MAVS 104, LAKERS 107

[mavsluvr]

LUKA-LESS MAVS COME UP SHORT IN OVERTIME HEARTBREAKER

The Mavericks entered the always-anticipated Lakers match riding a two-win wave. Speculation was rife about who would be the victor between contestants who were described by the media as possibly the league’s two most disappointing teams. (Ouch!) Luka badly wanted to play, but reportedly, the team strongly encouraged him not to risk a setback to the progress on the healing of his sprained ankle. The Mavs competed, but the Lakers’ undrafted rookie ultimately won the contest with a last-second three. 


GAME NOTES

Luka was persuaded to stay off his hurt ankle, and Sterling was still not quite ready to return from injury. Willie was out for the tenth consecutive game with personal issues. Hope he is all right. THT, Dwight Howard, and Malik Monk were all in COVID protocols for LA. Ariza and Nunn were on their injury list. 

Starting lineup Brunson-Bullock-DFS-KP-Powell

Stein referred to the McMahon article, affirming that the communication between the coach and the two stars is much better with J Kidd, and hoping that that would eventually translate to results on the court. (As soon as tonight, maybe?)

FIRST QUARTER

Mavs are first to score with a Brunson-Powell oop. Lakers answer with a Bradley three. — The LeBron freight train rumbles on. -- Brunson and Russ exchange baskets in the paint. -- KP opens his account with a floater over Bradley. — KP taking advantage of the mismatch on the Lakers switch. — Dorian draws a foul on Davis, one of two. — LeBron triple over KP.  -- Westbrook bites on a Dorian fake. -- Bron goaltends a Brunson miss, but makes it up with a three on the next possession. — Westbrook barrels down the lane. 13-15 6:47

Davis gets on the board with a dunk from Ellington. Moses and Maxi come in. That’s something new. Bron draws a foul on Mo. — Jump ball between Dorian and Ellington. Mavs control. Burke and Tim have checked in together. — Moses called for defensive three-seconds. Melo comes in, Maxi is on him. -- Tim gets on the board with a jumper. -- Anthony hits from downtown. -- Maxi draws a foul on Davis. Mavs 0-6 from three.  17-23 2:47

Maxi forced into a bad shot, rejected. — Lakers forcing the Mavs deep into the shot clock here. — Austin Reaves left unguarded, hits from range. — Trey gets his first two points with free throws. — Reaves again. Really? Lakers on a 19-6 run. -- KP trims the deficit to single digits with free throws. -- Westbrook to the cup over Maxi. Mavs 1-11 for their last eleven shots. 

23-33 after one

Lakers 6-9 from three, Mavs 0-7. Long shots not falling for Dallas. 

SECOND QUARTER

Trey stops the bleeding with a midrange J. — KP tips in his own miss on the second try. — Burke with a scoop to the hoop. — Maxi left open in the corner, hits. 9-0 run by the Mavs. 32-35 9:35

KP draws a shooting foul on LeBron, hits both FTs. — JB gets the lead back with a layup. Timmy with a rack attack. 15-0 Mavs run! Lakers timeout. 38-35 8:12

Bron to the rack over Dorian. -- Maxi on Bron, forces a difficult shot and miss. -- OMG, Reaves with his third triple. Brunson replies with a saucy drive to the cup. — Harp scolds Powell for fouling a jump shooter, Davis hits one of two. — Davis called for an offensive foul: elbow on Bullock. — KP and Bradley hit the deck, foul on Bradley, his second. — Dorian puts the Mavs back in front with a three from up top. 45-43. 2:20

JB draws a charge on Bron. — Brunson-KP oop. — Tim called for a blocking foul on Russ. Kidd challenges. Challenge unsuccessful, Tim hadn’t established position. Russ hits one of two. — Russ appears to get away with a double-dribble, JB gets revenge with a three. — Bron with a three over Maxi to end the half. 

50-47 HT

Great second quarter for the Mavs, putrid from the Lakers: 27-14. Hope that’s a harbinger of things to come. 

In the first half overall, Mavs go 3-18 from three, but lead the Lakers 28-10 in the paint. Brunson and KP combine for 29 points for Dallas. LeBron leads with 15 for the Lakers. 

