Mavs 111, Jazz 103

[mavsluvr]

KP-LESS MAVS STUN JAZZ AT AAC

The Mavericks stepped up big against the team with the NBA’s best record, snapping Utah’s 9-game winning streak and extending their own string of consecutive victories to five. 


NOTABLE ITEMS

PERSONNEL. Rick revealed before the game that KP would be out, citing a sprained wrist that has been bothering him for weeks. There is no set timetable for his returm. Maxi and J Rich returned to action. WCS-Redick-Terry were still out. Melli took KP’s place in the starting lineup, forcing the Jazz to guard the perimeter at every position. 

GAME FLOW.  Both teams went to-to-toe in the first quarter, and the Mavs held a 27-25 edge through twelve minutes.  Neither side recorded a free-throw attempt in the period. In the second, the Mavericks held Utah to a humiliating 17 points, and a putrid 1-13 performance from long range. Josh Richardson stepped up with an 11-point frame, and he and Brunson combined for 18 of the home team’s total 23 points. At the buzzer, Dallas had a 50-42 advantage.

The Mavs left the Jazz in the dust with a 37-27 third quarter. Luka and THJ combined for 28 points, hitting 7 of their total 9 attempts from deep. There was a scuffle toward the end of the quarter, involving several players, including Luka, Doe-Doe and Gobert, and somehow ending with DFS receiving the only tech. Dallas had an 87-69 cushion after three. Utah chiseled their deficit by 10 in the fourth, but Coach Snyder instructed his squad to refrain from intentionally fouling in the last minute, not wanting to drag out their misery, and your boys held on for a decisive win. 

STATISTICS. Look no further than two stats. The Jazz had a 22-8 advantage in FTAs, but the Mavs hit a scintillating 23-49 threes, which will put you in the win column most of the time. Five Mavs hit multiple triples — Luka 6, DFS and Josh 5, Brunson 4, and THJ 3. In a strange point distribution, 5 Mavs were in double figures, while neither Maxi nor Melli scored at all. The closing unit featured Luka and sharpshooters Brunson, THJ, DFS, and Maxi. 

DONCIC. Luka had a sparkling 31/9/8 line, and went 6-11 from deep. Luka gets up for games against the best teams, and he was locked and loaded for the duration. He did not disdain the dirty work, digging his missed shot off the floor for a second-chance shot early in the third. With the young superstar at the helm, KP was barely missed. 

DFS. Doe-Doe had a stellar outing, stepping up to the plate with 23 big points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals to go along with his tenacious defense on Mitchell and Gobert. Part of Utah's game plan was evidently to dare him to shoot, and he made them pay big time  He confessed that after missing a couple of threes and hesitating to take another, he got “yelled at” for not shooting, so was encouraged enough to return to full bombs-away mode. He also had a great drive from the corner against Gobert in the second, and he posterized the Utah star in the third. Outstanding!

KLEBER. Maxi had an underwhelming line (0/5/2), taking only 2 shots, but was relentless against the Utah front court. Not every contribution shows up in the box score. His defense was critical to the win. 

MELLI. Nicolo had 7 boards, 2 blocks, 1 assist, and a steal. He played a full 32 minutes, and won the belt for Defensive Player of the Game. He showed tremendous hustle on the defensive end and on the glass, and no one could fault him for lack of energy. Since it’s a win, I guess we’ll overlook the 0-7 shooting performance. His unnecessary foul of a three-point shooter went largely unpunished, when Bogdanovich missed both the shot and two of his three freebies. He was subbed out for Hardaway with 3:45 left in the game. The Mavs remain undefeated since the Melli Trade. 

BRUNSON. Jalen continued his excellent run of play with 20 points on 8-15 shooting in 30 minutes off the bench. Jalen’s decision-making has really come along this season, and Rick keeps trusting him to be on the floor at the ends of games.  Such an intelligent player!

