It's Time to Stop Overlooking Dallas Mavericks and Friday NBA Takeaways
It's not particularly easy to drop a triple-digit score against the suffocating interior defense of the Utah Jazz. Prior to the Dallas Mavericks' 102-93 victory on Friday night, 11 teams had tried, and only three had been successful in their collective ventures.
In fact, the Jazz entered the losing effort allowing only 98.9 points per 100 possessions—the No. 4 mark in the NBA. But after the Mavericks got their number, that defensive rating figures to change a bit.
Dallas, as it's done throughout this young season, just refused to cave to conventional wisdom.
Before the 2015-16 campaign began, the Mavericks were widely written off as a team due for a massive drop-off. Every piece in the starting lineup was flawed, given Dirk Nowitzki's advancing age and correspondingly declining performance, the limited nature of Zaza Pachulia's game and the injury concerns of Chandler Parsons, Wesley Matthews and Deron Williams.
So much for that.
Head coach Rick Carlisle has masterfully milked every ounce of talent from his troops during the opening salvo, guiding the Mavericks to a 9-4 record that leaves them trailing only the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs in the always difficult Western Conference. Veterans who have been written off are producing. Unheralded young players such as Dwight Powell are thriving.
Nowitzki is even turning back the clock and earning a bit of minor MVP consideration, though he did drop out of the latest ladder produced by NBA.com's Sekou Smith. That might change again after Friday's performance, seeing as he tortured the normally stout combination of Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert with an 8-of-12 showing for 19 points, four rebounds, two assists, one steal and three blocks.
Though one of his misses was admittedly an air ball, he seemed to knock down everything he looked at.
Three-pointers? Sure. The patented one-legged flamingo fadeaway? Definitely. Bank shots out of the post? Why not?
But Nowitzki isn't the only player who's exceeding modest expectations this season.
When the Mavericks take on the Oklahoma City Thunder this Sunday, Deron Williams will be coming off a throwback performance that featured 23 points, six boards and eight dimes. Wesley Matthews might build some confidence after recovering from an 0-of-8 downtown shooting performance by knocking down a back-breaking and-1 runner as he fell out of bounds deep in the fourth quarter:
And let's not forget about Pachulia, J.J. Barea and countless others.
Nowitzki certainly isn't, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com:
This Mavericks team is a collection of former stars, contributors with serious limitations and players who haven't necessarily lived up to the individual hype. Take Matthews, who has seen expectations severely lowered after a devastating Achilles injury ended his final go-round with the Portland Trail Blazers.
But everyone who doubted Dallas—and yours truly must be counted among that group—forgot just how good Carlisle is at maximizing talent. He already has a roster with so many new pieces operating well enough that you can hear a distinct humming sound if you listen carefully.
As NBA.com/Australia associate editor Angus Crawford hinted at, Carlisle may actually be deserving of some MVP hype. Or at least some Coach of the Year love:
How many coaches could turn that mishmash of limited talent into such a treacherous team on any opponent's calendar?
Gregg Popovich certainly could. But beyond the San Antonio Spurs legend, it's tough to think of anyone who would be guaranteed to achieve these levels of early success. If you want to argue for Steve Kerr, Mike Budenholzer or someone else entirely, I won't stop you. Just keep in mind that they're far from guarantees.
Carlisle isn't quite in a class of his own, but he's pretty darn close.
Going on a 23-5 run, as the Mavericks did in the second quarter of their Friday night affair, typically isn't a fluke when working against a playoff contender with such a strong defense. Neither is beginning a season with a 9-4 record, especially when playing a schedule that has featured precious few cupcakes.
This makes six consecutive victories for Dallas, and the timing of the undefeated stretch has been absolutely fantastic. Of the team's next nine outings, only two will come from the comfort of the American Airlines Center. Things are about to get significantly tougher.
Carlisle has this team rolling right now, and everyone is playing with plenty of confidence. It's not too soon to admit that the preseason expectations were far too low from far too many people.
Now, we get to find out just how real these Mavs are.
Aftermath of Thursday Night's Festivities
The Golden State Warriors completed their remarkable comeback against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night, expending a ton of energy as they erased a 23-point deficit to stay unbeaten. Presumably, the losing side might have had more energy for Friday's game, considering it played like it had Thursday's game in hand for a sustained stretch.
However, that's not what it looked like one night later.
