OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mavericks are like most young, rising teams.
They tease us with greatness, but then remind us they have so far to go.
The best news about that is that they are young. And they are rising.
The ground they have left to cover will be done gradually. And Sunday’s practice in OKC was a time to look inward and be self-aware about some of the problems are that the Mavericks must address.
Rick Carlisle ticked them off: rebounding, late-game execution at both ends of the court, free-throw shooting, moving the basketball.
But because the loss at Utah is so fresh in everybody’s mind, the issue of finishing games with late-game smarts and execution was front and center in the workout at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
“We had to look ourselves in the mirror and realize that we’re, what, 5-11 in games (decided by) less than five,” said Dorian Finney-Smith. “So, we got to do a better job, executed a little more in crunch time. We got to lock in on defense and execute on offense.”
Actually, according to NBA statistics, the Mavericks are 10-14 in clutch games, which are those that are within five points at some point in the final five minutes. But the Mavericks keep their own statistics and their total might be closer to the 5-11 Finney-Smith alluded to.
“We’re learning things,” he said. “There are growing pains. I wish we didn’t have to go through them. But we felt like we’ve given up a lot of games. That one (in Utah), they’re a great team, a hot team. They made some plays and we didn’t.”
The Mavericks still have a way-better-than-expected 28-17 record. They have 10 games left until the All-Star break, starting with an important test against Oklahoma City on Monday night. The Thunder are right on the Mavericks’ tail in the Western Conference standings with a 28-19 record.
The late-game disappointments have been one of the few nagging concerns about the Mavericks. But since Dwight Powell went down with his Achilles injury, the Mavericks have had trouble rebounding and overall iffy free-throw shooting has been an issue, too.
Even Luka Doncic has been impacted. He was 1-of-5 from the free-throw line in Utah and just 2-of-10 from 3-point range. His shooting has been subpar of late.
But it’s the late-game situations that are most confounding.
“We’re an offensive team,” said Seth Curry, who has been on an uptick with his game lately. “We got a team that scores. When we struggle late in games, we stop scoring.
“We play good defense at times. Other teams at the end of games are putting their best offensive players on the floor and it’s hard to guard them. And we kind of go the opposite way. We get easier to guard as the game comes to an end. We got to figure that out.”
Carlisle knows it. But there is only so fast you can educate an NBA team. Some things have to be learned on the court.
Curry, who was on a Portland team last year that was very good in close situations and reached the Western Conference finals, said it’s a different situation with this team. It’s a matter of putting themselves in position to win enough times that closing the deal becomes habit.
“It’s a learning experience. It’s mental,” Curry said. “It’s not the end of the world that we lose a few games in the stretch in the regular season as long as we’re improving from it and we have different things we know we want to do headed into the playoffs.
“Obviously, Luka’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot and he’s a young player. He’s not going to be perfect. He’s not going to be a master at everything on the floor this early in his career. It’s just what you got to live with.”
It’s a little different than, say, having Damian Lillard with the ball in his hands, a player who has been an all-star multiple times and has been in the pressure position to win a game in the final moments countless times.
“We had all veteran guys who had been in those situations at different times in their career,” Curry said. “Here, it’s not that case. It’s a different team. It’s a learning experience. As many times as Dame has closed games and won, he’s lost games, too. That’s part of it.”
Cauley-Stein update: Carlisle said new big man Willie Cauley-Stein, acquired in a trade with Golden State over the weekend, was set to arrive with the team Sunday night.
“We’ll meet with him tonight and see where we are,” Carlisle said. “(Ryan) Broekhoff is getting very close. He may well be available tomorrow. We’ll see what’s what. This is a guy we haven’t seen.”
Broekhoff is recovering from a leg injury and had a rigorous workout Sunday, staying well after the practice ended. Carlisle and his staff will determine before Monday’s game whether Broekhoff, Cauley-Stein or both might be active.
Twitter: @ESefko
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