MAVS SURRENDER TO WIZARDS IN THE CLUTCH
The Mavericks returned from their four-game road trip to face the Wiz at the AAC. The Wizards came in tied for fourth in the east, at 12-7. It was a stirring contest, but the Mavs gave up the ghost in the last few minutes.
GAME NOTES
The Wizards were on the second night of a back-to-back, while the Mavs had been resting since Wednesday night. Brunson (foot) was out after his injury in the last game, but was able to practice in the interim. The French Prince (calf) remained on the injured list. Reggie Bullock returned to action after a brief illness. Kidd went with the “new” starting lineup — Luka-THJ-DFS-KP-Willie.
FIRST QUARTER
Willie is first on the board with a put back. Followed by a Luka drive and score. Luka again! A third Luka drive results in free throws. An attacking demon! However, he misses both FTA. KP fights to the basket and draws a shooting foul. Mavs are very much operating in the paint so far. The Wiz have the same idea. DFS with a nifty transition move. Luka called for a foul, jawing at the refs. KCP is teed up. KP misses the technical free throw, to the vocal disappointment of the crowd. Gafford with a slam over Willie. Now Willie is called for an offensive foul, for a moving screen. That is his second foul. Powell comes in for him. Wow, Luka with a three-pointer over Gafford! Luka-THJ connection results in a basket. Out of 23 combined FGA for the two teams, only 4 have been threes, and each team completed one. Very unusual. 15-19 6:34
KP draws more free throws. Has been very good at drawing fouls this season. Luka ties the game with another dance to the cup. Maxi tries to draw a charge on Beal, gets called for a blocking foul. Kidd challenges, to the delight of the arena. 19-21 5:20
Challenge unsuccessful. Both of these teams getting to the basket like there’s no tomorrow. Kleber has a basket after an OR, after missing a three. Bullock misses a three, but Powell draws a shooting foul on the OR. Two for two. Luka hits from Mexico! Bullock misses an open three from Luka. Bullock misses a corner three. With KP off the floor, Reggie takes the free throw when Washington gets a defensive three-second call. Luka-Maxi alley oop. Maxi with a scoop to the hoop. Wow. Unusual move from #42! KP goes to work in the post! Oh man, Kuzma with a straight-line drive to the basket for an and-one. Burke too small to stop him.
36-41 after one
Very high-scoring quarter here. With so many attempts in the paint, shooting percentages are really high (Wiz 70, Mavs 59). Luka leads Dallas with 15 points. Beal has 13 for DC.
SECOND QUARTER
Looks like Luka has picked up a knock to his knee. Getting a little treatment on the bench. Burke running the second unit. Trey stops and pops. Hardaway steal results in a Burke pull-up. Kleber from downtown! But Wiz making mincemeat of our paint defenders. Maxi puts back a Burke miss. Maxi with an 11-point burst! 45-47 8:59
Porzingis over the Wiz interior defenders, ties the game. KP draws a couple of non-shooting fouls, looking very good. Sterling with a mid-range J, gives the lead back to Dallas. Burke from way out, off a KP pass. Burke-Kleber lob-dunk. KP blocks a shot. Harrell leaks out and has an uncontested bucket. Burke with another jumper. Bench looking good here. Willie with a soaring dunk from Luka. 58-51 4:53
Tim fouls Beal on a 3PTA. Luka over Avdija. DFS three from KP, who stole the rock from a guard! THJ for a slam! Gafford dunk over three Mavs. KP responds with a bucket from Luka. KP gets away a jumper to end the half.
69-61 HT
Mavs win the second quarter, 33-20. Dameris credits the Dallas bench for demolishing the Wizards second unit, 18-2. The Mavs bench, which has looked excellent, even outscored the Dallas starters 18-15, for a different look. Burke and Maxi combined for 16.
For the half overall, both teams shooting over 50%. The game has been fast-moving and has featured 6 lead changes. Wiz have lost 10 points to turnovers. Luka leads the Mavs with 17 points, Maxi and KP follow with 13 and 12. Beal has 17 for the opponent.