The Warriors used a fourth-quarter blitz from their small-ball lineup to knock off the Chicago Bulls 106-94 and extend their winning streak to 14 games. They looked tired at times, and Stephen Curry's shot was noticeably off, but the energy of Oracle Arena sparked yet another victory. Now, they have a chance to tie the best start to a season in NBA history when they travel to the Pepsi Center on Sunday.
Curry, who did have some highlights like the one above, finished with 27 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals, but this may well end up being one of his least impressive performances of the year. He failed to hit a number of three-pointers we've seen him drain with ease during prior outings, knocking down only three of his 11 deep tries. Meanwhile, the high-pressure defense from Kirk Hinrich and Jimmy Butler forced him into turning the ball over on six occasions.
Still, the Warriors wouldn't be denied. Not with Draymond Green taking over as a distributor, Harrison Barnes knocking down big buckets and the bench living up to the biggest moments.
On the flip side, the Clippers experienced deja vu, as they faltered immensely down the stretch of another tight game.
The last of those three long-range triples from Damian Lillard was the dagger, but it might not have been necessary.
The Portland Trail Blazers' All-Star point guard dropped 11 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, and the whole team was rolling on both ends of the court of its 102-91 victory. LAC just didn't have an answer, despite playing fairly well for most of the night.
As Dan Woike of the Orange County Register astutely observed, that's now two straight miserable performances in big moments:
If the Clippers are to assert themselves as true contenders, they have to flip the narrative around rather quickly. These lackluster efforts as the clock winds down simply won't cut it.
Philly's Phutility
How do you continue justifying this putrid on-court product?
After a 113-88 blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets, one that wasn't even as close as that wide margin might indicate, the Philadelphia 76ers have slumped their way to an 0-13 record. Once more, they're in striking distance of the all-time worst start to a year—the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets lost each of their first 18 contests.
Sadly, the "once more" is necessary. It took last year's Sixers 18 tries to get their first victory, and that effort against the Minnesota Timberwolves kept them from tying the futility record.
This year's team was supposed to be so much better. It should be so much better. Jahlil Okafor is in town, Nerlens Noel is improved and the whole roster is filled with actual NBA players. But that hasn't stopped videos like this one from emerging, via the Huffington Post:
Yikes. Trusting the process just isn't working.
Entering this game, Philadelphia was scoring 6.8 fewer points per 100 possessions than every other team in the league, plagued by constant sloppiness and an unending supply of turnovers. Even a middling defense hasn't helped it keep margins particularly slim in 2015-16.
This is now five straight games without scoring even 90 points. And making matters worse, the blowout loss on Charlotte's honeycombed court was only the beginning of a six-outing stretch on the road. Drop all those contests, and the Sixers could be staring at a home clash against the Los Angeles Lakers to open December—a game they'd have to win to avoid making it a record-setting 19 consecutive losses to start a season.
But at least Philly fans will always have this dunk from Jerami Grant.
When you have to cherry-pick meaningless highlights and attempt to justify those as signs of progress, that might be a sign something has gone wrong. Even the defense—one that ranked 13th in defensive rating during the 2014-15 campaign—has regressed significantly.
At this point, it might be time for the front office to realize something Robert Burns wrote about all the way back in 1785: that the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
New Orleans' Frontcourt Dominance
The New Orleans Pelicans have to turn their season around eventually, despite the extent to which injuries have ravaged their team. Still, it was a bit unexpected that the potential momentum-building victory came on a national ESPN broadcast against the San Antonio Spurs.
Though the Pelicans took control of the game when LaMarcus Aldridge retreated to the locker room with an ankle injury, they never relented. Not even when the All-Star power forward returned did they stop drilling shots from the outside or settling into strong defensive stances.
Ryan Anderson tortured whoever was defending him during the 104-90 victory, finishing with 30 points and seven rebounds. Thanks to a volcanic second half, the sniper hit 12 of his 21 shots from the field, including six of 11 from beyond the arc.
And after a passionate second half, Anthony Davis still may have been a bigger standout. His 20 points, 18 rebounds, three assists and two blocks are impressive, but his ability to serve as a leader and make huge plays like this block against Aldridge was even more important:
That's the fire the Pelicans need to see from their young superstar. That's the type of unrelenting effort NOLA as a whole needs to play with, regardless of who's lining up against it.
Even after the big win over a Western Conference rival, the Pelicans are only 2-11. The hole they're digging out of is still plenty deep.
