WATCH: Mavs' Christian Wood Shows Complete Game in 32-Point Performance vs. Blazers
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On the front end of a back-to-back, the Dallas Mavericks took care of business in a major way. They took down the Portland Trail Blazers 130-110 and managed not to play Luka Doncic in the fourth quarter.
Doncic remained instrumental in the Mavs' success with 33 points, six rebounds, and nine assists in 29 minutes. He received a major boost from teammate Christian Wood off the bench, who scored 20 of his 32 points in the first half and added 12 rebounds and two blocked shots. It was a welcomed boost after the Mavs got off to a slow start, trailing 21-16 when Wood checked into the game.
"I thought C-Wood (Christian Wood) was great offensively and defensively," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. "He did a great job. Being able to play through him in the second quarter was huge for us. Again, the time he was on the floor – on both ends – he gave us a lift tonight.”
Doncic and Wood were the first pair of Mavericks teammates to each score at least 30 points since Doncic, and Kristaps Porzingis did so on Nov. 12, 2021. Doncic and Spencer Dinwiddie met this mark in Game 7 of the 2022 Western Conference Semifinals against the Phoenix Suns, but the postseason doesn't account for those types of stats.
“I was trying to be aggressive, the team knew I had it going. If you watch the film, we kept running the same play over and over because frankly they couldn't stop it," Wood said of his scoring aggression. "They kept finding me and getting me the ball, my teammates trust me to score. That’s what I am here for is to score, and to help these guys off the bench and I feel like I did a great job today.”
The Trail Blazers stood little chance of guarding Wood with effectiveness. He's a matchup problem. A traditional center like Jusuf Nurkic can't get out fast enough on him or hold their own out in space trying to content. With creative screening actions, Doncic can pick apart the defense to connect with Wood often in pick-and-roll situations. Meanwhile, smaller defender get bullied on post-ups and drives on switches.
“I think it creates a lot of mismatches, in terms of my picking and popping and picking and rolling when the defense switches for Luka [Doncic]," Wood said of the advantages he sees matching up against traditional centers. "That’s really what the coaches want me to do.”
The Mavs simply have more options with a more talented big man like Wood on the court. Among them is the ability to deploy "Zoom" action — an off-ball screen followed by a handoff. With the defense having to respect the threat of Wood's 3-point shooting, the big has to either play at the level of the screen to hedge, or play up to touch on the screen where the big backpedals as the drive develops. Dallas took advantage of both of these approaches.
In the first use of "Zoom" action, Nurkic is playing at the level of the screen, so Wood slips and Doncic quickly finds him. The low-man is unable to impact the finish with it being the 6-foot-4 Josh Hart. With there being no deterring Doncic from making that pass, all Nurkic can do is watch as Wood dunks.
In another use of "Zoom" action, Drew Eubanks played up-to-touch screen defense before backpedaling, but with Wood connecting on his screen, Doncic slowed up Eubanks before throwing a lob as Wood got behind him. The method pace and precise passing of Doncic took full advantage.
Another example of the different screening actions that open up with Wood being deployed in the mix occurred when he set a "Ram" screen for Reggie Bullock before flowing into "77 action" with Doncic. The big plays up-to-touch screen defense, so Wood slips and gets the ball with Lillard trying to recover. Lillard gets neutralized by Wood's fake, resulting in the easy dunk.
When the initial action results in a breakdown, having talented players matters a lot. Most big men would just hang out in the dunker's spot if a "Stack" pick-and-roll sequence was neutralized as it was for the Mavs when Damian Lillard switched off the back-screener to prevent Doncic from getting to the rim on the initial drive right. Wood spaces out to the corner as Nurkic stays in the paint, resulting in Doncic finding him for a wide open 3-pointer.
The option of running an action for a big man only helps to enhance the offense and make things more challenging to guard overall. Here, the Mavs deploy Wood on an "Iverson" cut and he feels he has enough space on the catch to simply raise up and shoot the mid-range jumper.
The Mavs clearly lacked a complementary option with size to turn to throughout games that can just simply go and get a bucket. Wood showed that he has no problem making a starting center on a Western Conference playoff team look foolish. His shooting threat and quickness proved to be too much of a challenge to hold his own, allowing multiple and-one plays in isolation. Again, the playoffs are about creating matchup problems and winning the half-court chess-match. Wood helps you do that.
