'Like A Shootaround:' How Mavs' Defense Must Improve After Alarming Recent Play
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The Dallas Mavericks have allowed their recent opponents to score a startling volume of points. The shortcomings on that front worsened toward the end of the team's five-game road trip, allowing the Portland Trail Blazers to score a combined 276 points over a two-game span. After returning home with a few key players back from injury, the Mavs still gave up 130 points to the Atlanta Hawks.
The results the Mavs have achieved defensively have worsened lately, with key players Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Green, and Maxi Kleber missing many games. Without most of their integral defensive contributors, Finney-Smith and Green returned to the lineup for Wednesday's loss to the Hawks on Wednesday. The lack of execution continued despite their presence.
“No, I don’t think that hurt us," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said of the returns of Finney-Smith and Green. "I didn’t think there was that big of an adjustment. I thought ‘Doe’ [Dorian Finney-Smith] and Josh [Green] did a really good job for us for the first game back. One playing 34 [minutes] and the other one playing 20 [minutes].
Kidd explained further: "You know, when you look at the team scoring 122, I don’t think that didn’t have any effect, because when you saw us play on the road in person, you saw us score 120, but we gave up 140 and 130 tonight. Well, that’s not going to win any game. No matter what the record in this league, everybody is scoring, or everybody is capable of scoring. So you’ve got to play defense, and right now, we’re not playing any defense.”
The Mavs have allowed 122.6 points per 100 possessions during January, which ranks 29th in the NBA. The other teams in the bottom five of the category are in the Victor Wembenyama sweepstakes, including the Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, and San Antonio Spurs. How can Dallas fix their defense?
“Well, that’s a great question," Kidd responded when asked how to fix the Mavs' defense. "If it’s with this personnel, you have to keep asking or demanding for those guys to play defense. It’s not, you know, just the offensive end and tonight, again we gave up 130. The team shot 57 percent … It’s a shootaround. You know in this case, in this league you do that no matter if you have Luka [Doncic], or Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] or Lebron [James], you’re going to lose. It doesn’t matter how many points you score, you’re always going to be short. And so until we put a better effort into playing defense and understanding what we have to do, then we’re going to score 120, but we’re going to give up 130, and 140.”
The belief that Kidd holds regarding the Mavs' recent lack of defensive execution received agreement from Doncic. Right now, they are producing what should be sufficient results offensively if there was adequate support from the defense.
“He’s right," Doncic said of Kidd's statement. "I think our offense is fine. We scored 122. That’s good. They scored 130. We’re good on offense. We just have to make sure we put in the same effort on defense.”
The Hawks are an especially challenging matchup for a team needing to improve its execution in pick-and-roll coverages. With two dynamic ball handlers, Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, there is a significant amount of pressure on the big defender to account for the ball handler without letting the rim roller go.
The Mavs' results in containing pick-and-roll coverages could have been more impressive. They gave up an output of 1.235 points per possession (PPP) on 51 pick-and-roll ball-handler plays (including passes) while particularly allowing 1.273 PPP when the roll man finished the play with a shot attempt. No matter what the type of outcome was, the Hawks were enabled to execute at a highly efficient level.
A common issue the Mavs faced was getting blasted by the Hawks in short/mid-range plays that the defense was content with giving up. A floater or mid-range jumper is the concession the team was willing to make and against a team with Young and Murray as the ball screen orchestrators, that proved to be a costly outlook.
To make matters worse, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Murray made the Mavs pay with a few pull-up 3-pointers while orchestrating ball screens in addition to all of the other damage that was done with the rim rollers and short-range mid-range scoring in those types of plays. On some nights, the opposition comes up empty on these looks altogether, but they certainly were falling for Atlanta.
Young didn't convert a pull-up 3-pointer using a ball screen that you typically see him make in a game when facing the Mavs. Instead, he leveraged the threat of his shooting to create lob passing opportunities to the roll man, especially since the Mavs opted not to use any tags to help. Whether it was Powell or McGee, the individual set of limitations they each have translated to the same result.