RICHARDSON. Josh had one of his best outings as a Mav, putting up 17 efficient points (6-9), and going 5-5 from range. Just as importantly, he frustrated the Jazz with his persistent defense, particularly on Mitchell. If J Rich can get to the point where he consistently completes his threes, he’ll be at the next level. 

HARDAWAY. Timmy had 30 productive minutes off the bench, scoring from anywhere and everywhere, putting up 16 points and 5 assists, and ratcheting up the excitement meter with back-to-back transition buckets in the first, along with a three over Derrick Favors, a drive resulting in and-one, and a buzzer-beating three  in the third. 

POWELL. Dwight put in a 14-minute shift, and had a couple of slams. 

JAZZ. Utah played with intensity, but didn’t really look like the league’s best team. They had a very bad performance from deep (12-44) and missed 5 of their 22 FTAs. Mike Conley was their standout player, leading the team in scoring with 28 points, and accounting for 6 of the team's 12 made threes. Bogdanovic, Mitchell, and Clarkson had 16 apiece, and Gobert added 14 points and 15 boards. Donovan's points were attained via embarrassing 6-23 shooting, and Rudy was limited to 6 shots. O'Neale and Mitchell were both 0-8 from long range, and Clarkson was 2-9. Yikes!


OBSERVATIONS

This was a high-intensity game with a playoff atmosphere. The Mavericks were underdogs going in, but held their own with cohesive defense and stylish offense. It was raining threes on the Mavs’ end of the court, and the team rarely comes up short shooting 47% beyond the arc. Dallas may have gotten a little lucky with the Jazz missing some open shots, but that doesn't take away from their fine accomplishment.

This was an important victory for the home team, and constituted a statement that they can beat anybody when they’re on their game. 

The Mavericks face the bottom-feeding Rockets in Houston on Wednesday. Taking care of business should be the order of the day. 

Fantastic!

[soog]

I forgot how much I like these.  Great work

[KillerLeft]

I can’t believe what a score Melli was at the deadline. If JJ Redick does half of what I think he can do here to close the season out that trade is going to go down as one of the best ever.

DFS is probably going to end up being one of my top five all-time favorite Mavericks. As far as I am concerned, the person who is going to take his starting job at the small forward position is probably in elementary school right now.

Gobert is the one player in the NBA that Luka seems to be afraid of. He will go right at Kawhi Leonard or LeBron James without the slightest hesitation, but Gobert has him a little bit in his own head once he gets to the paint. Just another example of a 22-year-old needing experience, even though he was so good when he first arrived. I believe he will learn how to counter that level of size and athletic ability given time, but he is noticeably worried about getting his shot blocked against that dude right now.

Jalen Brunson is a treasure.

[fifteenth]

"KP was barely missed"

mavsluvr just made KP walk to the locker room in frustration

[mtrot]

"Scheduled loss" for the Jazz?

[Chicagojk]

Great win. The Mavs did not get the Jazz best game, but it doesn't matter.  A win is a win.   

I am glad to see Dorian have a game like that.  If Utah is going to be put Gobert on him, you have to make him pay.   I suspect come playoff time, other teams will do the same thing.   Big on Dorian, physical wing on KP.   

Nice to see Richardson hit mulitple threes.  Hopefully this is a trend of hitting multiple threes per game.   

Jalen has been so good this year.   I know there has been some talk about Hardaway being a sneaky 6th man candidate.  It appears Clarkson has a healthy lead there, but shouldn't Brunson be getting some 6th man of the year talk?

Melli just knows how to play.  Although the O-for from three was not good.   He just needs to be respectable from out there.   Otherwise all the other good things he does out there is muted a little.   It says a lot how much Rick likes his play that he is playing some big minutes recently (albeit with some players out).

[michaeltex]

Granted that zero points from Maxi and Melli is not good, it does show the importance of having strong defensive efforts paired with our offensive skills. The team still scored 111 points from 6 other players. If you take out Maxi and Melli's 0 for 9 (and 0 for 7 on 3pts), the other 6 shot 50% overall and almost 55% from deep. 

On another night having 40% of your starters not score might be fatal, but I don't think this win happens without the defense and rebounding of those two.

