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The Dallas Mavericks (1-3) fell to the Charlotte Hornets (2-2) on Wednesday night, 118-99. Rookie LaMelo Ball cut through Dallas, scoring 22 points, registering nine rebounds and distributing five assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. was the most important man for the Mavericks at 18 years old.
Dallas entered the Hornets early, shooting fouls and quickly taking the lead. That lead was short-lived as the Mavericks got sloppy and Charlotte took it straight to the Mavericks. Five Dallas turnovers and an outstanding bench play from the Hornets gave Charlotte a 36-29 lead after twelve minutes of action.
A bench-unit duel kept things close to start the third, with James Johnson and Tim Hardaway leading Dallas. But after trailing for half the quarter, the Hornets pushed their lead to 15 points with 2:30 to go. A pair of threes closed the gap for Dallas, but they were unable to capitalize more, despite repeated opportunities. The Mavericks limped until halftime at 68-57.
Things went from bad to worse very quickly in the third. Dallas gave up five quick points and the Hornets were off to the races. A lifeless Maverick team lacked confidence in attacking and awareness of defense. Dallas fell by so many thirty-one points. They had no answer anywhere and looked like a lost team. The Mavericks entered the fourth quarter behind 98-69.
Not much improved in the fourth, with the Hornets continuing to score all around and the Mavericks missing a lot of shots. James Johnson and the Martin brothers arrived late with Johnson and one of the two Martins being kicked out after an extracurricular contact just under three minutes from time. The Mavericks lost their first home game in an embarrassing fashion, 118-99
The focus on defense ahead of the season was just talk
Prior to that game, the Mavericks were allowing teams to shoot 85% of the league’s worst at the rim. It was just 36 attempts in three games, but the teams hit 29. Against a team like the Hornets, which shot the fourth-most attempts at the rim in three games, it was absolutely a recipe for the disaster that materialized.
Dallas is very bad on defense and it starts with Dwight Powell being a living room gate that serves no purpose other than to act as a guide as to where other teams should go to score. The other starters aren’t doing each other any favors, although I like to watch Josh Richardson keep it. The bench isn’t much better, but with two 6-foot-1 guards, it’s not clear what the Mavericks expect.
Their rotations are bad. They don’t put in constant effort on the rebounds. They don’t have an answer. It’s been tough watching three of the four games now.
Hit bigger open shots
Save this one as ‘duh’, but it looked ominous at first with Luka Doncic giving each teammate a wide open look to only have one assist. That sort of thing is bound to swing, but watching Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Richardson, and Dorian Finney-Smith miss three openings is painful. Dwight Powell being so open under the rim but lacking enough of an explosion to dive in – resulting in a wedgie – was perhaps the most painful moment of the match.
And it got worse. As things got worse in the third, Luka Doncic (who is a terrible 2 of 21 of three this season) stopped looking for his own shot unless it was wide open and continued to make extra passes without reason. This offense has the potential to be too good for this kind of collapse to be acceptable.
There is no easy solution to these problems
Much of what happens on a basketball court is interrelated, and any “solution” has different potential consequences. Take Dwight Powell, who isn’t an NBA rotation player at the moment; he should probably be put on the bench but for which player? Maxi Kleber makes logical sense, but it opens up a whole in the second unit. Willie Cauley-Stein should play more, but he makes mistakes in defense (he doesn’t turn to help the assistant, ever) that drive coaches crazy. Boban Marjanovich is a player in small doses. This is just one example.
Two teams blew up the Mavericks in four games. It hurts a lot. Derek Harper has continued to refer to the weirdness of this season and to watch all the breakouts in the league, there’s probably something to that with all kinds of teams and players who just don’t seem ready to play.
If we see this as an extended preseason to sort out some of the rotation issues, shooting issues, or general familiarity with new teammates, that’s fine. But the Western Conference isn’t one where a team with playoff aspirations can afford to fall too far behind.
Bonus: the court and the uniforms have ruled
Now that I’m done being a disappointed dad, I want to stress one thing. . . the back yard and classic hardwood uniforms looked great. Even the three-dot line was green and it came off the screen. The Mavericks have been pretty averse to green as part of their usual color scheme for some reason and they don’t seem to want to make a complete rebranding. This, however, was amazing and I plan to purchase as much of the Green Mavericks gear as possible. Just great stuff.
Here is the post-match podcast, Mavs Moneyball After Dark. If you can’t see the integration below “More Mavs Moneyball”, click here. And if you haven’t already, subscribe by searching for “Mavs Moneyball podcast” in your favorite podcast app.
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