Mavs vs. Warriors 3 Big Takeaways: All Offense, No Defense ... & Perhaps No Postseason
Disappointment has become an all-too-familiar feeling for a team that has a perennial MVP candidate and made the Western Conference Finals a season ago.
Despite having ample opportunities to grab a huge home win against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks found a way to do just enough things wrong to end up with another disheartening loss, 127-125, dropping them to 36-37 on the year with just nine games remaining.
The buzz after the game revolved around owner Mark Cuban confirming that his team would be filing a formal protest to the NBA over a confusing call made by the officials in the third quarter that ended up giving the Warriors a layup while the Mavs' players were on the other side of the court.
Dallas has much bigger problems than the officials, though, and they probably won't be able to properly address them until the offseason – which could be coming sooner than anyone with the franchise could've anticipated.
Here are three big takeaways from Wednesday's contest:
Different Season, Same Story
The Mavs just don't have the overall talent to get past the defending champions. Perhaps that changes in the future, but for now, that's a fact upper management is going to have to come to terms with and work toward improving.
Dallas lost to Golden State in the West Finals in five games last summer, and one of the biggest reasons for that was lack of rebounding. Those issues came back to bite the Mavs yet again on Wednesday, as the Warriors won the rebound battle 44-31.
The Mavs shot 42.5 percent from deep, while the Warriors shot just 30.8 percent, but Golden State had a 66-54 advantage in points in the paint and punished Dallas with a handful of second-chance points off of 11 offensive boards.
The Warriors' experience has something to do with why the Mavs can't get over the hump against them, but they also have blossoming young talent soaking in all that championship-level knowledge from Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green as well. Jonathan Kuminga led Golden State with 22 points on 9-11 shooting in Dallas, and Jordan Poole pitched in 16 points and six assists off the bench.
Jaden Hardy is Ready For More
Here at DallasBasketball.com, we've been pining for rookie guard Jaden Hardy to receive a bigger, more consistent role in coach Jason Kidd's rotation for some time now. Hardy proved early on this season that he was ready to take the next step after leading the G League in scoring during his assignments with the Texas Legends.
Now, Hardy is finally getting the minutes he's worked so hard to receive, and he's giving Mavs fans hope for a brighter future. He's scored at least 20 points or more in five of his last six games, including an efficient 27-point performance agains the Warriors in a high-pressure situation.
"When I get out there, I just try to let the game come to me – play within the offense, take the right shots, make the right plays," Hardy said. “I feel very comfortable just trusting in the work I have put in at the gym late at night. When I get out there, I just stay poised and try to make the right plays.
“LD [Luka Doncic] is going to find you, so it’s just getting ready to knock them down whenever it comes to you. I think my teammates did a good job today finding me when I was open, and I just happened to knock them down.”
Hardy, who was the No. 37 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, became the fourth rookie this season to score at least 20 points in a five-out-of-six game stretch, joining Orlando Magic's Paolo Banchero, Indiana Pacers' Benedict Mathurin and Oklahoma City Thunder's Jalen Williams.
All Offense, No Defense ... and Perhaps No Postseason
Luka Doncic returned to action after a four-game absence on Wednesday, and despite struggling by shooting just 11-27 from the field, he ended up with 30 points and 17 assists and the Mavs put up 125 points fairly effortlessly ... even without Kyrie Irving, who missed the game with a foot injury he re-aggravated on Monday against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Despite the offensive fireworks being impressive at times, the Mavs' overall defense has been bad enough to counteract the good on the other end of the court. Far too many times, Doncic and others are leaving opponents wide open for corner 3s. Whether that's mostly on the players or on Kidd's defensive scheme having players pack the paint, it's a serious problem that likely can't be fixed until this summer at the earliest.
For the Mavs to be successful playing the way Kidd wants to play, GM Nico Harrison needs to add better defensive personnel either via trades or free agency. Harrison made a big splash by adding Irving into the mix to form a potentially unstoppable offensive duo – if they can both get completely healthy and stay healthy. Now the objective will be to fill in the holes around them.
Doncic focusing more on the defensive end and spending less time complaining to the officials would definitely be a big step in the right direction, although it wouldn't fix all the Mavs' problems. As good as Doncic is, he must mature in that area of his game for the Mavs to reach their full potential.
Until that and other roster upgrades happen, though, there will be a lot more of what we saw on Wednesday – a fun game with lots of points scored, but the Mavs coming up short due to not being able to get stops. And if that's the case, the Mavs might as well start booking their Cancun summer vacation.
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