THIRD QUARTER
Luka-Willie alley oop blocked. Luka being knocked around, draws free throws. Completes both. Willie challenges a at the basket — that seems like a fine idea. Hardaway with a baseline drive is knocked to the floor, clutching his head after taking an elbow. Oof, msses both freebies. DFS from the sideline! Beal with an unforced turnover out of bounds. Luka lobs to Willie, who drops the ball and loses it out of bounds. Aargh. Kidd takes him out of the game. Dallas continues to offer virtually zero resistance at the rim. 76-74 6:54
Kuzma takes the lead back with a three. Powell responds with two free throws. Bullock finally hits a three off an extra pass. 81-80 5:08
Open three in the corner by Neto. Luka with his second pass out of bounds. Luka with a bank shot over Kuzma. Mavs force a shot-clock violation. Luka ties the game with a little jumper in the post. Sterling wide open three takes back the lead. Wiz are scoring in the paint possession after possession. Bullock with a corner three from KP!
93-91 after three
It’s anybody’s game now.
FOURTH QUARTER
Spectacular block by Maxi, followed by spectacular three by Trey! WOW! Harrell hits a desperation three — his second of the season. Burke free throws take Trey to a season high in scoring. Wiz have taken the lead here. 99-101 8:18
THJ knocked to the floor by Beal again. That’s the fourth on Beal, and a hard fall for Tim. Sterling three sends the crowd into raptures. Luka on the sideline arguing with the ref. THJ with a transition three from Luka draws an ovation. 105-104 4:57
Kuzma too-easy layup over Maxi. Reggie misses a corner three. Gafford dunk over KP. Luka takes advantage of single coverage. Neto turns the ball over. Luka three is short. Luka called for his fourth foul. He and the crowd are furious. Luka with a drive to the hoop ties the game. Kuzma three coming off an offensive rebound. Yikes. 109-112 1:33
Luka pulls up for a three, misses. Gafford dunk off a missed three. THJ from the side! KCP pulls up and hits. Dang. 112-116 29 seconds
Luka works inside and hits. Mavs intentionally foul KCP. He completes both FTA. Luka misses a three. Review determines that KP fouled Kuzma with .7 seconds left on the clock. Kuzma ends the game, hittng both attempts.
114-120 FT
Heck.
ANALYSIS
Dallas had a poor fourth quarter, scoring only 21 points and shooting only 30%. The Wiz, on the other hand, had 29 points on 62% shooting, and out-rebounded our team 15-7. Mavs couldn’t get stops down the stretch, gave up offensive rebounds, and couldn’t score. Kuzma turned it on with 10 points in the fourth. Wiz shot 67% on two-point shots. There's your ball game.
From the standpoint of the contest overall, the Mavs put up 11 more shots than the Wiz, including 14 more 3PTA, but didn’t shoot well enough to take advantage (47%, compared to 58% from Washington). Maverick point differentials were -16 on points from twos, +15 on points from threes, and -5 on made free throws. Dallas allowed Washington an appalling 60 points in the paint.
The Mavs were out-rebounded 43-35, out-assisted 28-23, and gave up 16 points off turnovers.
The bench contributed tonight, with 42 points and season scoring highs from Maxi, Burke, and Sterling. Their run at the end of the first half gave Dallas their biggest lead. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to sustain that performance through the second half.
PLAYER NOTES
DONCIC (37 MIN). Luka led all scorers with 33 points (13-25), and also boasted 10 dimes. He looked closer to his superstar self tonight, particularly in the first half. Posting up a lot more, and driving to the hole more often against a team with little rim protection. Despite the loss, I liked what I saw from him.
PORZINGIS (36). KP looked very good in some aspects of his game, but faded in the second half, scoring only one point on 0-6 shooting in the last 24. Overall, he ended his 7-game stretch with at least 20 points, putting up 13 points on 4-12 shooting. He did draw a team-high 6 free throws, making five. He also had 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Defensively, he was part of our big-man welcoming crew, showing the Wiz their way to the basket. SMH.
HARDAWAY (36). Tim had another rough shooting night, accumulating 10 points on 4-12 shooting. Some of the shots he made were dramatic, but he missed some very good looks. I hope he gets out of this slump soon.
KLEBER (30). Maxi had a good scoring stretch, and recorded 13 points (6-9) and 6 boards. The Burke-Kleber connection was working fine. That breathtaking sequence with the Maxi block and the Burke three was named the What-a-Burger play of the day.
DFS (29). Dorian got a relative breather of a game after his 49-minute stint in LA. He had 8 points (3-5) and 4 boards, and was moderately effective in limiting Beal.
BULLOCK (28). Reggie hit a couple of dramatic threes, but overall, had only 7 points on 2-7 shooting. We're only 18 games in, but I am already starting to fear that this guy will be the next Josh Richardson. Prove me wrong, Reggie!
