Dallas beat Toronto, but these boneheaded plays are going to be the death of me
The Mavericks beat the Toronto Raptors Saturday night, a solid enough win to shake the bad vibes from the disastrous loss against the Hawks on Thursday. It was ugly, but it was a win.
I’m not here to really discuss the game at large, since I don’t really have much to say about it other than “oh hey all that dumb stuff the Mavericks did against the Hawks that I wrote about? They stopped doing that in the second half and won.” What I am here to talk about, though, are two plays in the first quarter that made my blood pressure spike, and if the Mavericks win every single game from now until the sun explodes in a billion years, I will still be upset if these types of plays keep happening every game.
I’m talking once again about the awkward spacing of Kristaps Porzingis and Dwight Powell. It was a train wreck against the Hawks on Thursday and against the Raptors, that duo submitted two more beauties.
First, here is Powell and Porzingis both rolling to the rim at the exact same time. Shockingly, Luka Doncic misses a contested shot in the lane.
Second, here is Powell and Doncic running a pick and roll while Porzingis is posting up and Powell dives straight into the Porzingis post up, causing a turnover.
Bad Mavericks, bad! Cut this crap out! I’m willing to look at this with the glass-half-full view of the team learning a new scheme that involves more cutting and off-ball movement than this roster is used to, so the timing of these movements is a little off. Things should get better. I’m not a fan of Jason Kidd as a coach, but even I’m not dumb enough to think Kidd is watching this stuff on film, stroking his chin and saying “yes, perfect, exactly what I want,” to himself over and over again.
Thankfully, this stuff did not happen in the second half, Doncic ran more pick and rolls, the Mavericks got more open threes, and they beat a crappy Raptors team. I just beg of you, Mavericks, please stop this.
Here’s our lastest 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.