[DanSchwartzgan]

 
Melli just knows how to play.  Although the O-for from three was not good.   He just needs to be respectable from out there.   Otherwise all the other good things he does out there is muted a little.   It says a lot how much Rick likes his play that he is playing some big minutes recently (albeit with some players out).

I'm trying not to get too high or too low on Melli at this point.  The D has been very encouraging.  The team is +12, +1, -8, +22 and +5 with him in the game and the D-Rating in his time on the court is just stupid low.  But, given all the other one dimensional guys we have, you would think Melli's opportunity would be limited if he continues to be sub-.500 in TS%.  

You would think Carlisle would have to pick his spots in terms of making sure Melli is on with guys who can shoot.  But, his best two 2-man lineups for O-Rating are with Powell and DFS (115.8 and 104.2).  Imagine how it might work if one of Powell and Melli could hit an outside shot.  The O-Rating is under 100 with shooters like Luka, THJ, Brunson and Maxi and he's only played 3 minutes in one game next to KP.  It is super early and match-ups in only 5 games make a huge difference, but that is pretty much the opposite of what I expected to see.

[Paul Gasol]

"KP was barely missed"

mavsluvr just made KP walk to the locker room in frustration

Indeed. Short and scathing...

It is a fair point though, and hard not think about. How much did we lose tonight without KP?

After declaring that debacle of a game earlier in the season “the least enjoyable regular season game I’ve ever seen,” this one has to go the other way... it was balls-out intense from the opening tip to the final whistle. I was so proud of the way our guys played with such “force” and ultimately secured the win.

I’ve been in a bit of a Mavs funk, not really enjoying watching the games for a while now, but this game snapped me out of it, and had me shouting and fist-pumping at the TV. It really did feel like the Mavs were treating it like a playoff game...

Also, if flailing your arms wildly was an important rebounding skill, Dwight Powell would be the best rebounder in the NBA by FAR...

[Dahlsim]

Very encouraging win against a really good team.  
Excellent defense!  At the same time, I'm pretty sure Utah is going to shoot better overall most of the time than this game might indicate. 

On the flip side, just when I was getting ready for this Melli guy to be the next Unicorn ... 

Melli took KP’s place in the starting lineup, forcing the Jazz to guard the perimeter at every position. 

So yeah well, his effort is outstanding and really smart play helped the team.  Its too small a Mavs sample size of course to read too much but the shooting has to be better than this even if you're Dennis Rodman.  

 I guess we’ll overlook the 0-7 shooting performance. 

I'm thinking it may be too soon to send KP the 2nd unit. 

[dirkfansince1998]

Point for the Kleber-Melli lineup. It´s not possible to play a switch heavy defense when KP is on the floor. Just a higher defensive ceiling with two quick and athletic bigs that can guard multiple positions.
Point against the Kleber-Melli lineup. The guard/wing rotation cannot carry the entire scoring load. Two starters not scoring a single point would have been a big problem in most games. Richardson, THJ and Brunson all being hot in the same game is not something I would bet on in a playoff game.

[Dahlsim]

Point for the Kleber-Melli lineup. It´s not possible to play a switch heavy defense when KP is on the floor. Just a higher defensive ceiling with two quick and athletic bigs that can guard multiple positions.
Point against the Kleber-Melli lineup. The guard/wing rotation cannot carry the entire scoring load. Two starters not scoring a single point would have been a big problem in most games. Richardson, THJ and Brunson all being hot in the same game is not something I would bet on in a playoff game.

Both good points.  Of course Kleber with his NBA time at this point is not a big unknown as a shooter.  Confidence should be that Maxi will be fine.  

Mr. Melli still has the jury still out.  If I'm reading his Euro league stats correctly it looks like he significantly improved his 3 point volume and accuracy there in recent seasons. 
So there's that.

[mavsluvr]

Great win. The Mavs did not get the Jazz best game, but it doesn't matter.  A win is a win.   

I am glad to see Dorian have a game like that.  If Utah is going to be put Gobert on him, you have to make him pay.