There is still a need for the Mavs to establish greater continuity with one another and this play below is a strong example of that. With Christian Wood and Powell playing alongside each other, Powell is deployed as the big defender against the ball screen with Wood being the low-man. The idea is that Powell can use his mobility to disrupt the action while Wood can use his length in the paint. The problem is that with Onyeka Okongwu re-screening for Young, the on-ball defender, Finney-Smith, is unable to recover. Powell feels the need to account for Okongwu as Young drives instead of letting allowing Wood to take that responsibility.
In the "growing pains" of having to play through different lineup combinations is the lack of familiarity or trust in what a teammate may decide to do in terms of a defensive rotation when you do not have a line of sight to see what they're doing in real-time. In the clip above, Powell is understandably focused on the ball screening action. He isn't going to know that Wood has pre-rotated in help to account for the rim roller.
In a later possession, Powell was able to prevent a pass to the rim roller despite there not being a tag from the low-man while also preventing a clean finish at the rim for Murray on the drive. It helped that Wood was positioned on the strong side and offered a helpful contribution by coming over to block Murray's floater attempt.
Powell being the big defender in a pick-and-roll action presents a limitation against bigger ball handlers and roll men. While he's always going to play hard and having that his mobility against small guards helps, it takes a full commitment from the unit to swarm in the half-court to maximize it. Otherwise, there are instances when a big ball handler is going to get what they want and bigger centers can impose their will, too.
De'Andre Hunter had a possession against Powell in a ball screening action when he dribbled in to the gap and all it took to get to the rim was to use a push crossover, play through a bump from Powell, then use a scoop finish. In this sequence, there was minimal resistance offered.
There was a short-roll play from Okongwu that featured similar results as Hunter's drive with Powell guarding the ball screening action. Okongwu received the ball on a short-roll and simply played through Powell to get the right side of the rim for a favorable finish attempt. It was an easy sequence just playing through contact.
There are general rim protection sequences that a true center sized shot blocker would be able to provide some deterrence that Powell is naturally unable to do. If he is already stationed deep in the paint, there are no shortage of sequences that end with either being unable to provide significant shot altering due to either not having the length, size, or timing to do it. The problem becomes a matter of a talent deficit as opposed to being capable of technical improvement.
Without having the ideal personnel to execute the defensive scheme, the Mavs have to be as technically sound as possible in their approach. There isn't the option of trusting a shot blocker on the back end to clean up the mistakes of the front line, or creating that luxury of playing more aggressively up front with the idea of funneling that drive to that anchor in the paint.
When attending Mavs practices, it's common to see the team working on their Veer switching concepts. On Thursday, the two healthy centers, Dwight Powell and JaVale McGee were working on the sequences with Mavs assistant coach Sean Sweeney, who is responsible for much of the team's defense. This is a common site to see even when guards like Jaden Hardy and Josh Green are participating in 3-on-3 settings.
One issue with the Mavs' attempts to deploy Veer switching is they aren't actually able to properly execute the concept with McGee due to his lack of mobility. Teams tend to try to make that switch from like 16-18 feet, not deep in the paint. Doing so the way that McGee is practicing leaves the defense vulnerable to floaters and aggressive finish attempts by playing with the tools to do it.
When the Mavs were firing on all cylinders defensively, they did execute this concept of Veer switching effectively. Take this example from March of last season in a matchup against the Utah Jazz. The team navigated a Spain pick-and-roll so well that the possession broke down to Donovan Mitchell rejecting the screen and Powell making the Veer switch. Without a clear path to the rim, Mitchell retreat dribbled to the corner to get into an isolation play. Powell ended up getting the stop.
There are limitations with pre-determining a Veer switch, especially if the opposition is using a shooting threat as a ball screening option. In the clip below, listen closely, you can hear Mavs assistant coach Jared Dudley calling out: "Veer! Veer!" The idea is to tell Wood to be in a position to make the switch if Dejounte Murray attacks downhill. Instead, Murray hits Hunter with a pass on the pop, who gets left completely wide open as a result.
In the Veer switching play in the clip above, The rest of the unit has to be committed to swarming in the half-court. Reggie Bullock has to commit to closing out on Hunter, then the next defender has to be ready to get out on Bogdan Bogdanovic if the extra pass is made to the wing. When the Mavs ranked seventh in defensive rating last season, their turnaround was largely due to their willingness and speed to make rotation after rotation when necessary.
