Dallas Mavs' Hot Shooting and Improved Defense Show Potential vs. Sacramento Kings

The Mavs produced a hot perimeter shooting performance against the Kings amid recent struggles. The results display the team's impressive potential.

SACRAMENTO — The Dallas Mavericks have established a significant amount of momentum lately. After defeating the Sacramento Kings 132-96 on Tuesday night, Dallas has won nine of its previous 10 games as the team continues to compete for positioning in the Western Conference standings.

“We don’t take for granted how well we’ve been playing,” Kyrie Irving said. “But we’re not satisfied just because of where we are position-wise.”

Before making 22 shots from beyond the arc while converting at a 56.4% clip against the Kings, the Mavs had largely been winning games despite shooting well from the perimeter. During the team's previous nine games, they shot just 32.4% from deep (26th) with many key complementary players shooting below a 35-percent clip, including Tim Hardaway Jr. (34.0%), P.J. Washington (18.2%), Derrick Jones Jr. (25.0%), Maxi Kleber (25.0%), and Josh Green (25.0%) during this span. Dallas has remained confident that those results will improve with Luka Doncic and Irving creating high-quality shots for teammates.

“I think we’ve talked about it each game or at practice about the shots we’ve been getting. We’ve had them all year," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. "The season is about makes and misses. We’re making them early in the season, and our focus on the defensive end was taking some of our legs in a positive way. The focus on playing defense and protecting one another is at a high right now. Maybe our offense took a step back from making threes, but I thought today P.J. and D. Jones set the tone for us with the threes."

Washington experienced the most significant shooting struggle of each of the Mavs' role players, which has largely persisted since being traded to the team. After shooting 4-6 (66.7%) from deep against the Kings, he continued to express confidence in the results he'll achieve due to the process he has in place working on his shot away from game action.

“Confidence,” Washington said. “I’ve been in the gym everyday working on it. My confidence never wavers. So I keep taking open ones. They went in tonight. And we got a W.”

Hardaway has experienced an up-and-down season, which tends to be the nature for a player who takes a high percentage of their shot attempts from the perimeter. He scored 22 points while shooting 8-14 (%) overall and 4-6 (66.7%) from deep. He has displayed a greater focus to make the extra pass lately with improved playmaking to go along with it, dishing out six assists against the Kings after having four versus the Utah Jazz. It was his first occurrence recording four assists in consecutive games this season, with the Mavs going 9-0 when he reaches that mark.

"When we look at Timmy, I think just the shots that he's taking right now, his confidence putting two — stacking Utah and tonight — putting two games together, you can see that he's starting to turn the corner. We're gonna need him, I've said that before. Some probably disagree, but that's cool. But just looking at the things that he does for us on the offensive end, you can see that here in the last two games. Again, we need his leadership and his toughness and his ability to make tough shots. But being able to make plays, he's starting to find his teammates and that just makes the game easier for everybody."

The overall stats from the Mavs' superstars displayed a significant impact against Sacramento. Doncic recorded 28 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists without having to play any part of the fourth quarter. Irving added 24 points and eight assists. However, the most fascinating part was how those results transpired. Against the Kings, the Mavs benefited from having a layered attack. Doncic set the tone early by recording 26 points and five assists before halftime. Irving recorded 18 points and six assists after the break. With role players consistently hitting shots and the team's defense containing the Kings under 100 points with consistent effort throughout the game, it was a formula that created a blowout win.

"I thought Luka, our leader, set the tone early, he came out aggressive," Kidd said. "And then our other leader in Kai, he set the tone in the third with the pace. So when those guys get going, somebody’s going to be open and I thought we played for one another both offensively and defensively.”

Irving expressed how the Mavs benefit from being a team that has an appreciation for each other's success. He sees the makings of an impressive unit after making quality moves at the trade deadline and building continuity with each other as a unit. With a sense of accountability to achieve results, the players are leading without having to always hear from the coaching staff, showing the connectivity they've built.

“When guys are making those tough shots. You can see if it’s a nice move or something of quality in a possession you can see what that does for our group," Irving said. "We get hyped for each other. We’re all big fans of each other. I think that’s the most beautiful thing. You know we’re coming together at the right time, had a good trade deadline and now we are putting our best foot forward every single game and every single night.

"Having that communication, no matter what goes on in the first quarter, second, third, fourth quarter we will have a great chance to win if we’re doing the right things and we’re following our game plan," Irving continued. "We’re not relying on coaches to do everything and fix everything. It’s really a communicative atmosphere where we’re on the court and we make adjustments as players and we know where we have to be. So everybody paying attention to the game plan being mature about their approach.”

While Doncic and Irving are two of the NBA's best shot creators, the Mavs have benefited from effectively moving the ball with play-finishing execution, primarily in the paint. Still, when shots are falling from the perimeter, Dallas is a daunting attack to contain. They recorded 34 assists against the Kings, becoming the 15th time this season they've recorded 30 or more assists in a game, with six of these performances occurring in March. They are 14-1 in those games.

“I think that’s a true testament to the selflessness we have here. Just the mentality going into every game knowing that we’re ready to deal with all the punches teams throw at us," Irving said. "We feel like we have the resolve. We have the perseverance and we also have the IQ, we communicate very well and we’re getting better in that area. So when teams start throwing adjustments at us, I think you’re seeing a high-level and high-quality chess match against other coaches and other players.

"When it’s working for us, and we’re firing on all cylinders, where guys are coming off the bench, or our starters are getting easy baskets in transition, or guys getting into their iso situations and being highly efficient. We just want to feed that with good energy and encouragement. So we’ve seen selflessness, encouragement, and also a will to win your matchup.”

Over their previous 10 games, the Mavs have produced a 106.5 defensive rating, which trails only the New York Knicks during this span. It's set the foundation for the team to transcend poor periemter shooting nights from the unit, or even Doncic having uncharacteristic shooting performances. Dallas improved to 7-0 when containing the opposition to 100 points or less, with four of those games occurring in March. A significant element of that success has been the additions of Daniel Gafford and Washington to add size and length helps contain tougher matchups, execute in help defense, and close possessions with rebounds.

"With the additions of Gaff and P.J., understanding what those two do for us on the defensive end, their length, athleticism, and ability to rebound the ball for us [and] they can rebound out of position. When you talk about Derrick Jones Jr., his jumping ability is like no other. He can go get rebounds out of position. But again, they're just focused on the game plan and what they have to do and who's in front of them. It's not easy guarding Fox or Sabonis.

"P.J., we've asked him to guard one-through-five. He did that tonight," Kidd continued. "He guarded Sabonis. He guarded Fox. He never complains. He wants to go out there and do his job at the highest level. Everybody's playing for one another on both end."

Given the recent defensive results the Mavs have produced, Kidd sees the realization of the process the team has put in place since training camp. With the personnel to execute at a higher level, the results are there now. Combine the defensive improvement with having two elite offensive threats that trust teammates to make plays when making the right basketball decision, the confidence is high in what this team can achieve.

"Sometimes in the season, as much as coaches would like their defense, our defense to be perfect in training camp, it sometimes takes a little time," Kidd said. "There's no better time to play defense than in March when you're playing for something, And then again, our offense, we believe, is one of the best in the league. With our two leaders, we lean on those guys to be quarterbacks and they trust their teammates when they let go of the ball."

The Mavs will look to build on their strong performance on Monday when they face the Kings again in Friday's rematch. A loss would result in losing the tiebreaker since Dallas is 1-2 in the season series. Given the implications of chasing the sixth seed to avoid the play-in tournament, the implications are significant.