The Dallas Mavericks (1-3) fell to the Charlotte Hornets (2-2) on Wednesday night, 118-99. Newcomer LaMelo Ball conquered Dallas, scoring 22 points, picking up nine rebounds and giving five assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. was the highlight of the Mavericks at 18.
Dallas joined the Hornets early, drawing fouls and taking a quick lead. This lead was short-lived, as the Mavericks became sloppy and Charlotte went straight to the Mavericks. Five Dallas twists and an excellent Hornets bench game resulted in a 36-29 lead for Charlotte after 12 minutes of action.
A duel of bank units kept things close to the start of the third, with James Johnson and Tim Hardaway leading Dallas. But after waiting half the quarter, the Hornets increased their lead to 15 points with 2:30 remaining. A pair of threes closed the gap for Dallas, but they were unable to capitalize further, despite repeated opportunities. The Mavericks hobbled in the 68-57 range.
Things went from bad to worse very quickly in the third. Dallas gave up five quick points and the Hornets went on to the races. A lifeless Maverick team lacked confidence in attack and awareness in defense. Dallas fell in as many as thirty one points. They had no answers anywhere and looked like a lost team. The Mavericks entered the fourth period behind 98-69.
Few things improved on Wednesday, with the Hornets continuing to score from all over the ground and the Mavericks missing many shots. James Johnson and the Martin brothers started late with Johnson and one of the two Martins being ejected after some extracurricular contact with just under three minutes remaining. The Mavericks lost their first home game in an embarrassing way, 118-99
The pre-season emphasis on defense has been just talk
Before this game, the Mavericks allowed teams to reach the worst 85% of the league in the ring. There were only 36 attempts in three games, but the teams hit 29 of them. Against a team like Hornets, who made the fourth highest number of attempts at the rim in three games, it was absolutely a recipe for the disaster that materialized.
Dallas is very bad at defense and starts with the fact that Dwight Powell is a ballroom door that serves no functional purpose other than to guide where other teams should score. The other starters don’t do themselves any favors, although I enjoy watching Josh Richardson’s guard. The bench is not much better, but with two 1.8m protectors, it is unclear what the Mavericks expect.
Your rotations are bad. They don’t put a consistent effort on rebounds. They don’t have an answer. It was painful to watch three of the four games now.
Make more photos open
File this one in “duh”, but it seemed worrying at first with Luka Doncic giving open looks to each teammate just for early assistance. That sort of thing is bound to happen, but to see Tim Hardaway Jr., Josh Richardson and Dorian Finney-Smith lose the open trio is painful. Dwight Powell being so open under the ledge, but without enough explosion to bury – resulting in a wedgie – was perhaps the most painful moment in the game.
And it got worse. When things got worse in the third, Luka Doncic (who is a terrible 2 out of 21 out of three this season) stopped looking for his own shot unless it was wide open, and continued to make extra passes for no reason. This offense has the potential to be too good for this type of breakdown to be acceptable.
There is no easy solution to these problems
Much of what happens on a basketball court is interrelated and any “fix” comes with different potential consequences. Consider Dwight Powell, who is not a rotating NBA player at the moment; it should probably be placed on the bench, but for which player? Maxi Kleber makes logical sense, but he opens 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 small dose player. This is just an example.
Two teams destroyed the Mavericks in four games. This is very bad. Derek Harper kept referring to the strangeness of this season and looking around the league for all the explosions, there is probably something about it with all kinds of teams and players that don’t seem ready to play.
If we consider this an extended preseason to solve some of the rotation problems, shooting problems or general familiarity with new teammates, that’s fine. But the Western Conference is not one in which any team with aspirations for the playoff can afford to be left behind.
Bonus thing: the court and the uniforms decided
Now that I’m tired of being a disappointed parent, I want to highlight one thing. . . the back court and the classic wooden uniforms looked GREAT. Even the three-dot line was green and left the screen. The Mavericks have been quite averse to green as part of their regular color scheme for whatever reason and they don’t seem to want to do a complete makeover of the brand. That, however, was incredible and I intend to buy as much green equipment from the Mavericks as I can. Just great things.