In a night dedicated to Rick Carlisle, the Mavericks showed him no mercy
The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Indiana Pacers 132-105. The Mavericks began the night with a touching video tribute to Rick Carlisle and his incredible coaching career. The team then showed a killer instinct they during the latter years of Carlisle’s tenure, as they dominated an inferior team.
Here are the stats to know.
34: Number of points by which the Mavericks outscored the Pacers in Luka Doncic’ 32 minutes
Luka is all the way back to his MVP caliber best. He was clearly the best player on the court as he showed why given his positional versatility, it is insane for Andrew Wiggins to start an all star game over him.
Luka chipped in an efficient 30 points, 12 assists and six rebounds. The only negative for him was just 2/7 from the free throw line.
23: Number of points Reggie Bullock scored
Bullock has the best game of his young Mavericks career as he was 8/11 from the floor including 6/8 from three. One game is not enough to declare that Bullock has become the player the Mavericks thought they were signing, but this is a huge step in the right direction.
11: Number of minutes Kristaps Porzingis played
Unfortunately, not everything was positive. The unicorn was only able to play 11 minutes before informing the teams medical staff of discomfort in his knee. Hopefully this is just a blip on the radar but any lower body issue for a player his size, with his injury history is incredibly concerning.
15 and 14: Number of points and rebounds for Maxi Kleber
“Et tu Maxi” Maxi Kleber was one of Carlisle’s guys and along with Dorian Finney-Smith the greatest player development success story of the Carlisle era. He came back to punish his old coach tonight as he had a huge double double.
Overall, the game was a fantastic performance from the team that was only mired by the Porzingis injury. No jarring play was visible so hopefully that will be a minor hiccup in an otherwise very impressive campaign from the unicorn.
Here’s our latest episode of Mavs Moneyball After Dark. If you’re unable to see the embed below, click here to be taken to the podcast directly. Or go to your favorite podcast app and search Mavs Moneyball Podcast.