Depleted Mavs Let One Slip Away in Atlanta
Ref Controversy Enrages Cuban
The Mavericks, missing several players, on the second night of a back-to-back, surrendered a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. A controversial call late in the game had the owner issuing a colorful tweet storm.
Game Story
The Mavs rested Luka and KP on the SEGABABA, and WCS was out for personal reasons. Jalen Brunson sprained his shoulder on the first play, and was ruled out for the remainder of the game. That left ten Mavericks dressed, and Carlisle essentially played eight of them, with spot minutes for MKG and Boban. Rick tried a new starting lineup, with Brunson/Curry/THJ/DFS/Maxi, with Wright taking Brunson's place almost immediately.
Deep into the third quarter, I stifled a comfortable yawn and thought this was going to be a pretty humdrum win against an unimpressive Hawks team. Alas, the squad came unglued in the fourth. With a thirteen-point lead early in the period, the team devolved into the fourth-quarter chaos that they have been wont to show in the past. Just a maelstrom of turnovers, missed free throws, offensive rebounds allowed, mini-lineups, and defensive failures.
In the last minute, the Mavs were down 2, and the Hawks had the ball. DFS blocked a layup by Trae Young, but the refs whistled a goaltend. John Collins put the ball back as the players stopped playing. The goaltend, on review, was ruled a clean block. Under the rules, a whistle on an overruled goaltend is considered an inadvertent whistle, resulting in a jump ball. However, after the lengthy review, the referee awarded the put back to Collins, which meant that the Mavs were 4 points down with 9 seconds and a timeout left. That is, the game was essentially over. On a query after the game, a ref took the position that Collins was in a shooting motion when the whistle was blown, so he received a continuation. The Mavs' view of the situation was that the put back occurred after the whistle was blown, which seemed to be borne out by the replays. This foo-fah resulted in some pointed comments by Carlisle and a series of outraged tweets by Cuban.
At any rate, the Mavs took their last timeout, THJ missed a three, and that was that.
Analytics
The Mavericks put up 9 fewer FGAs and 7 fewer FTAs than their opponents. Dallas gave up a terrible 26 points on turnovers. Additionally, their diminutive lineups and poor defense allowed the Hawks to conduct a parade to the basket, earning 66 points in the paint. Yikes. On this occasion, the Mavs' three-point shooting was too mediocre to bail them out (32%), and they missed 6 free throws on top of that. After hanging in for three quarters, poor execution in the fourth did them in.
Players
Seth (38 min) looked fine in the box score, with a 22-6-5 line, and he played some pretty decent defense at times, but he played the entire fourth quarter and scored only 3 points, and had some bad turnovers. A mixed bag, on the night, although he was one of the better Mavs on the court.
Tim (35 min) was the team's leading scorer, with 33 points, including 6 threes, and 5 assists. He had 10 points in the fourth quarter. However, he was trying to lead the charge down the stretch, and in the last 5 minutes, registered 4 missed shots and 2 missed free throws. Although, he did tie the game at 1:08 with a dramatic three-point bank shot, so there is that. Kudos for him for assuming the initiative, and for impressive scoring, but he just can't do what Luka does in clutch situations.
Maxi (30 min) had 8 rebounds and a season-high five blocks. Unfortunately, he fouled out when the ref called a sixth foul on him, missing a kicked ball by Wright. He was essentially the Mavs' only true big man for the game, aside from a 4-minute cameo by Boban, unless we want to count Justin Jackson, who contributed 10 points and 8 boards in 27 minutes off the bench.
Wright and Barea acted as point guards, and combined for 22 points, 10 boards, and 7 assists.
Hawks. Trae Young got off to a slow start, but ultimately came alive, and burned the Mavs with 25 points and 10 assists. Dallas double-teamed Young quite a bit, and looked they might be daring John Collins to beat them. Which he did, putting up 35 points and 17 boards. Ouch. Old friend Vince Carter did not score in 11 minutes off the bench.
Remarks
Carlisle ragged on for a while in his presser about the controversial play at the end. He also noted that his team was undermanned and ran out of gas to an extent in the fourth, but commended them for fighting to the bitter end.
Hardaway drew praise from the FSSW crew, who opined that Tim will be key to any advancement in the playoffs. KP and Luka are likely to be defended tightly, and the team needs a third option who can be counted on for 20-ish points a game.
I found this game a little frustrating, even though it probably wasn't all that important in the grand scheme, as it seemed another incidence of the Mavs beating themselves at the end. I hate bad refereeing as much as the next fan, but we should be under no illusion that the Mavs lost the game due to the zebras. They just weren't sharp for 48 minutes. However, I don't think there is any point in going into any deep analysis of this one, as this was pretty much a bunch of patched-together lineups which will hopefully not be representative of any normal rotation. I hesitate to say this, because I think the players on the court did fight hard, but on a bigger organizational level, I think the Mavs more or less phoned this winnable match in, for reasons that must have made sense to them. So, on to the next one, I guess.
Next. The Mavs face the Wolves Monday night. Hopefully, Luka, KP, and WCS will all be ready to play.