THIRD QUARTER

Mavs doing a pretty good job of contesting the rim tonight. Powell blocks a Westbrook shot. — JB is killing them at the rim, has 19 points to lead all scorers. — RW draws an and-one over Powell, ties the game with the made FT. — Brunson gets a shooter’s bounce with a three. — Davis draws a foul from Brunson, then pats JB on the chest before hitting both freebies. — LeBron with a logo three. Shake his hand, that’s all you can do. 57-61 7:30

Dorian hobbling down the court, stays out there for one possession and then limps off. — Maxi forces a turnover against Davis. — Josh Green steal leads to THJ drawing a foul. Burke running point now while Brunson gets a breather. — Hardaway from deep! — Tim draws shooting foul against Bazemore, crashes into the front row, everyone looks unharmed. Two of two. Frankie checks in. — Burke draws a clear path foul off a turnover, takes the lead with free throws. — RW crashes past Frankie for the and-one opportunity. — Davis transition bucket. — Hardaway over Reaves, late in the shot clock, for a three!  67-67 1:52

Burke ties the game again with a jumper against Anthony. — Russ draws a foul from Green, hits two. — DAJ lob. Okay. — Green catch-and-shoot three!! Woot! — JB knocked down in a confusing sequence. One of two. 

73-73 after three

Mavs’ 7-30 23% three-point shooting dragging them down. Brunson leads all scorers with 23 points. 

FOURTH QUARTER

Dorian back on the court, that’s good. — KP makes his first basket of the half. — KP behind-the-back pass to Doe-Doe, who gets to the rim. — KP from downtown!! Lakers timeout on the 11-0 Mavs run!  80-73 9:27

Timmy corner three off bullet pass from JB. — Brunson to the rack! — Davis to a cutting James for an and-one. Dorian tries to defend but Bron is too strong.  85-82 6:16
 
LeBron misses the and-one free throw. — Burke to the hoop! — Hardaway with a pull-up over Brow. — Lakers re-take the lead with a second-chance basket by Westbrook. 89-90 3:14

Tim to a cutting KP for a layup! — KP over Reaves! — Ellington ties the game with a second-chance corner three at 2 seconds. 93-93 1.8 seconds

Burke misses the catch-and-shoot. We’re going to overtime, folks. 

93-93 after four

OVERTIME

Mavs control the tip. KP gets a good look from three, can’t hit. — Davis fouled in the paint by Dorian, foul on the floor. Davis hits over KP and Maxi. — KP called for an OF against Russ. KP blocks RW shot. — Dorian fouled by Russ. Foul on the floor. Maxi from JB on the kickout! Mavs lead! — Russ bricks a corner three. - JB passes ahead to a cutting Doe-Doe. Timeout Lakers. 98-95 2:42

Davis to RW layup. — Brunson airball. — Reaves missed three. — Ball out of bounds off LA. KP 3PTA is in and out. — Davis layup over Dorian. Timeout Dallas. 98-99 1:21

Lakers running their offense through Davis. — Steal by Ellington, LeBron dunk. — Hardaway from three! — Westbrook contested corner three over Maxi. 101-104 23 seconds

Kleber banks in the kick-out! Woo-hoo! 104-104 15 seconds

Aargh. Reaves hits a three with .9 remaining. Mavs have no timeout left. Bullock heave unsuccessful. 

107-104 FT


ANALYSIS

The Mavs still more or less ride and fall on their shooting, and they managed only a 12-44 (27%) performance from three in this one. The poor shooting was widely distributed. 

Dorian 1-6; KP 1-7; Bullock 0-4; Burke 0-5; THJ 4-11. Hardaway’s 4-11 was 36%, which actually wasn’t too bad, but for the first three quarters, he was 2-9. 

The Mavs got 8 more shots up than the Lakers, thanks to an 8-4 advantage in offensive rebounds and 14 Laker turnovers, so if they had shot a little better, they could have had this. Maverick point differentials were +6 on points from twos, -9 on points from threes, and a push on made free throws. 

In addition to these overall factors, end-of-game execution (and arguably strategy) left something to be desired. In regulation, the last four minutes featured 5 Laker points and 4 Mavs points, with most possessions on both sides being empty. The two shots the Mavs gave up were both off Lakers offensive rebounds. Particularly frustrating was surrendering the tie with six seconds left, when confusion on the floor led to the ball getting loose to Ellington for the tying three. In the last 1:21 of overtime, the Lakers scored on every possession, including a desperate contested three from Russ and a three from a rookie having an outlier performance, without a timeout to organize a last play. 

If Carlisle were still here, we would probably also look at the first quarter as a factor in the loss, with the Mavs getting off to a slow start and giving up a 10-point lead to the Lakers in the period. 

Finishing unit  Brunson-Hardaway-DFS-KP-Maxi. 


