2021-2022 MAVS NEWS: 4th in West | WCF loss [ARCHIVED]

[DanSchwartzgan]

In the last 5 games the Mavs have an ORating of 116.1 (best in the league) and DRating of 109.6 and Net Rating of +6.4 (3rd best in the league). This is while shooting 37.8% from three, which is good, but not some crazy absurd number.

4-1 in those games.  Loss to Chicago and wins agains BOS, NOP, SAS and DEN.  KP has been negative in +/- in four of the five games.  In fact he's only had one positive +/- game all season.  Pre-injury his FG%'s were .308, .350 and .200.  Since returning every game has been .538 or above except the one positive +/- game in which he shot .308.  He's averaging 16.8 shots per game in those five games since returning scoring 23.3 points and bringing down 9 boards.

Luka has been positive in +/- in three of the five games since KP returned.  He's had two games ALL SEASON where his FG% was over .500 (he was .391 last night).  He's never been a great FG% guy, but when 3's and FT's are added in, his TS% has typically been very good for a high usage guy (over 58% the last two seasons, but .520 so far this season)

THJ has been wildly inconsistent both in +/- and his shooting in the five games since KP returned.

On the plus side:

DFS has been positive in 4 of the 5 games since KP returned.  He's hit 50% of his 3's in those games.

Bullock has also been positive in four of the five games since KP returned (the exception was the Chicago loss).  He still hasn't found his stroke on a consistent basis.

Frank has been positive in four of the five games since KP returned.  He's also .500 from the field in those five games.
 
It is actually Jalen Brunson who is carrying the team.  In the four wins since KP's return he's been +1, +26, +20 and +10.  He's averaging 31.6 minutes in those games and has hit .544% of his shots.  His four net negative games correspond perfectly to the four games we've lost this season.  He didn't shoot poorly in those games (.548 FG% in the four losses) nor was he the problem from a +/- standpoint as the team was dramatically worse when he was off the court.  

It is good that things seem to be turning despite missing Maxi.  He was the third rated player in On-Off among the top nine rotation players behind Brunson and Frank.  The competition on our wins hasn't been the best, but the return of Maxi and Luka actually becoming Luka again give reason for optimism.