The Dallas Mavericks improved to 2-3 in the season with a 93-83 victory over the Miami Heat on Friday night. Luka Doncic scored almost a double triple for Dallas, with 27 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists. Bam Adebayo was the highlight of the Heat with 19.
Both the Heat and the Mavericks seemed to be suffering from a New Year’s hangover, as neither team managed to score to open the game; the score was only 7-5 after six minutes of action. After a Miami timeout, both teams woke up a little and the Mavericks finished the table with 20-16.
Dallas had problems early on, with problems five times in the first four minutes of action. But Miami was unable to capitalize; a combination of turnovers and bricks resulted in the Heat scoring just 15 points in the entire quarter. The Mavericks found their rhythm in the period, with James Johnson leading the bank unit early in the quarter and Luka Doncic working to end time in a variety of scoring moves. The only real mistake at the break was Doncic scolding the referees for a missed foul to end the break resulting in a technical foul. The Mavericks had a 46-31 lead at halftime.
In a role reversal with Charlotte’s game, the Dallas Mavericks came out in the third quarter and started playing for the Heat. The Mavericks led by up to 24 points, while Miami looked lifeless and unable to stop Dallas. Luka Doncic scored Dallas’s first double of the season with the tenth rebound. The Mavericks had a 73-53 lead in the last twelve minutes.
The Dallas bank unit played like shit to start fourth, which allowed Miami to gain momentum and close the gap enough to make the Mavericks uncomfortable. Maverick holders were not much better, despite having held the Heat long enough to win 93-83.
Now, a few observations:
Winning ugly is better than nothing
Mavericks have a lot of room for improvement and you have to think that at some point things will work out well for this team. The Miami Heat played a horrible game, losing many, many open looks (7 of 33 in the distance), in addition to being quite sloppy with the ball (14 laps). The Mavericks were not much better, delivering the ball 16 times and kicking only 12 of 37 in the three-point streak.
The margin of victory should have been greater, but Dallas became lethargic late and things went snowball, as it used to do last season. At least they won the rebound battle and Dwight Powell contributed some positive statistics.
Mavericks just need to start reaching open looks
Before the game, Luka Doncic had 25 assists credited compared to 58 potential assists according to NBA.com advanced statistics. Many people on social media have assumed that this is very good, but not really considering how many open looks the Dallas attack generates, including and Luka Doncic past.
In four games, the Mavericks hit only 36% of the three wide open (the defender is not less than two meters from the pitcher), the 23rd placed in the league. This is bad and needs to improve. RPG players played this game well, as the Heat was bad in most of the competition, but it is very clear from the body language that Luka is getting tired of seeing his teammates lose their good looks.
Luka Doncic is absurd
FSSW showed a graph after the game that Luka Doncic is now tied with Dirk in 38 games, when a Maverick led the team in points, rebounds and assists. He’s still kicking the ball three terribly, but 19% is better than 12.5% in the year. He looked much better around the basket against the Heat and put several defenders on the rotation cycle. Observe this series of movements:
Then there’s this pass in motion:
That he is so good and there are still so many clear improvements he can make is something I hope to be amazed for years to come. It will get even better around the basket as your conditioning improves too. As soon as his teammates start shooting, he will be serving, the Mavericks may well take off.