The Dallas Mavericks pulled past the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday night in an odd Las Vegas \u201chome\u201d game, winning<\/p>\n
Dallas opted to start the massive line up again with Cooper Flagg at point, along with Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Klay Thompson, and Dereck Lively. Gabe Vincent did not care one bit about the Dallas size and proceeded to hit five threes in succession in the opening minutes. After falling behind by double digits, D\u2019Angelo Russell, Naji Marshall, and Max Christie entered the game and quickly whittled down the Laker lead. Though the Mavericks couldn\u2019t get it all back, they trailed by four after 12 minutes with the Lakers up 36-32.<\/p>\n
The second period was ugly for Dallas. Little offense from the Mavericks paired with less than optimal defense, and Dallas found themselves down double digits again and they really had no answers. The Lakers shooting wasn\u2019t fantastic, but it was significantly better than the Mavericks and any attempt to climb out of the hole was done by transition baskets and free throws, not threes. That meant making real dents in the lead took sustained runs on both ends of the floor and Dallas couldn\u2019t muster anything of the sort. The Mavericks went to half down 66-53.<\/p>\n
Dallas opened the second half with a little more fire and slowly but surely ground down the Laker lead. Given the talent disparity between the two line ups, it seemed unlikely the Mavericks would stay down double digits for another entire half of basketball. Unfortunately for Dallas, despite playing everyone from what should be the regular season rotation, they were not actually able to retake the lead. The Mavericks entered the final frame down 86-84.<\/p>\n
Kidd elected to continue playing starters and rotation players into the fourth and Dallas finally retook the lead around the 10:30 mark as Dereck Lively scored two straight jump hooks. The Mavericks finally pulled the expected regular rotation guys which allowed Brandon Williams and Jaden Hardy to get their shots up. Dallas quickly built a double digit lead as the Laker offense finally died. The scored just 2 points for much of the period, and Dallas ran away with the game, winning 121-94.<\/p>\n
Is this game a preseason blip or a sign of things to come?<\/p>\n
I broadly consider myself a realist though I suspect most readers and listeners would consider me pessimistic in terms of my Dallas Mavericks outlook. So understanding that, if you\u2019re the kind of fan who looks at this game and says \u201cIt\u2019s just preseason\u201d I want you to know I get it and that\u2019s a defensible position.<\/p>\n
But if you watched this game, you have to admit, it felt awful<\/strong>. Dallas was playing all their regular rotation players and it took them 38 minutes of basketball to take a lead over a Los Angeles team that was playing at most 3 guys who will regularly see minutes, let alone a high volume of minutes. The half-court offense, this dribble hand off crud, it sucks. There\u2019s movement for the sake of it, sound and fury signifying nothing, and not near enough space to do anything. Pair that with a dearth of decent shooting and that side of the ball feels gross outside of transition offense. This team, so far, cannot shoot threes.<\/p>\n The defense is touted as the team\u2019s calling card, but right now I don\u2019t see it. I see and understand the vision, but the execution at a high level has to be nearly constant. If the Mavericks\u2019 defense falters, the offense doesn\u2019t have the juice to keep pace. That can, of course, change. But right now it seems that the Dallas path to wins is bludgeon the other team and hope they don\u2019t have the offense to outpace you.<\/p>\n Y<\/strong>ou can listen to <\/strong>our latest podcast episode<\/strong><\/a> in the player embedded below, and to make sure you don\u2019t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Pod Maverick podcast feed on<\/strong> Apple<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Spotify<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Pandora<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Pocketcasts<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>YouTube Podcasts<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> Amazon Music<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Castbox<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n