MAVS EMBARRASSED IN LOS ANGELES
REBOUNDING, DEFENSIVE WOES CONTINUE
Yow-ee. Talk about a lump of coal in our Christmas stocking. This much-hyped marquee game turned out to be a bit of a dud.
Game Story
The Mavs got out to a decent start, and pretty much managed to hold their own in the first twelve minutes, ending the quarter down 30-33. However, things started to go downhill in the back half of the second quarter, and the deficit increased to 12 at the break, with the Mavs heading into the locker room trailing 57-69. A terrible start to the third period led to a Carlisle timeout within the first minute. The Mavs managed to almost hold their own in scoring, but had trouble getting stops, and the scoreline read 85-99 going into the fourth.
An unusual lineup of Brunson/Richardson/Hardaway/Johnson/Bobi allowed the deficit to swell to 17 within the first minute, drawing another early timeout. The group then managed to get the margin down to ten, but it was back to 14 when Rick put Luka, Doe-Doe and Burke in. Powell was eventually subbed in for Bobi, but the Mavericks had just run out of juice. Down 20 points, with 2:23 left, Carlisle cleared his bench.
The game was never really competitive. The Mavs led for the last time with 4 minutes left in the first quarter, and were double-digits down for the entire second half.
Notable Items
3. Shooting. The Mavs had a decent shooting night, for the most part, and even some good displays from Burke and JRich. They still underperformed the Lakers, both from two and from three, though. Six Mavs scored in double digits — Luka 27, Richardson and Burke 17, Powell 11, Timmy and DFS 10.
4. Boards. The really shocking statistics came in rebounding and second-chance points. The Lakers had 17 (seventeen!) offensive rebounds, and they out-rebounded the Mavs 53-27 overall. The Lakers had 35 second-chance points, and the Mavs had none. Really? Dallas suffered from a height/strength disadvantage in some cases, but also got outworked, as the Lakers made crashing the offensive glass a priority, and the Mavs were not working the defensive glass with much intensity.
5. Defense. Defensively, the Mavericks weren’t altogether bad. In more than a few cases, they defended well, only to be the victim of an outstanding play by the Lakers' offense. In more than a few others, they played good initial defense, but then gave up an offensive rebound and didn’t collect themselves in time to avoid being scored on. According to Carlisle’s post-game comments, they have to "get tougher."
6. Turnovers. One moderately bright spot was the turnover area. The Mavs took care of the ball for the most part, committing only nine turnovers and forcing 17 from the Lakers, which played a part in the Mavs’ hanging around as long as they did. But the points off turnovers were only 3 in the Mavs’ favor, so they didn’t take as much advantage as we might have hoped.
7. Luka. Luka had a pretty good stat line, with 27 points and 7 assists, but he appeared to be out of shape, and played only 4 minutes in the fourth quarter. He was attacking the paint much more than he did in the first game, with only 5 of his 19 shots being threes, but he seemed prone to shooting against multiple defenders tonight when there was time left to try to find someone a better shot. The Lakers were cutting off his passing lanes, but he’s eventually going to have to learn to play out of double teams even when opponents have his usual passing attacks figured out.
On the positive side, he was 7-8 from the free throw line, and made some good defensive plays. He says he is not yet in shape because he thought the season wasn’t going to start so early, and I guess I believe that. However, if he wants to make the most of his outstanding talents, he is probably going to have to get used to staying in at least decent shape year-round.
8. THJ. Tim Hardaway looked a little shot-happy, and produced an underwhelming line of 10 points on 4-12 shooting. I don’t really blame him so much for taking 12 shots as an absolute number that he should never reach, as they were trying to feed him at times, but it would be good if he could get a better handle on his shot selection, and work for something better if time permits. Having said that, volume shooters are inherently going to be somewhat up and down. However, if he is supposed to be the third option, he has to be better than this.
9. Richardson. I have been impressed by how seamlessly Josh Richardson fits into the team. He plays like he’s been here for a season or two. It’s also great to have another two-way player on the perimeter. I’m looking forward to seeing more of what he has to offer, once the team manages to crystallize.