PLAYER NOTES

DFS (43 min). Dorian played very heavy minutes tonight, with his main breather consisting of a trip to the locker room after stepping on Anthony Davis. He had a 10-9 line, but was 4-11 from the floor. I don’t know what the Mavs do if Doe-Doe really gets hurt — they cannot afford to have him off the court for very long. 

HARDAWAY (40). Tim had 20 points and 9 rebounds off the bench, if one can consider a 40-minute game a bench role. Sixteen of his points were scored after halftime. Without Luka on the floor, the team BADLY needs Tim to score, and kudos to him for emerging from the pit to do so in the second half. Hope he can get his consistency up. 

PORZINGIS (39). KP had a double-double with 23 points and 12 boards, but was 8-23, and scored only 9 points after halftime. I haven’t checked the records to see if any stats back this up, but I am coming away with the impression that KP not only tends to fade during the season, but also tends to do so on an in-game basis, not responding well to halftime adjustments by the opponent. Maybe I’m suffering some recency bias, I don’t know. At any rate, Kidd said he was great on both ends, and that he did what he was asked to do. 

BRUNSON (38). Jalen was arguably the Mavs’ best player, sporting 25 points and 9 assists on 11-18 shooting. He was interviewed after the game, and was clearly frustrated with his own and the team’s lack of attention to detail, but he also gave the Lakers credit. Such a crushing loss, after he had done such a good job all night. 

KLEBER (33). Maxi put up 9 points and 7 boards, and was the Maverick who forced overtime with a banked-in three at the buzzer. He drew heavy defensive duty on LeBron, especially in the second half. 

BURKE (22). Trey served as the backup point guard again, and was serviceable at 12-4-2 on 4-12 shooting, with a nice little run in the third. Given that Brunson couldn’t play all 53 minutes, I guess no one else available could have done any better. 

BULLOCK (20). Reggie might qualify as the most disappointing Maverick of the night. He was 0-4 and I don’t think he drew sustained defensive duty on any of the Lakers who could be considered the biggest threats to score. He did not play in the fourth quarter or overtime, aside from a 15-second situational substitution. 

MENTIONS. POWELL (13) was not a great matchup against the Laker behemoths. Kidd noted that when the Lakers “go small” from their perspective, they’ve got Davis at the 5 and LeBron at the four, and that’s still pretty big. Dwight was not on the floor during the clutch periods. GREEN (10) got a little burn, and had 3 points, 2 rebounds, and a couple of steals. Maybe we’ll see more of him while the absences continue. MOSES and FRANK combined for 6 minutes. Moses used a couple of fouls. Frank had an assist. 

BOBAN did not play. 

LAKERS. LeBron led his team with 24 points, and was plenty fun to watch, but was kept reasonably in check by the Mavs defenders. Russ had a near triple-double with 23-10-9, and was the unlikely guy to tie the game with a few seconds left on a contested three. The Brow was a problem for the Mavs, recording 20 points and 12 boards, but the Mavs did a presentable job of defending. The unexpected hero of the game for LA was undrafted rookie Austin Reaves. He averages 6 ppg, but tonight had 15 points on 5-6 threes, including the game winner. Aargh. 


OBSERVATIONS

Bally. Brian was critical of the time management and execution at the ends of regulation and overtime. Two Mavs (KP and Maxi) fighting each other for a rebound while the ball got loose for a second-chance three, for example. 

Kidd. Said the loss was attributable to the “little things.” Detailed a few things they were trying to do in the late stretches, but didn’t manage due to refereeing, bad luck, Laker performance, and subpar execution. Says they just need to keep working on the shooting. Thought the defense was great, held the Lakers under 100 points through regulation. 

Noted that they were in position to win the game late, but sometimes things don’t work out. On the last possession in regulation, they were trying to get a quick two and then play the foul game, but Brunson was confronted by the trees and had to kick out. Fortunately, Maxi bombed in the unexpected three-point attempt, and Kidd particularly praised his team for their composure and patience on the play. 


Despite the disappointing loss, I thought this was an entertaining game. Neither side displayed the greatest basketball, but it was competitive throughout, with 19 lead changes, and a thrilling finish at the ends of regulation and overtime. It’s always fun to see the Lakers, with their bevy of big-name players, and one could view the contest as evidence of progress, with the Mavs forcing overtime and coming so close without Luka. I thought they acquitted themselves pretty much as well as the Lakers did, all things considered. 


NEXT. The Mavs will fly to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves for a Sunday match. Luka will not be on the trip, as he will need to stay behind and continue his efforts to get his ankle healed. 

Back to .500, Mavs fans. 

14-14