Mavs 101, Jazz 120

[Dahlsim]

After the game, Luka observed that the team is “terrible” now. 

"There’s really not much to say. I never felt like this. We’ve got to do something, because this is not looking good. We’ve got to step up and just talk to each other and play way better than this. It’s mostly effort." 

...

KP has looked so bad lately that I wonder if he is nursing some kind of lingering injury. Doris remarked that he looks like a shell of himself. ...

Doris and Mike ...While they had a view that you can only get by on excuses for so long, they also pointed out that the Mavs are having some REALLY bad luck. Trying to integrate a bunch of guys who have missed half the season, including some who are still recovering from injury or may still be experiencing long-term effects from a respiratory virus, at high altitude, against one of the best teams in the league, with the second game of a back-to-back arriving in about 16 hours, pretty much has an L written all over it for any team. 
...

Okay, folks, that one’s in the books. Maybe we can take a step forward against the Suns. Hasta la vista, MFFLs!

That's quite a write up for such a turrible game ML.  Kudos for not mailing it in.   

Quick thoughts. Luka has grown up a star and been able to carry all his teams to high quality.  When he says 'I never felt like this' I get the sense he might be getting his first real taste of adversity, at least as an athlete.  Might not be all bad. 

KP, something's going on there.  A real mystery when you combine his play and his comments with now skipping out on the media.  

The pandemic season is over all the teams but its also true that its not affecting every team evenly, not even close.  Mavs had not only quarantines but a significant group of their core rotation with the virus itself.  They evidently also were not limited to asymptomatic and very mild cases.  So yeah, its not evenly distributed across the teams at any given time.  There's a large pandemic luck of the draw factor. 

The long term effect thing, well that has to be downright concerning for the league and players since there's really quite bit unknown on that subject.  Its part of the risk the players and league accepted by playing this season, without a bubble. 

Pandemic schedule, many game in few days, pandemic travel, high altitude against hot teams and onto the next. Its brutal but what else could they really do?