Go Mavs!
Ref Controversy Enrages Cuban
The Mavericks, missing several players, on the second night of a back-to-back, surrendered a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. A controversial call late in the game had the owner issuing a colorful tweet storm.
Game Story
The Mavs rested Luka and KP on the SEGABABA, and WCS was out for personal reasons. Jalen Brunson sprained his shoulder on the first play, and was ruled out for the remainder of the game. That left ten Mavericks dressed, and Carlisle essentially played eight of them, with spot minutes for MKG and Boban. Rick tried a new starting lineup, with Brunson/Curry/THJ/DFS/Maxi, with Wright taking Brunson's place almost immediately.
Deep into the third quarter, I stifled a comfortable yawn and thought this was going to be a pretty humdrum win against an unimpressive Hawks team. Alas, the squad came unglued in the fourth. With a thirteen-point lead early in the period, the team devolved into the fourth-quarter chaos that they have been wont to show in the past. Just a maelstrom of turnovers, missed free throws, offensive rebounds allowed, mini-lineups, and defensive failures.
In the last minute, the Mavs were down 2, and the Hawks had the ball. DFS blocked a layup by Trae Young, but the refs whistled a goaltend. John Collins put the ball back as the players stopped playing. The goaltend, on review, was ruled a clean block. Under the rules, a whistle on an overruled goaltend is considered an inadvertent whistle, resulting in a jump ball. However, after the lengthy review, the referee awarded the put back to Collins, which meant that the Mavs were 4 points down with 9 seconds and a timeout left. That is, the game was essentially over. On a query after the game, a ref took the position that Collins was in a shooting motion when the whistle was blown, so he received a continuation. The Mavs' view of the situation was that the put back occurred after the whistle was blown, which seemed to be borne out by the replays. This foo-fah resulted in some pointed comments by Carlisle and a series of outraged tweets by Cuban.
At any rate, the Mavs took their last timeout, THJ missed a three, and that was that.
Analytics
The Mavericks put up 9 fewer FGAs and 7 fewer FTAs than their opponents. Dallas gave up a terrible 26 points on turnovers. Additionally, their diminutive lineups and poor defense allowed the Hawks to conduct a parade to the basket, earning 66 points in the paint. Yikes. On this occasion, the Mavs' three-point shooting was too mediocre to bail them out (32%), and they missed 6 free throws on top of that. After hanging in for three quarters, poor execution in the fourth did them in.
Players
Seth (38 min) looked fine in the box score, with a 22-6-5 line, and he played some pretty decent defense at times, but he played the entire fourth quarter and scored only 3 points, and had some bad turnovers. A mixed bag, on the night, although he was one of the better Mavs on the court.
Tim (35 min) was the team's leading scorer, with 33 points, including 6 threes, and 5 assists. He had 10 points in the fourth quarter. However, he was trying to lead the charge down the stretch, and in the last 5 minutes, registered 4 missed shots and 2 missed free throws. Although, he did tie the game at 1:08 with a dramatic three-point bank shot, so there is that. Kudos for him for assuming the initiative, and for impressive scoring, but he just can't do what Luka does in clutch situations.
Maxi (30 min) had 8 rebounds and a season-high five blocks. Unfortunately, he fouled out when the ref called a sixth foul on him, missing a kicked ball by Wright. He was essentially the Mavs' only true big man for the game, aside from a 4-minute cameo by Boban, unless we want to count Justin Jackson, who contributed 10 points and 8 boards in 27 minutes off the bench.
Wright and Barea acted as point guards, and combined for 22 points, 10 boards, and 7 assists.
Hawks. Trae Young got off to a slow start, but ultimately came alive, and burned the Mavs with 25 points and 10 assists. Dallas double-teamed Young quite a bit, and looked they might be daring John Collins to beat them. Which he did, putting up 35 points and 17 boards. Ouch. Old friend Vince Carter did not score in 11 minutes off the bench.
Remarks
Carlisle ragged on for a while in his presser about the controversial play at the end. He also noted that his team was undermanned and ran out of gas to an extent in the fourth, but commended them for fighting to the bitter end.
Hardaway drew praise from the FSSW crew, who opined that Tim will be key to any advancement in the playoffs. KP and Luka are likely to be defended tightly, and the team needs a third option who can be counted on for 20-ish points a game.
I found this game a little frustrating, even though it probably wasn't all that important in the grand scheme, as it seemed another incidence of the Mavs beating themselves at the end. I hate bad refereeing as much as the next fan, but we should be under no illusion that the Mavs lost the game due to the zebras. They just weren't sharp for 48 minutes. However, I don't think there is any point in going into any deep analysis of this one, as this was pretty much a bunch of patched-together lineups which will hopefully not be representative of any normal rotation. I hesitate to say this, because I think the players on the court did fight hard, but on a bigger organizational level, I think the Mavs more or less phoned this winnable match in, for reasons that must have made sense to them. So, on to the next one, I guess.
Next. The Mavs face the Wolves Monday night. Hopefully, Luka, KP, and WCS will all be ready to play.
Go Mavs!