NOTES: Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said playing time for C/F David Lee, who has averaged 11.3 points and 9.0 rebounds in 20 minutes over six games since joining Dallas, will continue to increase, and mostly at center, cutting into starting C Zaza Pachulia’s minutes. The Mavericks fell to 7-4 with the 116-114 loss.
Advertisement
In fact, after this loss, you could hear the echoes of Jim Mora’s famed “Playoffs?!” OK, not actual echoes, but Mavs players and coaches were not taking anything for granted after one of their worst losses this season.
Both teams went cold at the start of overtime before Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer with 2:03 left to give Dallas a 111-108 lead.
It’s not quite as dire as its sounds, but it underscores the tightness of the race. Nowitzki recorded 12 points and six rebounds at the break, and tied the game at 61 with 7:15 to go in the third quarter by making the shot and drawing the foul for the three-point play. That might not seem very odd, but he’d only had 10 all season long before tonight’s game, according to Basketball-Reference.
Whichever way you choose to slice it, Chris Paul caught some ungodly kind of fire in the third quarter, scoring 18 of his 27 points to accelerate the Clippers past Dallas, 109-90.
The transition defense is a disturbing trend for Dallas.
If it wasn’t panic time before, I’d say it’s panic time now.
I won’t beat the dead horse about Jordan returning to Dallas because we need to get over the sour summertime fling that left the Mavericks in a panic. “We got to figure it out as a team”. Dallas is one of the most disciplined teams in the league with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.78.
The Nuggets had to survive a shower of 3-pointers and make plays defensively that had eluded them in recent games to get it done, including a steal at the end of regulation that allowed them to tie the game. That’s why the two losses to non-playoff teams last weekend were more than frustrating.
Matthews admitted that some of the missed shots might be impacting this team’s toughness, and that the Mavs can’t be a “basket-driven emotional team”.
“It’s definitely not a chemistry issue”, Chandler Parsons said.
“The play was for me to come off and curl to the corner, but Raymond Felton overplayed me so I just popped back, (Mudiay) hit me with a pass, and I tried to drive and create something”, Augustin said.
“We do (have the talent)”, Carlisle said. “Tonight it got ugly”.
Parsons probably had the most troubling quote of the night, when asked what the Mavs’ biggest problem was, if it wasn’t talent or team chemistry. Cuban used the unusual tactic of telling Matthews that he’d pay as much as possible depending on Jordan’s decision, a promise that ultimately cost the Mavs an extra $13 million over the course of the contract. “If we knew what it was then we wouldn’t be losing these games”. The Clippers however did not attempt their first free throws of the game until midway through the second quarter.
Advertisement
Clippers coach Doc Rivers was impressed with Jordan’s performance and was happy with the way the center handled the hostile road environment.
