A Few Thoughts on Mavs 109, '76ers 91

[Dahlsim]

Mavs Fell Sixers in Comeback Blowout

Well, that's more like it! Mavs fall behind in first half, but return with a vengeance in the second. Great team win to close out the home stand at 3-3.


Game Story

KP was out for the Mavs. Philly was missing Joel Embiid. 

.....


Next.  Golden State, in San Francisco, on Tuesday. 

Go Mavs!

At halftime, one of the assistant coaches, Mike Weiner, gave a few well-timed words which Rick thinks motivated the team.

Coach Carlisle made a very strong point of this in the post game press conference.  I thought it was a very nice tough to highlight this assistant coach as Rick pointed out that he is nor normally the type to say much so when he did, it really got the teams attentions.  Assistant coaches matter too. Nice job! 

This was a strange one. The Mavs put up a whopping 19 shots fewer than Philly, including a 10-try deficit in three-point attempts. Luckily for Dallas, the Sixers shot so poorly that the Mavs came out of the game with eight more points from the field than their opponent.

Give big props to the Mavs but also part of this story is that this Sixers team is pretty dysfunctional.  The offense is wildly underachieving and inconsistent for the talent level and it seem like Coach Brett Brown is very close to losing the team after years of being the Shepard over "The Process" that started in the Hinkie era.  
Brown can't get his star PG Ben Simmons to even take a minimum of ONE 3 pointer a game despite the fact that he publicly called Simmons out to shoot at least one.  

Simmons refusal to shoot outside kills their spacing flexibility. 
It was a debate for a little while but now its pretty clear as draft picks go Doncic (#3 pick) >> Simmons (#1 pick). 

Powell (35 min). It was a good night for the big man, ... 
...

Maxi (31 min) had 10 points and 8 boards in his starting role, and helped carry the defensive load in the front court

Even though I'm probably the captain of team Boban for increased usage I've said before the development of Powell and Kleber is great for Mavs and deserves big props to the entire MBT.  Those 2 guys deserve to get the lion share of the minutes supporting and backing up KP. 

Speaking of Bobi! 

Boban (8 min) put up 12 points in short minutes, and was featured on the promotional materials in this game against his former team. Rick said he made some huge plays, and commended him for staying ready. A favorite among teammates, fans, and even the opponent, he drew cheers whenever he scored, and his game-ending three had the bench and crowd going wild, lol. Powell said seeing Bobi make the sixth three of his career was "sheer elation" and "utter joy." Even KP was jumping up and cheering from the bench, and Luka was celebrating like they had won the game of the century. Fun times!

Great stuff as always ML.  
Wow.  So when do I get to say "I told ya so." Mavsluvr when it comes to making the case Boban could help this team more?  Was it last game or so I commented on how others including even you were talking about the need for help at backup Big but mentioning names as if Marjonovic wasn't even on the roster? 

He's too gentle yes, but the Mavs don't have another guy that can put BEEF in the paint and force the opposing centers to stay occupied around the boards just fighting off his monster presence and avoiding fouls.  Here it was Sixers but the same would work for Lakers and others. 

This guy gets put and in and 9 times out of 10 produces at the very least on offense and the boards for Dallas in a way that Dallas simply has no other post presence to do.  Yes Luka is great but he's never going to be 7 foot + which at times just matters (Hello Jokic). 

One last point on this, I heard a bit of Carlisle interviewing on radio with Coop and he as asked about Boban and if he could / should be used more.  Carlisle essentially said there's no question Boban has always been an NBA ++ on offense.  His concern and limiting factor according to Rick is as we all know what happens on defense and most specifically on the PnR.  It sounds like its not even the 5-out stretch five that worries Carlisle but its Boban getting picked on in the Pick in Roll.  

So yeah, Carlisle is of course thinking about Boban's offense but he evidently just can't live with getting eaten up in the pervasive NBA pick in roll.  I give Coach credit there, defense can't be neglected in the NBA.  
At the same time my pet peeve is when the Mavs need to hold a lead over a short time and just scoring a few buckets could be enough to save a game.  
In the those situations its the other team has to get stops more than the Mavericks and that's when a devastating inside option can be the difference between an 'L' and a 'W'.