Mavs Have 'Great Film Session' After Sixers Loss; Luka, Kyrie Ready to Lead
DALLAS — After being defeated 120-116 by the Philadelphia 76ers, the Dallas Mavericks have now lost four of their last five games immediately following a seven-game winning streak. Amid a tightly contested Western Conference standings race, the Mavs remain confident in bouncing back.
The Mavs have a lot to address with their recent downward trend, starting with being the 30th-ranked team in defensive rating while having lapses offensively, particularly with taking care of the ball and consistency on open shots.
"When you look at the group, mentally, they're in a good place. It's not easy to win in this league," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said after Monday's practice. "And just understanding some of the things that we have to clean up. Not just defensively but offensively. Since the All-Star break, we're fifth offensively. And then defensively, we're 30th. We have room for improvement."
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During Monday's practice, the Mavs had a "really good" film session to improve communication and clean up some of what has contributed to being the NBA's worst defense since the All-Star break.
"We watched film — had a great film session," Kidd said after Monday's practice. "Just being able to talk about different situations that we saw last night, and then also on different defensive possessions on this last road trip."
"It was a really good film session," Kidd continued. "Hopefully, the communication's better tomorrow."
With the Mavs continuing to integrate trade deadline acquisitions P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford into the fold and regaining players from recent injuries, the Mavs have plenty to sort through regarding roles and responsibilities. Kyrie Irving emphasized the need for everyone to adjust to their roles as a great team would.
“We’re definitely trying to speed up time right now to get a great feel on what roles are, who’s playing, who’s not," Irving said after Sunday's loss. "And again, I mentioned this maybe a few days ago, but the true testament of a great team is how well they adjust to roles. You don’t allow your emotions to get the best of you because you want to be out there."
A similar theme was communicated by Kidd, describing how the team is currently working through building a rhythm with a healthy group as they test out different combinations. Gafford and Washington are both still working through the familiarization process with the team's schemes. Still, regardless, Kidd emphasized communication as a need for the group to refocus on.
"With being healthy, you've got to go through a rhythm and understand we've got guys coming back," Kidd said. "We're looking at different combinations, and we're still trying to win. We've got two new guys. We're trying to get them used to the schemes. There's going to be some breakdown, and we've got to continue to be working through that.
"The one thing that we are trying to encourage our group to do is talk. We can't take our phones out there to text one another," Kidd continued. "We can't look at Instagram or Twitter while we're playing. We've got to be able to talk to one another, to help each other. This afternoon, it was at a low. We have to be better talking to each other, being able to take that criticism and be positive moving forward."
Irving acknowledged that he needs to be better in some of the "little incremental moments" throughout games that add up to determine outcomes. To do so, like Kidd, Irving emphasized the importance of communication.
"There are so many little incremental moments in the game when we all could be better," Irving said. "That starts with me, and then down the line, we just have to have that fluidity of communication and understand that we’re not out of any game."
The need for more energy from the start of games was a point that Luka Doncic emphasized after Sunday's loss against the Sixers. He feels that as a team leader, his teammates will follow suit with what he does, whether positive or negative.
"I mean, it’s hard. When you lose games, it’s hard. In the NBA, you’ve got another game in one or two days, so just have to bring that energy," Doncic said.
"I think it’s a little bit of both, but just, like, the energy just has to be from the first second [or] minute of the game," Doncic continued. "I could do better for sure. That’s on me. When I do it, people follow me, so I’ve got to do better, too.”
A theme throughout the Mavs' season and in the Kidd era has been the need to refocus when a lack of results on offense leads to poor defensive results. Kidd was satisfied with the effort to attempt to rally back against the Sixers in the fourth quarter of Sunday's game, but made clear, there were elements of the team's defensive scheme that weren't being executed until the fourth quarter.
"You look at being desperate, understanding you have no room for error. I thought the guys in the fourth quarter played at a high level," Kidd said. "The execution defensively — a lot of our schemes we didn't do until the fourth, and when we did execute them, they went the way we thought.
"Offensively, I've said this earlier here: our offense is our defense. When we score, we're one of the best teams in this league," Kidd explained. "When we don't score, we're one of the worst teams. When we struggle to score, we tend not to do anything on the defensive end, and we're trying to find a way to score. We're getting great looks, but they're just not falling for us. In the fourth, we had a 40-point quarter, and it's one of the better defensive quarters of our games."
When discussing areas the Mavs' defense can improve, Kidd mentioned there's been a combination of opposing teams making shots at a high clip, but the team must be better in making timely defensive rotations, particularly in handling the corners.
