Do you know that the saying about hitting a bottom, and how the only way to reach it, is higher first? Well, the Dallas Mavericks are currently hanging out on the ocean floor as a six-game losing streak has pushed them further out of the playoffs in the West Conference.
The latest setback – a one-point strike in the hands of a Devin Booker 3-pointer in the final seconds of the fourth quarter to give the Phoenix Suns a three-game drive from the Mavericks – was the final setback for a team which came with a quarter of the season in the books far behind expectations, as the margin of error shrinks further.
Over the course of the losing streak, the lack of energy was the overarching reason the players and coaches argued why the team was struggling. With the franchise center, Luka Doncic once said: ‘ it seems we do not carehonestly, whether we win games or not. “Hard – but true – words from the young superstar of the team. A 19-point loss in the hands of the Jazz in the second game of a two-game series with Utah shows that.
No matter how grim it looks at 8-13 and 13th in the West entering the game against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday, there is reason to believe that the Mavs can still get back on track. To begin with, Monday’s game against the Phoenix Suns was the first time Dallas had its entire roster available in 425 days; it last achieved the feat on December 4, 2019. The Mavericks were one of the teams hit hardest after a COVID-19 outbreak, which resulted in five players being sidelined for three weeks, all of whom are regular rotation players. .
This may sound like an excuse, as several teams across the league have had to endure similar storms from COVID-19 – the Miami Heat, in a similar situation, are only 7-13 after winning the East, but Dallas has not a large part of the list for a long time suppresses any continuity or chemistry that this team would otherwise have built if it had not been interrupted by the virus.
There were four Mavericks players starting in every game they played this season – Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis, Dorian Finney-Smith and Josh Richardson. However, this group only played three matches together for 44 minutes. Quite difficult to get each other on the floor when such key players were out at different times.
Lack of chemistry on the floor can lead to decay on both sides, which can become incredibly expensive. One example is that Richardson does not fight hard enough to bypass a screen to prevent Porzingis Booker from having to control the wing during a core possession:
However, this does not mean that the Mavericks are absent from any problems outside of health and chemistry. They are in different statistical categories near the bottom of the league and have taken a significant step back in their spot-up shooting.
|
3-point percentage |
32.8% |
30th |
|
Rebounds / Game |
42.6 |
28th |
|
Offensive rating |
109.0 |
21st |
|
Defensive rating |
110.9 |
19th |
|
Help percentage |
51.1% |
28th |
|
Opponent second chances |
14.0 |
25th |
A season ago, the Mavericks were the fourth best team in the league to jump batsmen, generating 1,061 points per possession, according to Synergy Sports Technology. This year they are number 27 in the same category. Some of this has to do with changing staff in the off-season, as Dallas swapped sharpshooter Seth Curry for Richardson’s two-way ability. Curry is a plug-and-play man, someone who can perform in any environment because of his shooting ability. Curry fired off some big shots from Dallas for Doncic last season for an open look.
However, Richardson did not achieve the same success. He is taking a career down from deep (28.6 percent), and many of his misses come wide open. Maybe he’s not used to the amount of space he’s given the chance to play, as last season with Philadelphia only 17 percent of his 3s were open, compared to 25 percent this season. It is fair to say that he still feels his teammates, and he is not the only player struggling from deep.
Finney-Smith returned to what he normally shoots outside the arc (32.2 percent), after shooting a career high of 37.6 percent from the 3-point range a season ago. Porzingis, who despite having played in ten games so far this season, has yet to touch his depth. He consistently slammed shots from the front of the edge, an indication he was still struggling to get his legs under him.
Then there’s Doncic, who despite his stellar numbers across the board (27.3 points, 9.4 assists, 9.0 rebounds) shoots just 29.3 percent from outside the arc on seven attempts per game. There are 28 guys in the league who score seven or more tries per game, and Doncic is in last place among shooting percentages.
However, the lid cannot stay on the basket forever. At some point, Doncic and the Mavericks will definitely start hitting shots. It’s not like guys are not holding out well – 19 percent of their three-point attempts come wide open. They simply do not make it. Doncic is putting his teammates in an excellent position to put points on the board as he is second in the league in potential assistants (17.8), right between James Harden and Chris Paul, and third in the league in the points created (23.5). If teammates started making just half of Doncic’s passes, Dallas would be in a much better position.
If there is one moral victory to be achieved in Dallas’ current slump, it is that four of its six losses have been decided by six or fewer points. It would be a different story if the Mavs were to blow out in each of these losses, but they stay in games – sometimes they lead – but could not bring together four solid quarters.
Dallas has not been criticized, especially not because of the amount of pre-season hype surrounding the team – with many people predicting that this team would end up in the top five in the West. But there is still time to achieve a victory and get back into the play-off picture before deciding. However, now is the time for the Mavs to start picking up victories. The next month of their schedule consists of opponents who have a combined record of 119-127 (.483 winning percentage). If they do not profit from it, their chances of winning the play-off battle will be greatly reduced, and we can have the conversation about who should be traded to improve this team.