MENTIONS. The Bally studio crew thought that STERLING (13) may have had his breakout game of the season with 8 points, including two threes and 5 boards. Hope so. BURKE (11) bravely stepped up in the absence of his fellow backup point guards, recording season highs in both points (14) and assists (4) in 11 minutes. He was 5-7 from the floor. Kudos, young man! WILLIE started the game, but played only 10 minutes, registering 4 points (2-6), 3 boards, 2 blocks and 2 turnovers. POWELL had 4 points in 10 minutes.
BOBAN, MOSES, and GREEN were DNP-CDs.
WIZARDS. Bradley Beal led his team with 26 points (10-14) and 7 assists. That was said not to be an especially outstanding night by his standards. Kuzma came on strong in the fourth quarter, and gave his squad 22 points and 9 boards. KCP had 16 points and 6 rebounds. Daniel Gafford did the Wiz proud with 14 points and 10 boards on 6-9 shooting. The Bally crew considered him the unsung hero for the Wiz. Neto (13) and Harrell (11) were also in double figures.
OBSERVATIONS
Kidd appeared disappointed. Said the Mavs started sluggishly and didn’t put up much defensive resistance, but then neither did the Wiz. So the game turned into a shoot-out. And in that type of game, you have to make shots, and we didn’t, and they did.
A reporter asked if pulling Willie after ten minutes indicated anything for the starting lineup going forward. Kidd said no, they will continue to look at starting lineups, but observed that he doesn't know why people are so obsessed with starting lineups. Said starting doesn't indicate anything in particular, is not any special honor, and that he doesn’t hand out stickers for being in the starting unit. Okay, then.
The Bally studio guys said the loss came down to the Mavs not being able to execute down the stretch. Said that Kidd blamed it on their failure to score, but the crew thought it also had something to do with not defending or rebounding either. Ouch!
This game was pretty entertaining, with lots of offense, 21 lead changes, and a clutch situation at the end. I was disappointed in the final result, as I thought the Mavs had it in them to come out of it with a win. My overall takeaway from the game was just how extreme our lack of rim protection is, with the Wiz getting layups and dunks over and over and over. We’re not going anywhere if we can’t do any better than this.
Well. So much for that.
NEXT. The Mavs face Cleveland on Monday at the AAC. Hope they can get it together.
The Mavericks returned from their four-game road trip to face the Wiz at the AAC. The Wizards came in tied for fourth in the east, at 12-7. It was a stirring contest, but the Mavs gave up the ghost in the last few minutes.
GAME NOTES
The Wizards were on the second night of a back-to-back, while the Mavs had been resting since Wednesday night. Brunson (foot) was out after his injury in the last game, but was able to practice in the interim. The French Prince (calf) remained on the injured list. Reggie Bullock returned to action after a brief illness. Kidd went with the “new” starting lineup — Luka-THJ-DFS-KP-Willie.
FIRST QUARTER
Willie is first on the board with a put back. Followed by a Luka drive and score. Luka again! A third Luka drive results in free throws. An attacking demon! However, he misses both FTA. KP fights to the basket and draws a shooting foul. Mavs are very much operating in the paint so far. The Wiz have the same idea. DFS with a nifty transition move. Luka called for a foul, jawing at the refs. KCP is teed up. KP misses the technical free throw, to the vocal disappointment of the crowd. Gafford with a slam over Willie. Now Willie is called for an offensive foul, for a moving screen. That is his second foul. Powell comes in for him. Wow, Luka with a three-pointer over Gafford! Luka-THJ connection results in a basket. Out of 23 combined FGA for the two teams, only 4 have been threes, and each team completed one. Very unusual. 15-19 6:34
KP draws more free throws. Has been very good at drawing fouls this season. Luka ties the game with another dance to the cup. Maxi tries to draw a charge on Beal, gets called for a blocking foul. Kidd challenges, to the delight of the arena. 19-21 5:20
Challenge unsuccessful. Both of these teams getting to the basket like there’s no tomorrow. Kleber has a basket after an OR, after missing a three. Bullock misses a three, but Powell draws a shooting foul on the OR. Two for two. Luka hits from Mexico! Bullock misses an open three from Luka. Bullock misses a corner three. With KP off the floor, Reggie takes the free throw when Washington gets a defensive three-second call. Luka-Maxi alley oop. Maxi with a scoop to the hoop. Wow. Unusual move from #42! KP goes to work in the post! Oh man, Kuzma with a straight-line drive to the basket for an and-one. Burke too small to stop him.
