The Dallas Mavericks certainly didn’t forget what happened to them last week against the Orlando Magic and Oklahoma City Thunder. And they were determined that nightmare wasn’t going to repeat itself against the Detroit Pistons.
Both the Magic and Thunder handed the Mavs embarrassing defeats that prevented Dallas from moving past the Utah Jazz and into the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. The chatter from those losses was squarely on the Mavs’ minds as they came out locked and loaded during Tuesday’s 116-86 shellacking of the Detroit Pistons at American Airlines Center.
“We learned from our past experiences and what we can control, and our energy and our effort tonight was high,” coach Jason Kidd said. “No matter who we play, that’s the way we have to come out.
“We can’t just play (hard against) the good teams. We have to respect everyone and execute the game plan and take care of business so guys won’t have to play that many minutes in the fourth quarter.”
The blowout victory over the Pistons increased the Mavs’ record on this season-high six-game home stand to 3-1. The home stand continues with a pair of games against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday and Saturday.
In taking care of business against the Pistons, the Mavs won for the 16th time in their last 21 games – they only won 16 of their first 34 games this season – and padded their record to 32-23. The Mavs made quick work of a Detroit team that’s 12-42 and own the second worst record in the NBA.
Last week the Mavs lost to the Magic, who had the worst record in the league at the time. And they also lost to the Thunder, who had the fourth worst record in the league at the time.
Knowing that those type of ugly losses could hurt their playoff seedings down the road, the Mavs barely gave the Pistons a chance to breathe. In essence, the Pistons paid dearly for those transgressions the Mavs had against Orlando and OKC.
“I think it was definitely kind of talked about with us saying that you’ve got to respect these guys no matter what,” said Jalen Brunson, who scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shots. “They’re NBA players coached by NBA coaches.
“You’ve got to go out there and just play our style of basketball for 48 minutes and play as hard as we got. We started out a little lackadaisical and ended up kind of getting in a groove at the end of the first quarter. And in the second quarter we kind of slipped up defensively a little bit, but we eventually found our groove again.”
And when the Mavs found their groove, it was light’s out for the Pistons, who have lost nine of their last 10 games and got completely overwhelmed by a team on a mission.
The Mavs held Detroit to 37.9 percent shooting and ran their record to a perfect 10-0 when holding foes under 40 percent shooting. It also was the 22nd time this season the Mavs have allowed less than 100 points in a game, which is the third most in the NBA.
“We can’t take anybody lightly,” Kidd said. “I thought the energy and effort was great for the 48 minutes.
“And for those guys who played during the end, I thought they played the right way.”
Luka Doncic certainly brought the energy and the effort as he collected 33 points, seven rebounds, 11 assists and two blocks. It was the career-high seventh straight game Doncic has distributed at least 10 assists, which is the longest streak in the NBA this season and one shy of the Mavs’ franchise record set by Kidd.
Doncic also came up with the play of the game when, from near midcourt, he hurled a long lob pass that Dorian Finney-Smith skied and snagged and dunked and put the Mavs out front, 83-65, with 4:47 remaining in the third quarter.
“There was no defender there,” Doncic said, explaining his jaw-dropping lengthy pass to Finney-Smith. “There was one guy on the left— I don’t know who it was – so I was just trying to get it there for the lob.”
Doncic also buried a long three-pointer from the Mavs’ logo near midcourt that wowed the sellout crowd of 19,200. Then, after Trey Burke drilled a pair of buckets from three-point range, the Mavs went into the fourth quarter nursing a comfortable 98-71 cushion and showing the world that their days of letting their guard down against the NBA’s bottom-feeders are over.
“We feel like we can play with anyone in the league when we’re really locked in on the defensive end – one through five,” said Burke, who contributed 18 points off the bench in just 21 minutes. “And that’s going to be our challenge going forward.”
Another challenge for Mavs’ opponents going forward is trying to offset the balance scoring which Dallas has shown recently. In addition to Doncic, Brunson and Burke, Reggie Bullock collected 12 points on 4-of-8 three-pointers, Finney-Smith finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and two steals, and Dwight Powell added 10 points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes.
The game turned into a laughter for the Mavs when they led, 110-73, with 8:29 remaining following a fast break layup by Burke.
In all, the Mavs shot 50.6 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point territory (18-of-36) and ran their record to a sparkling 19-3 when holding opponents under 100 points.
“I think we learned our lesson with Orlando and OKC,” said Doncic, who made 5-of-9 shots from downtown.
And those lessons learned bode well for the Mavs against the Pistons.
“We lost two games that we shouldn’t have lost,” said Maxi Kleber, who had five points and seven rebounds after missing the previous two games with a left knee effusion. “We kind of made up for it with some pretty big wins (over Philadelphia and Atlanta).
“We have some more home games. So we obviously want to win them, too, and we’ve got to continue with the flow that we have right now.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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