The Mavericks are two games under .500 for the first time this season.
Thank you very little, COVID-19.
But at 15-17, they have not lost contact with most of the rest of the Western Conference. Of the 30 NBA teams, 11 are within two games of .500. In the West, the Mavericks are smack in the middle of the pack. Only Golden State, Phoenix and Utah have run away from them.
The point is that if they can weather this rough time, they’ll have chances ahead to make up ground that they have been losing lately.
The visit Monday to Portland, a team in the Mavericks’ shadow, will be an important game.
With any luck, the Mavericks will learn from their crunch-time falter in Utah, when they were tied after three quarters, but could not close the deal, which is becoming a common problem with Luka Dončić out.
Here’s our takeaways from the 120-116 setback:
TICK, TICK, TICK: No the clock’s not ticking on the Mavericks’ season yet. Neither was it ticking much in the loss at Utah. A regulation game that requires 2 hours, 39 minutes to complete is a clear definition of plodding. And 72 free throws? The good news is that there were plenty of opportunities to go to the bathroom or run to the fridge. At least the Mavericks made 85.7 percent from the stripe as they continue a nice resurgence in that department. They made 30-of-35 from the line. Utah made 28-of-37.
PLUS OR MINUS? This is what the Mavericks missing so many players (six to the coronavirus, four others to injury) has done: it has rendered their bench extremely vulnerable. The five players who started against Utah all had a positive plus/minus. All six players off the bench were in minus territory. Utah’s backups? The Jazz were plus-24 when Joe Ingles was on the floor, plus-22 when Jordan Clarkson played and plus-19 during Rudy Gay’s minutes. You simply cannot lose Dončić, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Reggie Bullock and Trey Burke without it taking a toll on your depth. Give the six signees via COVID-19 hardship allowances credit. They have played very hard and helped in many ways. But when you hear a team say “next man up,” that’s should set off alarms. There is a reason why they weren’t already up.
LIVING, SCORING, LEARNING: Jalen Brunson and Kristaps Porzingis both had 27 points against the Jazz. They scored 30 of the Mavericks’ 53 second-half points. Brunson is looking very much like the sort of player who deserves a major role on any team in the league. Since Luka went out seven games ago, Brunson is averaging 21.1 points 7.3 assists and is shooting 37.5 percent from 3-point range. It’s worth mentioning that the Mavericks should prepare to back up the Brinks truck to pay Brunson as a free agent this summer. As for Porzingis, he missed a couple games with a toe problem and said it’s something he’s going to have to deal with for some time. But if he can deal with by getting 27 points and nine rebounds, we’re OK with it.
ALL THAT JAZZ: Utah hasn’t lost any games to the COVID-19 virus. Need we say any more? They are 23-9 and staying in the shadows of Golden State and Phoenix in the Western Conference. And they have great starters and two really good players coming off the bench in Ingles and Clarkson. This team is going to be a handful come playoff time. As coach Quin Snyder said about playing on Christmas Day: “It is something that is a little bit of a marker. It’s nice that the league sees this team that way. We want to be that way in the spring, not just during the winter.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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