'Big Force' Daniel Gafford Posts Massive Double-Double, Powers Mavs to Season-Best Win Streak
It certainly wasn't pretty, but the Dallas Mavericks persevered and defeated the Washington Wizards 112-104 on Monday night at American Airlines Center to push their win streak to a season-high five games.
Luka Doncic, who was named Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday, was his usual MVP self, notching the 66th triple-double of his career with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists, and Kyrie Irving pitched in with 26 points of his own to go with seven rebounds and four assists.
Aside from the two backcourt starts, it was newcomer Daniel Gafford who wowed the AAC crowd with a dominant performance in the pain. Gafford finished with 16 points, a career-high-tying 17 rebounds, two assists, two steals five blocks in just 24 minutes of action against his former team.
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“Great effort. He did his best at controlling his emotions, or allowing his emotions to show … Just allowing the attitude inside him to focus on doing whatever it takes to win," Irving said of Gafford after the game. "Going against your former team is always going to bring out those natural emotions, so I’m grateful I got to see him in that environment tonight, see how he responded. Just proud of him. In his last two games, he’s done incredibly well, and he’s been a big force down there for us.”
After falling down by 11 points with about 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Mavs rallied by outscoring the Wizards 30-11 for the rest of the game. Head coach Jason Kidd credits his team's high energy and dominating the paint as the biggest reasons for the win.
"I think just the energy picked up," Kidd said. "When we got to the paint, we dominated the paint. Again, we had rebounds, second opportunities. When you look at what [Daniel] Gafford did for us tonight — we're going to need that as we go forward.
"The seven offensive rebounds [by Gafford], being able to give us second or third opportunities — I thought he was great tonight. I thought for Gafford and P.J. [Washington] to start without a practice, it just shows their versatility. They're pros. I thought they both played well. I thought P.J. did a great job of cutting offensively and on the defensive end, I thought he did a great job on the ball."
There are "natural emotions" that come up when playing your former team, as Irving noted. He had an experience like that recently when the Mavs defeated the Brooklyn Nets last week. However, it's how you handle those emotions that determines how well you play, and Gafford did as good as expected against his former team.
“It went well for the most part. I enjoyed seeing all the guys again. They came out and handled business. It took us a minute, but we got it done in the end. It was something to adjust to, hearing the same guys I’ve been in the locker room for three years talking trash to me," Gafford said.
“Our energy [changed in the fourth quarter]. There was a lot of adversity in those first three quarters. There was a lot of frustration from way I was seeing. I was in my own head too on a lot of the stuff that I missed down the stretch. There was coverage I missed when it came to the defensive side. It’s a long basketball game. It’s 48 minutes. You have to stay locked in. Sooner or later, if you do it the right way, you can take a step to the right path. That’s what we did tonight. We stayed together. We got over every obstacle that came our way.”
Having only been with the Mavs for two games, Gafford admits that it might take him until after the All-Star break to fully lock in on Dallas' defensive coverages and terminology on offense. However, as far as learning on the fly goes, Gafford has done a pretty solid job, and the Mavs are 2-0 while reaching a season-high eight games over .500 with him on the team.
“Set a pick for Luka [Doncic], or really, just get out the way in all honesty. Let him do his thing and be in the backend for a rebound or a lob," Gafford said of playing alongside Luka Doncic. "A couple passes tonight surprised me. There were some I could have caught – a lob I missed and the one I tipped to Josh [Green] in the corner.
"Other than that, I’m adjusting pretty well. I’m trying to be ready. They’ve told me there will be a lot of late passes that will come. They’ve told me there are a lot of crazy passes that will come. At the end of the day, I just have to have my antennas up.”
The Mavs have one more game to play on Wednesday against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs before receiving a much-needed, extended All-Star break to rest up before making their final push toward the postseason.
