Officially Annoyed: Mavs Spencer Dinwiddie Now Targeted by NBA Referees?
Although Luka Doncic's historic start to the 2022-23 season is the main reason the Dallas Mavericks have a 6-3 record and are winners of four consecutive games, Spencer Dinwiddie stepping into a bigger role after Jalen Brunson's departure has been important as well.
Through nine games, Dinwiddie is averaging 15.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 45.8 percent from the field, including 40 percent from 3-point range.
Those numbers are good, but they'd be even better if Dinwiddie was getting a more favorable whistle from NBA officials this year.
For his career, Dinwiddie averages 4.0 free-throw attempts per game. Last season 23 regular-season games with Dallas, he averaged 4.7 free-throw attempts per game. This season, however, Dinwiddie is averaging just 1.6 free-throw attempts per game, which would be approaching a career-low. And he’s averaging 10.7 drives per game so far, which is actually a slight uptick from his 10.4 drives per game with the Mavs last season.
His aggressiveness when attacking the rim hasn't changed, so what could be the problem here?
We don't normally feed into conspiracy theories, but during the Mavs' Monday night win over the Brooklyn Nets, it felt an awful lot like the officiating crew had a bone to pick with Dinwiddie due to the amount of egregious calls and no-calls that went against him. Could it be that NBA officials were sending a message to Dinwiddie after he publicly called out Tony Brothers in the previous game for allegedly calling him a "bitch-ass mother------?"
That incident is now being looked at by the league. ... and we'd like to take a closer look at the situation as well.
Let's take a look at a few of the plays from Monday where Dinwiddie's lack of calls led to him finishing with just two points on 1-of-8 shooting in 28 minutes. This kind of stuff has been happening all season, which is probably one reason why things boiled over between Dinwiddie and Brothers during the Mavs' win over the Toronto Raptors on Friday.
On this play, Dinwiddie drives baseline and then spins back to his right into the paint where Nets guard Joe Harris meets him. If Harris' arms were straight up, there would be no argument over a no-call on this drive. But his arms were arched over Dinwiddie as the shot attempt was made ... there was clear contact ... and yet, nothing.
On this second play at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Dinwiddie drives on Patty Mills from the top of the arc, but gets called for an offensive foul after spinning into the paint once again. The sideline official has an up-close look at the initial contact Mills makes with Dinwiddie before his spin, but instead of calling a foul there, he chose to call the offensive foul, which was petty at best.
The last one we'll show happened just three minutes later when Dinwiddie drove into the paint on Edmond Sumner, got hit on the arm/elbow as he went up, but yet again was on the wrong end of a no-call.
These are just three examples from the most recent game, but this kind of stuff has been happening to Dinwiddle all season thus far.
If the whistle starts to turn back in his favor some as the season progresses, er predict we'll see his points and shooting percentages rise even higher than what they are now.
Luckily for Dallas, the early-season disconnect between Dinwiddie and the officials hasn't cost the Mavs a game yet. Regardless, if the Mavs want to be the best version of the team they know they can be, Dinwiddie has to be the best version of himself as well ... and that can't happen when he's getting to the line 50 percent less of the time than he has throughout his entire career.
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