10. Burke. Trey Burke gave the team an offensive boost, scoring 17 points on 50% shooting, and going 4 of 7 from deep. He reminds me some of Jet, operating as an offensive spark plug off the bench. I don’t know if he might have played more minutes than his 24 if he hadn’t been in foul trouble, but I think he can help this team, even if he’s a 20-minute guy.
11. KP. I don’t think the Mavs are a contender without both their stars on the floor. One of the more frustrating things about the vicissitudes of the seasons has been how relatively little time both Luka and Porzingis have gotten on the floor together. Rick says the date of KP’s return is a matter of weeks away, not months, and hopefully, we’ll see a transformation when their synergy starts working.
Observations
Carlisle found the team performance disappointing, and said that they “have to get better” at rebounding and defending. These "we have to be better" comments never strike me as being particularly forceful.
As much as I hate to say this when it involves the hated Lakers, this looked kinda like a scrimmage of the JV against the V. The Lakers were bigger, played better together, and appeared to be the better team in Game 2 of the season. I have to think the Mavs won’t look this overmatched in most games. After all, the Lakers are the defending champs, and LeBron/AD are a tough matchup for all 29 other teams.
The offense looks pretty good for it being this early, and the Mavs shot well from long range (41%) and had 54 points in the paint. There were a number of beautiful individual plays in the contest, and some of them were even made by the Mavs! We’re already seeing some defensive improvement, now that the roster has been re-jiggered in that direction.
I could see it taking this team ten or fifteen games to hit their stride, with so many new guys, such a short offseason/preseason, and KP being out. It’s too early to get discouraged, and the return of KP will have trickle-down effects across the roster. If they can stay healthy, they look like they have promise. Need to make boxing out a priority, though!
The Clippers are next up, on Sunday night. It doesn’t get any easier, at least for a while.
Anyway, I hope all the MFFLs had a great Christmas, and hopefully, our team will look a little better next time!
REBOUNDING, DEFENSIVE WOES CONTINUE
Yow-ee. Talk about a lump of coal in our Christmas stocking. This much-hyped marquee game turned out to be a bit of a dud.
Game Story
The Mavs got out to a decent start, and pretty much managed to hold their own in the first twelve minutes, ending the quarter down 30-33. However, things started to go downhill in the back half of the second quarter, and the deficit increased to 12 at the break, with the Mavs heading into the locker room trailing 57-69. A terrible start to the third period led to a Carlisle timeout within the first minute. The Mavs managed to almost hold their own in scoring, but had trouble getting stops, and the scoreline read 85-99 going into the fourth.
An unusual lineup of Brunson/Richardson/Hardaway/Johnson/Bobi allowed the deficit to swell to 17 within the first minute, drawing another early timeout. The group then managed to get the margin down to ten, but it was back to 14 when Rick put Luka, Doe-Doe and Burke in. Powell was eventually subbed in for Bobi, but the Mavericks had just run out of juice. Down 20 points, with 2:23 left, Carlisle cleared his bench.
The game was never really competitive. The Mavs led for the last time with 4 minutes left in the first quarter, and were double-digits down for the entire second half.
Notable Items
- Early-season issues. The new-look Mavs appear to be a team that hasn’t really gelled yet. With such a short training camp, I guess that shouldn’t be a huge surprise. I have a feeling that we may be witnessing some pretty sloppy basketball the first two or three weeks of the season, and not only from the Mavs, as teams round into shape and sharpen up their systems. A casualty of the virus, I guess.
3. Shooting. The Mavs had a decent shooting night, for the most part, and even some good displays from Burke and JRich. They still underperformed the Lakers, both from two and from three, though. Six Mavs scored in double digits — Luka 27, Richardson and Burke 17, Powell 11, Timmy and DFS 10.
4. Boards. The really shocking statistics came in rebounding and second-chance points. The Lakers had 17 (seventeen!) offensive rebounds, and they out-rebounded the Mavs 53-27 overall. The Lakers had 35 second-chance points, and the Mavs had none. Really? Dallas suffered from a height/strength disadvantage in some cases, but also got outworked, as the Lakers made crashing the offensive glass a priority, and the Mavs were not working the defensive glass with much intensity.
