Mavericks reserve center Richaun Holmes, playing over Dwight Powell with rookie starter Dereck Lively II hurt, is making an impact in his first real rotation minutes this year, writes Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. Lively is dealing with a lower back contusion.
Across 23 minutes in a 104-101 win over the Lakers, Holmes notched 10 rebounds, four points and one block. The 6’10” big man had suited up for a total of 30 minutes across the last five games he had played for Dallas.
“I’m prepared to do whatever the team needs,” Holmes said. “Hopefully Dereck gets back quick. He’s young. It feels like he’s already bouncing around after a hard fall like that, like he’s feeling pretty good… So hopefully he doesn’t miss too much time, but whatever the team needs, I’ll be ready.”
There’s more out of the Lone Star State:
- The Mavericks’ 107-88 blowout loss to the Clippers last night serves as further evidence that the club needs more out of its non-All-Star players, Townsend writes in another piece. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving were the only Dallas players who connected on their field goal tries until 19 minutes into the bout. John Hollinger of The Athletic tweets another damning stat about the Mavs’ supporting cast Saturday. Hollinger notes that, prior to head coach Jason Kidd putting in subs with the game out of hand in the fourth quarter, only two Mavericks buckets were not scored or assisted via the club’s backcourt stars.
- The 8-6 Rockets have enjoyed an ascendant start to their 2023/24 season, and it all started on the defensive side of the floor. Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle details how Houston has developed the league’s top-ranked defense so far this year. A big hallmark of the Rockets’ approach is avoiding help defense except in the case of major mismatches, and being open to switching everywhere.
- Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has seen strides in Jeremy Sochan‘s development as a playmaker, after shifting him to a full-time point guard role this season, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “He’s got to embrace it, and I think he was a little nervous about it … because it was so new to him,” Popovich said. “And I don’t think he understood, or maybe I didn’t do a good enough job of relaying to him, all the responsibilities therein.” As a rookie out of Baylor in 2022/23, the 6’9″ Sochan had served as San Antonio’s starting power forward.