There are certainly problems the Mavs face that go well beyond just what the big defender is doing in a high pick-and-roll action, or not having an ideal shot blocker to make his presence felt deep in the paint. There are issues with a lack of communication occurring. Take this Spain pick-and-roll play in the clip below for instance. Young gets left completely wide open after Green signals to Reggie Bullock to stay attached to him. As McGee recovers to the roller with Bullock not taking Young, he's left completely wide open in the paint for the floater.
“I think a lot of it is communication," Green said of the Mavs' defensive shortcomings. "We’re trying to communicate. We know the potential we have on the defensive end, so it’s just a matter of doing it – locking in and doing it – because when we play defense at a high level it’s very hard to score against us and very hard to beat us. I think that’s our main thing right now going into tomorrow, going forward, is defense. It starts with everybody. I need to be more vocal, and so does everybody else. Just have to work on it.”
Another instance of miscommunication occurred on a broken play that left Hunter wide open to cut into the middle of the paint for a finish. Wood provided a favorable initial outcome by breaking up a pass from Collins to the dunker's spot, but the Hawks recovered possession and two defenders committed to Bogdanovic on a pass out. Dinwiddie felt the need to account for the top of the key as a result, leaving Hunter on the weak-side.
Put communication and containing drives aside. There are little details that come down to individual commitment to executing that are resulting in lapses at times. Why is it so easy for Murray to just roam into the middle of the paint to grab an offensive rebound for a putback? Dinwiddie was watching shot go up and didn't get a body on him to prevent the offensive rebound. Another example of the little things that have to get done throughout a game to minimize shortcomings without requiring lateral sliding at the point of attack on a drive.
Another display of a controllable failure that occurred by the Mavs' defense against the Hawks featured Doncic ball watching then looking down at his feet to make sure he isn't at risk of a three-seconds violation while his man cuts for a finish. Doncic attempted to recover, but he engaged Hunter in a disadvantaged position deep in the paint, essentially at the restricted area.
As previously mentioned, there are real containment issues with the players responsible for handling the point of attack. Young gets by Bullock too easy in the play below, which leaves Doncic vulnerable on the backline. Doncic sees a pin-in screen developing and signals to Finney-Smith to handle it. The Hawks had a clever counter with Collins cutting after the screen to catch a lob.
"We're just not following the pick-and-roll. We have to try to contain the ball better as guards and not fouling, putting them on the free throw line," Bullock said regarding where the Mavs' pick-and-roll defense can improve. "Those areas we can clean up."
As the game reached a pivotal moment, there was a play when Murray straight up blew by Finney-Smith on an isolation play. It's fair to say, it will likely take a few games before Finney-Smith is fully back to his previous capabilities in the lateral quickness department. A great player like Murray will make a play at times, too. However, the ideal outcome features the stopper offering more resistance.
The inability to contain off the catch attacks was another issue for the Mavs' defense. While the Hawks are far from being the most talented team in the NBA, they benefit from the luxury of having complementary talents capable of attacking closeouts at an effective level. A defense may opt to run a shooter off the line and that's a fair assessment, but Atlanta has talent to exploit that approach.
On the subject of intended concessions, the Hawks were making the Mavs pay even when they were accepting those types of outcomes. Collins, who is one of the NBA's least efficient spot-up players this season, was left open at times to offer greater resistance against Young and Murray, but he made the defense pay. It's challenging to overcome when these sequences backfire.
Right now, Wood isn't often being deployed in the true defensive anchor role that a regular center would be playing. He's progressed defensively, but there are still things to be improved. Which, again, that's to be expected. However, he will be sidelined for at least Friday's game against the Miami Heat. The focus shifts to who is available to play and without a true defensive anchor, the Mavs have to sacrifice size and length when Powell, or they have to give up mobility with McGee.
Perhaps the Mavs become more willing to switch against screening actions when Kleber is back in the lineup and can play more alongside Wood. Doing so could force opposing teams to have to work harder for scoring chances than attacking primarily against base pick-and-roll coverages.
There is an even greater present need for the Mavs' personnel to re-focus and commitment to the details of their responsibilities. There can't be lapses giving up easy opportunities. The defensive stoppers have to contain in on-ball situations. There has to be quality communication in real-time.
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