36-41 after one
Very high-scoring quarter here. With so many attempts in the paint, shooting percentages are really high (Wiz 70, Mavs 59). Luka leads Dallas with 15 points. Beal has 13 for DC.
SECOND QUARTER
Looks like Luka has picked up a knock to his knee. Getting a little treatment on the bench. Burke running the second unit. Trey stops and pops. Hardaway steal results in a Burke pull-up. Kleber from downtown! But Wiz making mincemeat of our paint defenders. Maxi puts back a Burke miss. Maxi with an 11-point burst! 45-47 8:59
Porzingis over the Wiz interior defenders, ties the game. KP draws a couple of non-shooting fouls, looking very good. Sterling with a mid-range J, gives the lead back to Dallas. Burke from way out, off a KP pass. Burke-Kleber lob-dunk. KP blocks a shot. Harrell leaks out and has an uncontested bucket. Burke with another jumper. Bench looking good here. Willie with a soaring dunk from Luka. 58-51 4:53
Tim fouls Beal on a 3PTA. Luka over Avdija. DFS three from KP, who stole the rock from a guard! THJ for a slam! Gafford dunk over three Mavs. KP responds with a bucket from Luka. KP gets away a jumper to end the half.
69-61 HT
Mavs win the second quarter, 33-20. Dameris credits the Dallas bench for demolishing the Wizards second unit, 18-2. The Mavs bench, which has looked excellent, even outscored the Dallas starters 18-15, for a different look. Burke and Maxi combined for 16.
For the half overall, both teams shooting over 50%. The game has been fast-moving and has featured 6 lead changes. Wiz have lost 10 points to turnovers. Luka leads the Mavs with 17 points, Maxi and KP follow with 13 and 12. Beal has 17 for the opponent.
THIRD QUARTER
Luka-Willie alley oop blocked. Luka being knocked around, draws free throws. Completes both. Willie challenges a at the basket — that seems like a fine idea. Hardaway with a baseline drive is knocked to the floor, clutching his head after taking an elbow. Oof, msses both freebies. DFS from the sideline! Beal with an unforced turnover out of bounds. Luka lobs to Willie, who drops the ball and loses it out of bounds. Aargh. Kidd takes him out of the game. Dallas continues to offer virtually zero resistance at the rim. 76-74 6:54
Kuzma takes the lead back with a three. Powell responds with two free throws. Bullock finally hits a three off an extra pass. 81-80 5:08
Open three in the corner by Neto. Luka with his second pass out of bounds. Luka with a bank shot over Kuzma. Mavs force a shot-clock violation. Luka ties the game with a little jumper in the post. Sterling wide open three takes back the lead. Wiz are scoring in the paint possession after possession. Bullock with a corner three from KP!
93-91 after three
It’s anybody’s game now.
FOURTH QUARTER
Spectacular block by Maxi, followed by spectacular three by Trey! WOW! Harrell hits a desperation three — his second of the season. Burke free throws take Trey to a season high in scoring. Wiz have taken the lead here. 99-101 8:18
THJ knocked to the floor by Beal again. That’s the fourth on Beal, and a hard fall for Tim. Sterling three sends the crowd into raptures. Luka on the sideline arguing with the ref. THJ with a transition three from Luka draws an ovation. 105-104 4:57
Kuzma too-easy layup over Maxi. Reggie misses a corner three. Gafford dunk over KP. Luka takes advantage of single coverage. Neto turns the ball over. Luka three is short. Luka called for his fourth foul. He and the crowd are furious. Luka with a drive to the hoop ties the game. Kuzma three coming off an offensive rebound. Yikes. 109-112 1:33
Luka pulls up for a three, misses. Gafford dunk off a missed three. THJ from the side! KCP pulls up and hits. Dang. 112-116 29 seconds
Luka works inside and hits. Mavs intentionally foul KCP. He completes both FTA. Luka misses a three. Review determines that KP fouled Kuzma with .7 seconds left on the clock. Kuzma ends the game, hittng both attempts.
114-120 FT
Heck.
ANALYSIS
Dallas had a poor fourth quarter, scoring only 21 points and shooting only 30%. The Wiz, on the other hand, had 29 points on 62% shooting, and out-rebounded our team 15-7. Mavs couldn’t get stops down the stretch, gave up offensive rebounds, and couldn’t score. Kuzma turned it on with 10 points in the fourth. Wiz shot 67% on two-point shots. There's your ball game.