"Looking at the last five minutes of the game yesterday, being able to execute the defensive schemes at a high level," Kidd said. "So, it's just being consistent for 48 minutes and that's what a lot of teams are, are trying to do right now. ... I think it's a combination. Guys making open shots, but also our defense. We have to be better. We're giving up way too many open threes in the corner, something that we've always taken pride in. It's just right now our rotations are a little late."
Among the areas for the Mavs to address is the uncharacteristic turnover problems they've encountered. Dallas was outscored 14-0 by the Sixers in the first half in points off turnovers, creating opportunities for Philadelphia to push the pace and attack on the break. Dallas typically is elite at keeping turnovers low, but when execution slips, typically, the margin for error becomes much thinner.
"We did have a lot of turnovers. When we are one-for-one in assists-to-turnovers, that's not going to be a recipe for success," Kidd said. "We have to be better. We're a team that doesn't turn the ball over. Here, of late, we've been having some turnovers. This afternoon, we had a lot of turnovers. If you're not getting shots, that's going to put a lot of pressure on your defense. We have to be better with the ball, and we'll be better on Tuesday [versus Indiana]."
As the Mavs look to get back on track, Irving remains highly confident in his team that he views as having one of the "most powerful offenses in the world." Given his experience, Irving acknowledged the importance of stepping up in his leadership to help guide the team during the stretch-run of the season.
"We have one of the most powerful offenses in the world. Not just me and Luka, but the pieces that we have on this team, and we just have to trust that and believe that," Irving said. "That’s where I am, not holding my head down or anything like that. I’ve been at this part of the season before. I know what it’s like, and now it’s my time to step up more as a leader and help the guys when necessary.”
While describing how he can expand upon his impact as a leader, Irving told fans and the team that "we're going to be OK." He highlighted the importance of having trust in working through a rough patch by reflecting on how they've managed to get it done in the past.
“Just by sharing your wisdom of experiences that you’ve had in the past, and then also affirming that we’re going to be OK," Irving said. "That’s for everybody that’s watching at home: We’re going to be OK. We’ve got to trust that we’ll be able to put the work in that’s necessary to get us these wins. We’ve shown it before."
After going 1-3 on a four-game Eastern Conference road trip and then failing to defend homecourt against a Sixers squad playing without reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid, Irving admitted the team has to take accountability for those results.
"We took a little bit of a dip from the last few games, some tough ones on the road … 1-3 on the road. Come back home and not take care of home court, that’s on us," Irving continued. "We’ve got to take accountability for that as players. Got to bring the energy and no more excuses. We’ve got 20-some-odd games left, we know the positioning that we’re in right now, we know what happened last year when we didn’t make it.
"We know how that feels to fail miserably. And we know what it feels like to have the external pressure, too, of our fan base and media," Irving continued. "This is also new for some guys who have never dealt with having that target on their back. Again, there’s no excuses. We just need to be there for one another and have some fun with this.”
A hot topic has become Tim Hardaway Jr.'s recent shooting struggles amid his already limited offerings regarding defensive contributions and off-the-dribble offensive capabilities. While Hardaway didn't play in the second half of Sunday's game and has faced reduced minutes, the Mavs remain confident in his impact. He's averaged 9.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 13 games since February 1, shooting 34.6 percent from the floor and 32.5 percent from beyond the arc.
"We trust that Timmy's going to get out of it. The beauty of sport is you've got to fail to be successful," Kidd said on Sunday. "We just were in Boston, and I give those guys a lot of credit; they didn't just start off winning and going to championships. They had to struggle. Right now, we're struggling, and we've got to stay together and stay positive and understand when the ball goes in the basket for us, we're really good. The next step is if the ball isn't going in the basket, how do we get stops? That's what a young team is going through, and we're going through right now."
Doncic echoed Kidd's sentiment about Hardaway's struggles, conveying confidence in him bouncing back shortly.
"Just keep staying positive," Doncic said. "We all know he's going to come back to being himself, so we're good."
After Monday's practice, Kidd even described Hardaway as a player the Mavs will need to win a championship. In the meantime, while Hardaway is clearly in the middle of a shooting slump, Kidd emphasized the importance of the team supporting the veteran sharpshooter as he works to get back on track.
"I think it's about being able to talk to Timmy and see what he's thinking," Kidd said. "A lot of times we just look at the X's & O's, but there could be stuff going on off the court. They're human. Just understand we've all been in a slump, shooting the ball or playing the game of basketball, or sometimes just in life, we could be in a slump, so being able to find out who is truly on your side to try to help you through that. And that's what we're here to help him through.
"We trust and need Timmy if we want to win a championship," Kidd concluded.
Next, the Mavs will look to bounce back from their recent struggles with a matchup against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night, continuing a three-game homestand.
