Mama said there’d be days like Friday.
So after the Mavericks got waxed 106-75 at Denver Friday night, it’s time to take stock with our takeaways from their second loss of the season.
The good news is that they have three wins, so still being on the plus side of the ledger is a good thing.
SHOOT! It’s not something the Mavericks have been doing worth a darn through five games. In fact, when you see how bad they have shot the ball, you understand that it would be perfectly acceptable to be thrilled with a 3-2 record. They are shooting 39.6 percent overall. That’s dead last in the NBA. And only one other team (Detroit) is below 42 percent. From 3-point range, they are making 31 percent of their tries. There actually are three teams worse than that (Miami, Cleveland, Detroit). The Mavericks are playing better defense. That’s why they’ve been able to win a few games. But the shooting has to come around. And, if you go purely on historical data, it will. Luka Dončić, Kristaps Porzingis, Reggie Bullock and Sterling Brown are too good at shooting triples to be bringing down the Mavericks’ percentage like they are. Jalen Brunson, Maxi Kleber and Tim Hardaway Jr. are shooting well early in the season. But they need some help.
QUICK TURNAROUND: The Mavericks wanted to do two things after Friday’s game. Learn from it. Then forget about it. They won’t have a practice on Saturday after back-to-back games, but they will talk about the game. After that, it’s gone. Sacramento is waiting for them on Sunday afternoon. “This is one that you will flush. But before you flush, you have to take away some of the things you can control, and that’s our energy and effort,” Kidd said. “And we’ll talk about that as we go forward. But we have a game at 2:30 on Sunday, so we have to turn the page and get ready for Sacramento.”
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: Give the Mavericks this much – when they lose, they don’t mess around. They really lose. Both of their losses have been by more than 25 points. The good news from this fact is that when you are blown out, you don’t have to worry about overextending your heavy lifters. None of them played big minutes. The bad news is that it’s clear that when things start going south for this team at the offensive end, they tend to let it severely impact their defense. That’s going to seriously stick in Jason Kidd’s craw.
YUGO GUYS: On Thursday in Dallas, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich talked about how great Yugoslavia would be if the country had stayed intact through its political upheaval in the early ‘90s. On Friday, Nikola Jokic and Boban Marjanovic (Serbia) and Luka Doncic and Vlatko Cancar (Slovenia) all were on the court. All of them would have been Yugoslavian if they’d come along 30 years earlier. By the way, Cancar, Doncic and Marjanovic left the arena together, chatting in some language other than English.
NUGGETS TO BE RECKONED WITH: They didn’t get as far in the playoffs as they wanted to last year, but these Nuggets are still very capable of playing into June. They looked terrific on Friday and that was without Jamal Murray, who is recovering from knee surgery. Nikola Jokic remains every bit the monster he’s been the last few years. And their supporting cast of Michael Porter Jr., Will Barton, Aaron Gordon and others is really good. Keep an eye on them when they start rolling.
Twitter: @ESefko
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