Dorian said after the game that he knew he was going to get a lot of shots, once he saw that Gobert was on him. Way to take down the two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Doe-Doe!   

I suspect come playoff time, other teams will do the same thing.   Big on Dorian, physical wing on KP. 

Agree that this seems likely.  

Nice to see Richardson hit mulitple threes.  Hopefully this is a trend of hitting multiple threes per game.   

Hope springs eternal. 

Jalen has been so good this year.   I know there has been some talk about Hardaway being a sneaky 6th man candidate.  It appears Clarkson has a healthy lead there, but shouldn't Brunson be getting some 6th man of the year talk?

I think this award is probably still Clarkson's to lose, but agree that Brunson is building a case. 

Melli just knows how to play.  Although the O-for from three was not good.   He just needs to be respectable from out there.   Otherwise all the other good things he does out there is muted a little.   It says a lot how much Rick likes his play that he is playing some big minutes recently (albeit with some players out).

Indeed, it does. 

Good observations.

[mavsluvr]

I'm trying not to get too high or too low on Melli at this point.  The D has been very encouraging.  The team is +12, +1, -8, +22 and +5 with him in the game and the D-Rating in his time on the court is just stupid low.  But, given all the other one dimensional guys we have, you would think Melli's opportunity would be limited if he continues to be sub-.500 in TS%.  

You would think Carlisle would have to pick his spots in terms of making sure Melli is on with guys who can shoot.  But, his best two 2-man lineups for O-Rating are with Powell and DFS (115.8 and 104.2).  Imagine how it might work if one of Powell and Melli could hit an outside shot.  The O-Rating is under 100 with shooters like Luka, THJ, Brunson and Maxi and he's only played 3 minutes in one game next to KP.  It is super early and match-ups in only 5 games make a huge difference, but that is pretty much the opposite of what I expected to see.

Thanks for looking up this info, Dan. It is great, the way you always provide support for your points. 

Agree that it is pretty much impossible to draw conclusions about the best Melli lineups based on a super-tiny statistical sample size. Your eye/gut test might actually be more reliable this early. 

Also agree that it will be hard to use Melli very much if he shoots this poorly. He ended up hardly appearing in NO, due to his offense being unplayably bad.  Hopefully, that will come around. Luka seems to be making a targeted effort to feed him.

[burekemde]

Great writeup ML.

A playoff game, played in regular season. A rare one for the fans.

Something different about the Mavs this year. A lot of this (I think) iscoming from JRich and the defensive mentality he has contributed mightly establishing in Dallas. You will never find this stat or anything like this in the stats. Spreads like a good virus. Everyone is more tough, everyone plays better D. Everyone figths for every posession, no breaks. Jazz were not bad at 3. This is how you shoot when you are well defended. You are not comfortable. And Melli that is a great defender, fits immediately in this style of basketball.

Gobert praising the Mavs physicality in his interview? Wow. Thats something new. There is something completely new about these Mavs. Last season we were beat out of playoffs on pure physicality, not skill.

Reminds me a bit of the Jordan Netflix series. First years his team got punished on physicality, but never again in the years after. This year, the Luka led team is punishing teams on defense and physicality. Love to see this. Love wathcing the defense, and the all defense starting lineup. On every posession, it's like they want to rip the ball out of the offense and score. Jazz looked scared to play against them.

Also something new about defensive positioning and schemes. I dont understrand basketball at this level and defensive schemes etc.. But its clear to me intuitively they all move differently on defense. They trap offensive players in some areas of the court on the sides, which they were not doing previously at all. Cant explain it, but I know something is going on, completely different than before, and its working. But in analogy with all other sports, it takes players to do this. Having JRich, Kleber, DFS, Luka, Melli etc. that understand defensive movements and physicality, helps a lot.

There is a certain element of that the sum is far greater than the individual parts, to this Mavs team, right now. A machine that works. Love seeing this.