From the standpoint of the contest overall, the Mavs put up 11 more shots than the Wiz, including 14 more 3PTA, but didn’t shoot well enough to take advantage (47%, compared to 58% from Washington). Maverick point differentials were -16 on points from twos, +15 on points from threes, and -5 on made free throws. Dallas allowed Washington an appalling 60 points in the paint.
The Mavs were out-rebounded 43-35, out-assisted 28-23, and gave up 16 points off turnovers.
The bench contributed tonight, with 42 points and season scoring highs from Maxi, Burke, and Sterling. Their run at the end of the first half gave Dallas their biggest lead. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to sustain that performance through the second half.
PLAYER NOTES
DONCIC (37 MIN). Luka led all scorers with 33 points (13-25), and also boasted 10 dimes. He looked closer to his superstar self tonight, particularly in the first half. Posting up a lot more, and driving to the hole more often against a team with little rim protection. Despite the loss, I liked what I saw from him.
PORZINGIS (36). KP looked very good in some aspects of his game, but faded in the second half, scoring only one point on 0-6 shooting in the last 24. Overall, he ended his 7-game stretch with at least 20 points, putting up 13 points on 4-12 shooting. He did draw a team-high 6 free throws, making five. He also had 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Defensively, he was part of our big-man welcoming crew, showing the Wiz their way to the basket. SMH.
HARDAWAY (36). Tim had another rough shooting night, accumulating 10 points on 4-12 shooting. Some of the shots he made were dramatic, but he missed some very good looks. I hope he gets out of this slump soon.
KLEBER (30). Maxi had a good scoring stretch, and recorded 13 points (6-9) and 6 boards. The Burke-Kleber connection was working fine. That breathtaking sequence with the Maxi block and the Burke three was named the What-a-Burger play of the day.
DFS (29). Dorian got a relative breather of a game after his 49-minute stint in LA. He had 8 points (3-5) and 4 boards, and was moderately effective in limiting Beal.
BULLOCK (28). Reggie hit a couple of dramatic threes, but overall, had only 7 points on 2-7 shooting. We're only 18 games in, but I am already starting to fear that this guy will be the next Josh Richardson. Prove me wrong, Reggie!
MENTIONS. The Bally studio crew thought that STERLING (13) may have had his breakout game of the season with 8 points, including two threes and 5 boards. Hope so. BURKE (11) bravely stepped up in the absence of his fellow backup point guards, recording season highs in both points (14) and assists (4) in 11 minutes. He was 5-7 from the floor. Kudos, young man! WILLIE started the game, but played only 10 minutes, registering 4 points (2-6), 3 boards, 2 blocks and 2 turnovers. POWELL had 4 points in 10 minutes.
BOBAN, MOSES, and GREEN were DNP-CDs.
WIZARDS. Bradley Beal led his team with 26 points (10-14) and 7 assists. That was said not to be an especially outstanding night by his standards. Kuzma came on strong in the fourth quarter, and gave his squad 22 points and 9 boards. KCP had 16 points and 6 rebounds. Daniel Gafford did the Wiz proud with 14 points and 10 boards on 6-9 shooting. The Bally crew considered him the unsung hero for the Wiz. Neto (13) and Harrell (11) were also in double figures.
OBSERVATIONS
Kidd appeared disappointed. Said the Mavs started sluggishly and didn’t put up much defensive resistance, but then neither did the Wiz. So the game turned into a shoot-out. And in that type of game, you have to make shots, and we didn’t, and they did.
A reporter asked if pulling Willie after ten minutes indicated anything for the starting lineup going forward. Kidd said no, they will continue to look at starting lineups, but observed that he doesn't know why people are so obsessed with starting lineups. Said starting doesn't indicate anything in particular, is not any special honor, and that he doesn’t hand out stickers for being in the starting unit. Okay, then.
The Bally studio guys said the loss came down to the Mavs not being able to execute down the stretch. Said that Kidd blamed it on their failure to score, but the crew thought it also had something to do with not defending or rebounding either. Ouch!
This game was pretty entertaining, with lots of offense, 21 lead changes, and a clutch situation at the end. I was disappointed in the final result, as I thought the Mavs had it in them to come out of it with a win. My overall takeaway from the game was just how extreme our lack of rim protection is, with the Wiz getting layups and dunks over and over and over. We’re not going anywhere if we can’t do any better than this.
Well. So much for that.
NEXT. The Mavs face Cleveland on Monday at the AAC. Hope they can get it together.
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