Here Come the New York Knicks
If the New York Knicks were going to remain competitive in the Eastern Conference, it was going to be on the backs of a strong, team-oriented defensive effort while Carmelo Anthony carried the offense. In a 93-90 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder that pushed them to 7-6 on the season, that was exactly what happened.
Granted, OKC was playing without Kevin Durant, who's still recovering from his hamstring injury. But the Knicks managed to turn the Western Conference hopefuls into a one-man show while holding the Thunder to a putrid 3-of-29 showing from beyond the arc. They dared Russell Westbrook to beat them, and the strategy worked.
To put that in perspective, only one other team in NBA history has taken at least 29 tries from three-point territory and drilled no more than three of them, as the Golden State Warriors posted an identical line in '08 against the New Orleans Hornets. Expanding the membership of that club to two is...less than ideal.
And strong as the defense looked for New York, this was the Anthony show on offense.
Using quick post moves like the one above, the forward tortured the Thunder's defense with a combination of interior and perimeter dominance. He finished with 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field, stayed aggressive enough to attempt eight free throws and took advantage of whatever he was given.
Having a shooting weapon like Kristaps Porzingis is already paying dividends, because the Knicks can put Anthony in the post and let him work with his back to the basket. Defenses can no longer collapse against him, allowing New York to grind out possessions and control the tempo of games.
The Knicks are still a long way away from becoming contenders, but they can't be slept on during any given night. Not if they play like this.
Houston Rockets Still Struggling to Launch
The comeback victory over the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this week may have been nothing more than an exciting and dramatic fluke. After all, the Houston Rockets regressed right back to the form they previously displayed under former head coach Kevin McHale in a matchup against the similarly struggling Memphis Grizzlies, looking awfully apathetic in the 96-84 loss.
It's a bit inexplicable that a team with so much talent can look so disengaged for such long stretches. The Rockets constantly settled for bad shots when they weren't forcing terrible ones. On the other end, they were even worse, letting an often moribund Grizzlies offense constantly probe into the paint before earning uncontested looks.
The fourth quarter was particularly bad. As Chris Herrington of the Memphis Commercial Appeal noted, the Rockets missed each of their first 11 shots from the field during that final period, and they weren't exactly using too much purposeful ball movement:
McHale was the scapegoat for a team that didn't play hard and couldn't execute any schemes. While that appeared to change in J.B. Bickerstaff's first game as the head coach, the alterations may not have stuck.
Denver Can't Stop the Phoenix Backcourt
Even though Emmanuel Mudiay posted 26 points and five dimes while knocking down 10 of his 16 shots from the field, he couldn't help slow down the dynamic guards of the Phoenix Suns. No one could.
En route to a 114-107 comeback victory, Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight simply wouldn't be stopped.
The former finished with 22 points and three assists, though he was clearly the lesser player in the Phoenix backcourt Friday night. His teammate flat-out exploded for a scorching 38 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block, shooting 11-of-20 from the field, 6-of-10 from beyond the arc and 10-of-12 from the charity stripe.
How special is a performance like that? Since 1985, only Larry Bird has managed to match those box-score figures without taking more than 20 field-goal attempts. If we expand the criteria to allow for no more than 24 shots, just Vince Carter, Amar'e Stoudemire, David Robinson, LeBron James, James Harden, Hakeem Olajuwon and Blake Griffin join the club.
Given the light all those players are held in, that's an awfully nice list to be on.
Kudos to Brandon for having himself a Knight.
Unfortunate Injury of the Night
After logging 18 minutes in an eventual victory over the overmatched Los Angeles Lakers, Jonas Valanciunas exited while clutching his hand. It wasn't good news, per the Toronto Raptors' official Twitter feed:
Though the Raptors did get a 102-91 "W," this isn't what they wanted to hear.
Bismack Biyombo is a capable defensive backup, but Valanciunas had been having quite the impressive season. Heading into Friday night, he was averaging 13.5 points and 9.8 rebounds while shooting 56.2 percent from the field. Toronto was actually outscoring opponents by an additional 20 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor.
We don't yet know the time frame for his recovery, but we do know that the Raptors can't afford for him to be out too long.
Weird Stat of the Night
Tim Duncan will go down in NBA history as one of the 10 best players ever. But not even the legends of the sport are immune to inexplicably empty box scores. As Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News pointed out, this was the first time in Duncan's career that he didn't record so much as a single rebound:
Chances are, he'll play another 1,343 games before it happens again. And yes, we're banking on him spending that much more time in the league before he hangs up the sneakers for good.
Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com and are current heading into Nov. 20's games.
Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09.
