the score at the end (grr), but the percentage is an improvement over their usual performance. On the flip side, they allowed only 23 chances at the stripe to the Suns.
Taking care of the ball. The Mavs had 8 turnovers the whole game, surrendering only 6 points on those.
Remarks
Carlisle was terse. Said he thought the first quarter was one of the best they had played. The second period was also good, although the defense could have been better. The third was terrible. The team did some good things in the fourth, but ultimately not enough.
There is no way to get away from the fact that this was a bitterly disappointing loss, and one that is difficult to explain. Luka chalked it up to a lot of "little details." Maybe so. One of these days, the Mavs are going to get these collapses out of their system. It might not be this season, but one of these days.
Next. Okay, Mavs fans. We've got to get back up and face Sac on Tuesday. Soldier on!
There is so much disillusionment over this disappointing match that I think we won't try to approach its analysis in the usual format.
Instead, maybe we'll concentrate on both the good and the bad, and see if there are any conclusions we can draw from the various strengths and weaknesses, at least as they appeared tonight.
Let's start with the bad, so we can have the catharsis of our frustration, anger and sorrow. Then we can try to end with the less grim aspects of the game, and try to step back from the ledge instead of throwing ourselves off it.
The Bad
Let's get it all out.
Three-point shooting. Live by the three, die by the three. The Mavericks, who are normally a good shooting team from deep, shot a putrid 6 of 31 from beyond the arc. That would be 19%, friends. Pee-ew. Seth put three triples on the board, KP two, and Doe-Doe one. Other than that, it was a horror show. THJ was a horrendous 0 for 8. At least Luka limited himself to three long shots, but he missed all of those. The bench was a collective 0 of 7. I'm at a loss to explain this stinker.
Wright, Maxi, and Burke. This group played 59 of the bench's total 68 minutes. In that combined hour, they combined for 12 points, going 4-15 from the field, including 0-7 three-point attempts. In that same hour, they collectively contributed 8 rebounds, 3 assists, five steals, one block, 5 fouls, and a turnover. In a 2-point loss, they were -14. Defense was mediocre to nonexistent. Mistakes reared their ugly heads. They did a few good things, but overall, the Mavs have to get more out of their second unit.
Tim Hardaway. A night to forget for the ex-Knick. Timmy is supposed to be the Mavs' third scoring option. He was 1 of 12 from the field, and never got to the line, ending with a measly 2 points. One of his missed shots was the last of the game, with a chance to win, but alas, another brick. If this is the version of Hardaway that we get going forward, we might as well just turn the lights off now. He did, weirdly, have 10 rebounds, so maybe there's hope for him yet. Such an uncharacteristically poor outing, surely it is an outlier.
DFS. Yuck. For some reason, Doe-Doe took 8 shots, hitting only two. One of those makes was, bizarrely, a fast-break pull-up three ending a lengthy Mavs scoring drought. It's great that he made it, but it was arguably a shot that might have earned him a trip to the bench if he hadn't. The man made mistake after mistake in the clutch. You can read all about it in that section of this post. Aargh.
Third-quarter meltdown.
According to Rick, the team played "very poorly" in the third, and that it was responsible for their undoing. A la Seth Myers, let's take a closer look.
The Mavs entered the period with a 13-point lead, and were still looking good in the middle of the frame, when Suns stars Booker and Ayton had to take their places on the bench with 5 fouls each. Dallas appeared to be sitting pretty with an 11-point advantage at the 7:17 mark. Then, this meltdown occurred.
7:01 Phoenix made three. DFS missed three.
6:32 Phoenix made three. THJ offensive foul turnover.
6:10 Phoenix dunk. Wright missed three.
5:51 Phoenix grabs two offensive rebounds, and scores a layup on the third try. KP splits a pair of free throws.
5:14 Phoenix collects another offensive board, and tips it in. Wright missed three.
4:44 Wright fouls the shooter. Phoenix completes two free throws.
Mavs were up 11 at 7:01. After a 14-1 Phoenix run in a little over two minutes by the Suns bench, for cripes' sake, Dallas is down 2 at 4:44. Really?