[soog]

I'm trying not to get too high or too low on Melli at this point.  The D has been very encouraging.  The team is +12, +1, -8, +22 and +5 with him in the game and the D-Rating in his time on the court is just stupid low.  But, given all the other one dimensional guys we have, you would think Melli's opportunity would be limited if he continues to be sub-.500 in TS%.  

You would think Carlisle would have to pick his spots in terms of making sure Melli is on with guys who can shoot.  But, his best two 2-man lineups for O-Rating are with Powell and DFS (115.8 and 104.2).  Imagine how it might work if one of Powell and Melli could hit an outside shot.  The O-Rating is under 100 with shooters like Luka, THJ, Brunson and Maxi and he's only played 3 minutes in one game next to KP.  It is super early and match-ups in only 5 games make a huge difference, but that is pretty much the opposite of what I expected to see.

Where are you getting this data from?

[mavsluvr]

Great writeup ML.

A playoff game, played in regular season. A rare one for the fans.

Something different about the Mavs this year. A lot of this (I think) iscoming from JRich and the defensive mentality he has contributed mightly establishing in Dallas. You will never find this stat or anything like this in the stats. Spreads like a good virus. Everyone is more tough, everyone plays better D. Everyone figths for every posession, no breaks. Jazz were not bad at 3. This is how you shoot when you are well defended. You are not comfortable. And Melli that is a great defender, fits immediately in this style of basketball.

Gobert praising the Mavs physicality in his interview? Wow. Thats something new. There is something completely new about these Mavs. Last season we were beat out of playoffs on pure physicality, not skill.

Reminds me a bit of the Jordan Netflix series. First years his team got punished on physicality, but never again in the years after. This year, the Luka led team is punishing teams on defense and physicality. Love to see this. Love wathcing the defense, and the all defense starting lineup. On every posession, it's like they want to rip the ball out of the offense and score. Jazz looked scared to play against them.

Also something new about defensive positioning and schemes. I dont understrand basketball at this level and defensive schemes etc.. But its clear to me intuitively they all move differently on defense. They trap offensive players in some areas of the court on the sides, which they were not doing previously at all. Cant explain it, but I know something is going on, completely different than before, and its working. But in analogy with all other sports, it takes players to do this. Having JRich, Kleber, DFS, Luka, Melli etc. that understand defensive movements and physicality, helps a lot.

There is a certain element of that the sum is far greater than the individual parts, to this Mavs team, right now. A machine that works. Love seeing this.

After this game, Rick echoed your observations about the team improvement in physicality and attention to defensive detail. 

He suggested that the defensive surge originated with the week of practice time that the snow emergency allowed. I have also heard comments from the New Orleans end that Melli is known for lighting a fire under his teammates with respect to high-effort defense and rebounding, and the eye test would support that.

[mtrot]

After this game, Rick echoed your observations about the team improvement in physicality and attention to defensive detail. 

He suggested that the defensive surge originated with the week of practice time that the snow emergency allowed. I have also heard comments from the New Orleans end that Melli is known for lighting a fire under his teammates with respect to high-effort defense and rebounding, and the eye test would support that.

Yeah, it tends to light a fire under you when a new guy comes in off the street and makes your intensity and alertness level appear wanting!

[mavsluvr]

Yeah, it tends to light a fire under you when a new guy comes in off the street and makes your intensity and alertness level appear wanting!

Yes, might be a wakeup call the team needed.

[mavsluvr]

Very encouraging win against a really good team.  
Excellent defense!  At the same time, I'm pretty sure Utah is going to shoot better overall most of the time than this game might indicate. 

On the flip side, just when I was getting ready for this Melli guy to be the next Unicorn ... 



So yeah well, his effort is outstanding and really smart play helped the team.  Its too small a Mavs sample size of course to read too much but the shooting has to be better than this even if you're Dennis Rodman.  



I'm thinking it may be too soon to send KP the 2nd unit. 

LOL, agree that KP is likely to keep his starting spot. 

I had really just meant to compliment Luka, not to suggest kicking KP to the curb. But who knows, maybe there was something Freudian in the phrasing?