Dallas Mavs' Injuries & Heavy Luka Doncic Reliance Has Caught Up to Them
HOUSTON — When the Dallas Mavericks face the Houston Rockets on Friday, they will be doing so without either member of their All-Star backcourt, Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving. Various other fixtures of the rotation, including rookie standout Dereck Lively II, Dante Exum, Josh Green, and Maxi Kleber.
Doncic has done his best to help the Mavs power through recent injuries, averaging 35.7 points, 11.4 assists, and 9.2 rebounds in nine performances this month. He's doing so while playing 40.4 minutes per game while trying to shoulder the load for a shorthanded team. He's constantly seeing aggressive defensive coverages, with no shortage of different looks thrown his way, further ramped up without Irving.
“He’s tired,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said of Doncic. “He works his a– off, and he’s supposed to be tired. He’s seeing double-teams every night and creating shots for everyone on the floor. He’s tired every night.
“He’s the one causing the problem for the (defenders) on the floor," Kidd explained. "The issue is who can cause a problem when he’s off the floor and right now that’s what we’re looking for, but it’s hard.”
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The two players on the Mavs roster who consistently draw double teams or aggressive help rotations before making a play to get the defense out of rotation are Doncic and Irving. With Irving sidelined, it's been challenging for the team to take Doncic off the floor, given there aren't enough trustworthy options to get the offense organized as the initiator and to create off the dribble. Even though Exum has emerged as a strong backcourt contributor, he doesn't pose nearly that level of a threat in respect commanded by the defense, limiting the chances the team has to play "advantage basketball," as Kidd calls it.
"Yeah, I probably could have taken him out there when we're down [as] the lead extends," Kidd said. "Also, he's the one causing problems for the other four on the floor. The issue is, who can cause a problem when he's off the floor? Right now, that's what we're looking for.
"We're trying to find that, but it's hard when we're built around Luka," Kidd explained. "Luka penetrates, finds the open guys, and we just didn't shoot the ball well tonight there in the first half. In the third quarter, we did. Then late, we just couldn't stop Kawhi [Leonard] — Kawhi took over the game."
Since beginning the season with an 8-2 record through 10 games, the Mavs have gone 8-9, starting down a slide from ranking third in the Western Conference standings at one point to possibly vying for position in the play-in seeding. Even during the strong start, a few weaknesses were masked by scorching hot 3-point shooting and the impact of its top players.
The Mavs' roster construction isn't going to manage to protect the rim better without Lively on the floor. The undersized perimeter personnel the team deploys throughout games isn't going to grow any taller, either. Those are issues that will need to be resolved in the long term without many available, viable options to overcome them.
Dallas successfully deployed a small ball lineup in the second half of Wednesday's loss against the Los Angeles Clippers, with Derrick Jones Jr. and Grant Williams in the frontcourt, nearly achieving a 22-point comeback. The goal was to have more speed to swarm in the half-court to make extra efforts defensively, particularly after doubling, forcing turnovers, close possessions, and getting out in transition.
"I like what the group did [while] short-handed. Everyone played and put us in a position to fight," Kidd said. "There's a lot of character in that locker room [with] understanding things weren't going well for us in the first half. But I thought we turned it around in the second half. No one feels bad for us that we're short-handed, but those guys fought and put us in a position to win. We just came up short."
It does place an added physical burden on a unit to sustain playing with a size disadvantage, making it essential to monitor how frequently it can be relied on. Regardless, the impact cannot be overlooked. When Dwight Powell was on the floor against the Clippers, the Mavs were outscored by a 17-point margin, but the team managed to hold a +8 scoring differential in 30 minutes he was on the sideline. Could the team lean more on younger, athletic wing options like rookie Olivier-Maxence Prosper or two-way contract holder A.J. Lawson?
“That was our goal for the day: try to get out on transition and get easy buckets a lot faster, just getting the game moving a lot faster," Jones said. "I mean, I feel like it helped us a lot. So, it worked.”
A necessary growth area will be for second-year guard Jaden Hardy to make significant strides in vital areas to provide the presence of a creator who can scale up his impact when injuries occur. He has been in and out of the rotation this season, but he will be needed as injuries continue to mount.
Hardy, whose development was the Mavs' top focus in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League in July, continues to hold various priorities. Outside of spot-up shooting, he has yet to take the next step as a creator in pick-and-roll or isolation while still needing to further his ability to organize an offense.
Whether Doncic is on the floor or not, the Mavs will need Grant Williams to regain a rhythm from the perimeter and be less reluctant to let it fly on the catch from the perimeter. He's making a career-high 2.1 3-pointers per game while converting at a 39.5 percent clip on the season, but his execution has plummeted as of late, shooting just 30.6 percent in December.
The most essential and prominent factor for the Mavs is to regain core players in the lineup after recovering from injuries. How long that's going to take remains to be seen. In the meantime, Dallas must continue to work through solving some its roster limitations within the chances it has.