The team was not able to recover during the rest of the period, ending the frame trailing 92-96.
Clutch woes.
Same story, 18th verse.
The Suns maintained their lead in the fourth, but at the 4:00 mark, Dallas had pulled within 2 points.
3:59 Porzingis missed shot.
3:44 DFS pushes Ayton in the back in retaliation for something Ayton did (hard to tell what on the replay). Doe-Doe is called for a flagrant, and the pair get double technicals. Ayton splits the free throws and Phoenix keeps possession. Suns grab two offensive rebounds, and then DFS fouls Booker on a three-point try. Booker makes all three free throws. Yikes.
3:03 Luka called for an offensive foul turnover. Booker misses a shot.
2:30 Hardaway missed three. Rubio also misses.
2:01 Luka layup. Suns miss.
1:26 Booker fouls out on DFS' rebound.
1:18 Luka completes a floater. KP is called for an offensive foul. After an extensive review, DFS is deemed the culprit. Rubio hits both free throws. Mavs down 4 with 1:01 left and possession.
0:40 Luka layup. KP with a clutch block of a Rubio shot. Mavs down 2 with possession and 22 seconds. Mavs take their final timeout.
0:04 KP receives kick-out pass and misses the three. On the way out of bounds, the ball goes off the Suns, giving the Mavs another chance
0:02 Luka gets to the rim and kicks out to THJ, who misses the three. Game over.
Yikes.
The Good
Yes, there really is some.
The first half. Dallas was up 73-60 at halftime. The starters had combined for 59 points. They had 24 FTAs, and completed 22. Booker had 4 fouls, and Ayton had three. The Mavs appeared to be in firm control of the contest.
KP. Porzee continues to impress. He had 30 points, got to the line for 11 FTAs, grabbed 8 boards, and had a game-high 4 blocks, including a great stopper within the last minute. Also had some nice passes. In addition to the stats, I liked his disposition -- confident and aggressive. Looking more like a 1B than a number two. Instrumental on defense, and made an effort to take over when the team was struggling.
Luka. Luka had 40 points on 11-20 shots. He tied his own record for free-throw attempts at 19, and completed 18 of those, which was a great improvement on his usual surprisingly mediocre performance at the stripe. He also recorded 11 assists and 8 boards. He played 38 minutes after being on the court for 42 against Houston, and was still upright at the end of the game. He was very conscious of feeding his teammates and keeping them involved. If anything, he might have been a little too unselfish, turning down good shots of his own to find a teammate, who didn't always reward the sacrifice. Did a beautiful job getting to the rim, despite the Suns' determined efforts to keep him out. The Luka-KP chemistry looking better.
Seth. Curry recovered from his off night against the Rockets, and was the team's third-leading scorer with 16 points, including three triples. Defensively, he was a liability, but that partly comes with being undersized at his position.
Boban. My boy Bobi played only 6 minutes, but racked up 8 points, 3 boards, and an assist in his brief appearance in the first half. His hijinks had the bench high-stepping and high-fiving, to the accompaniment of "cheers" from the virtual fans, lol. Would have enjoyed seeing him again in the second half, but it was not to be.
Free throws. The Mavs earned 37 FTAs, and completed 33 (89%). The 4 missed free throws were more than the difference in the score at the end (grr), but the percentage is an improvement over their usual performance. On the flip side, they allowed only 23 chances at the stripe to the Suns.
Taking care of the ball. The Mavs had 8 turnovers the whole game, surrendering only 6 points on those.
Remarks
Carlisle was terse. Said he thought the first quarter was one of the best they had played. The second period was also good, although the defense could have been better. The third was terrible. The team did some good things in the fourth, but ultimately not enough.
There is no way to get away from the fact that this was a bitterly disappointing loss, and one that is difficult to explain. Luka chalked it up to a lot of "little details." Maybe so. One of these days, the Mavs are going to get these collapses out of their system. It might not be this season, but one of these days.
Next. Okay, Mavs fans. We've got to get back up and face Sac on Tuesday. Soldier on!
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