How many centers can play out of a jab step to setup a snatch back move for a mid-range jumper? How many can complete that play despite being fouled? Wood showed off his impressive scoring ability by making Nurkic have to work out in space — something he doesn't tend to do well.
After the threat of the jump shots was well established to Nurkic, Wood used size-up dribbles to create a blow-by after a between-the-legs dribble. The advantage he had on the first step enabled him to get deep on the drive to play off two and ultimately draw a foul while finishing with an advantage.
With the Mavs being a team that likes to play out of isolation after drawing switches, it's important to have players on the court that are capable of attacking closeouts. In the play below, Reggie Bullock gets Anfernee Simons switched onto Spencer Dinwiddie before receiving a "Flare" screen from Wood. Portland has to show help with Simons being an on-ball liability, prompting Dinwiddie to pass to Wood — resulting in a closeout attack after the shot fake.
When screening actions get neutralized by switching, it's pivotal to have a reliable self creation threat to punish the defense. With the bench unit, it's especially important. The Trail Blazers switched everything against the Mavs' high wide pin-downs, so Wood took the smaller defender into the post and attacked middle before finishing over the top.
While the scoring tends to get the attention of many, and rightfully so, Wood showed intriguing growth defensively — an area that has taken getting used to as he adjusts to being the anchor of a defense in a scrambling scheme as opposed to a drop coverage scheme.
"I thought, again, talking to him yesterday, he's started feeling comfortable on the defensive end and it showed this evening being able to play in coverage," Kidd said of Wood getting acclimated defensively. "He was huge for us coming off the bench, being able to get rebounds, being able to play through him with the switch. We ran him I think 13, 14 straight minutes there and he was good.”
Wood understands that with Maxi Kleber sidelined for the foreseeable future, he has to serve as the anchor of the defense. He often was the low-man when playing alongside Kleber, who would protect the paint guarding the opposing team's centers. Now, that'll have to be Wood, and he did an effective job against Nurkic.
“I think I am just minimizing the lapses I have defensively, and guys are trusting me to make the right rotations and I have been," Wood said of his defensive growth. "Being the low man, especially with Maxi [Kleber] and now DP [Dwight Powell] being out, kind of being the anchor for our defense.”
The impact of Dwight Powell's injury that he suffered during Friday's matchup remains to be seen. With the second night of a back-to-back to play on Saturday, will he be good to go? It seemed to be a deep bruise, if anything, with Jerami Grant's knee making contact with his leg.
""Yeah, he's hurt," Kidd said of Powell's injury. "That's all I have to tell you. He's probably out. I don't know."
The Mavs continue to succeed when Doncic and Wood share the court as they've outscored opponents by a 62-point margin in 404 minutes together. Dallas has produced a 118.2 offensive rating, a 110.1 defensive rating, and an 8.1 net rating when the two play together.
Whatever the Mavs decide going forward, the reality is clear: they aren't going to have what it takes to replicate last year's postseason success without a dynamic element alongside Doncic like Wood. Jalen Brunson is very much gone and the center position with Powell produced limiting results in spot minutes to begin halves throughout their run.
The big picture goal of contending and going deep in the playoffs has to be the priority on a Doncic-led team. It only happens if they can continue to work through Wood's defensive development so he's ready to make an impact come playoff time. The best way to do so is to start him and to have him protect the rim then use the game film to get better.
Right now, the lack of embrace of Wood's impact has been perplexing. He's by far the team's second-most talented offensive player yet he's coming off the bench while the Mavs risk slow starts. He's playing just 26.3 minutes per game and is by far the highest scoring player receiving under 28 minutes (min. 15 games) with an average of 17.2 points. No other player is reaching the 15-point threshold in the NBA within that amount of playing time.
Perhaps most important of all, there is also the element of Wood being an unrestricted free agent in the offseason barring the agreement of a contract extension. He's clearly making the most of his situation and is a starting talent. Why re-sign to a team that limits playing time and keeps him in a bench role? That's not "sources" talking, that's just a basic read of the options.
It'll be a great test for the Mavs when they take on the Cavaliers on Saturday, a team that poses problems around the NBA with their multiple bigs — Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
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