5. Defense. Defensively, the Mavericks weren’t altogether bad. In more than a few cases, they defended well, only to be the victim of an outstanding play by the Lakers' offense. In more than a few others, they played good initial defense, but then gave up an offensive rebound and didn’t collect themselves in time to avoid being scored on. According to Carlisle’s post-game comments, they have to "get tougher."
6. Turnovers. One moderately bright spot was the turnover area. The Mavs took care of the ball for the most part, committing only nine turnovers and forcing 17 from the Lakers, which played a part in the Mavs’ hanging around as long as they did. But the points off turnovers were only 3 in the Mavs’ favor, so they didn’t take as much advantage as we might have hoped.
7. Luka. Luka had a pretty good stat line, with 27 points and 7 assists, but he appeared to be out of shape, and played only 4 minutes in the fourth quarter. He was attacking the paint much more than he did in the first game, with only 5 of his 19 shots being threes, but he seemed prone to shooting against multiple defenders tonight when there was time left to try to find someone a better shot. The Lakers were cutting off his passing lanes, but he’s eventually going to have to learn to play out of double teams even when opponents have his usual passing attacks figured out.
On the positive side, he was 7-8 from the free throw line, and made some good defensive plays. He says he is not yet in shape because he thought the season wasn’t going to start so early, and I guess I believe that. However, if he wants to make the most of his outstanding talents, he is probably going to have to get used to staying in at least decent shape year-round.
8. THJ. Tim Hardaway looked a little shot-happy, and produced an underwhelming line of 10 points on 4-12 shooting. I don’t really blame him so much for taking 12 shots as an absolute number that he should never reach, as they were trying to feed him at times, but it would be good if he could get a better handle on his shot selection, and work for something better if time permits. Having said that, volume shooters are inherently going to be somewhat up and down. However, if he is supposed to be the third option, he has to be better than this.
9. Richardson. I have been impressed by how seamlessly Josh Richardson fits into the team. He plays like he’s been here for a season or two. It’s also great to have another two-way player on the perimeter. I’m looking forward to seeing more of what he has to offer, once the team manages to crystallize.
10. Burke. Trey Burke gave the team an offensive boost, scoring 17 points on 50% shooting, and going 4 of 7 from deep. He reminds me some of Jet, operating as an offensive spark plug off the bench. I don’t know if he might have played more minutes than his 24 if he hadn’t been in foul trouble, but I think he can help this team, even if he’s a 20-minute guy.
11. KP. I don’t think the Mavs are a contender without both their stars on the floor. One of the more frustrating things about the vicissitudes of the seasons has been how relatively little time both Luka and Porzingis have gotten on the floor together. Rick says the date of KP’s return is a matter of weeks away, not months, and hopefully, we’ll see a transformation when their synergy starts working.
Observations
Carlisle found the team performance disappointing, and said that they “have to get better” at rebounding and defending. These "we have to be better" comments never strike me as being particularly forceful.
As much as I hate to say this when it involves the hated Lakers, this looked kinda like a scrimmage of the JV against the V. The Lakers were bigger, played better together, and appeared to be the better team in Game 2 of the season. I have to think the Mavs won’t look this overmatched in most games. After all, the Lakers are the defending champs, and LeBron/AD are a tough matchup for all 29 other teams.
The offense looks pretty good for it being this early, and the Mavs shot well from long range (41%) and had 54 points in the paint. There were a number of beautiful individual plays in the contest, and some of them were even made by the Mavs! We’re already seeing some defensive improvement, now that the roster has been re-jiggered in that direction.
I could see it taking this team ten or fifteen games to hit their stride, with so many new guys, such a short offseason/preseason, and KP being out. It’s too early to get discouraged, and the return of KP will have trickle-down effects across the roster. If they can stay healthy, they look like they have promise. Need to make boxing out a priority, though!
The Clippers are next up, on Sunday night. It doesn’t get any easier, at least for a while.
Anyway, I hope all the MFFLs had a great Christmas, and hopefully, our team will look a little better next time!