Three Thoughts: Lakers Roll Dallas Late
In a game everyone watched but almost nobody wanted to see, Dallas loses in fourth quarter.
Admittedly, we have probably not written this much about the Mavericks without actually addressing the enormous elephant that now lives inside our living room.
That is, the main problem with trading someone as gifted as Luka Dončić is that you will no longer have him to facilitate almost everything you do offensively. How that was not painfully obvious to anyone who runs this organization will be placed on the pile of mysteries around the trade, but it was on full display on Tuesday night in the 107-99 loss in Los Angeles.
If every player with the Mavericks has been their best version of themselves offensively since arriving—P.J. Washington, Spencer Dinwiddie, Naji Marshall, etc.—then we should understand what taking away a triple-double machine would do to the shot quality, space, and time that each has been afforded playing in an offense where Dončić has multiple bodies thrown at him regularly. This isn’t that complex. All sports are a series of numbers games, and if they send two at him, then you have four guys to play their three in nearly every other situation. He demands a double team because nobody can guard him straight up. That leaves open looks and lots of real estate for others if you attack quickly. The corner threes are wide open at will. The “good looks” are a standard part of every possession in every game. If you knock them down, you win.
What we have seen in these few weeks without Dončić, and even more last night, was a more difficult and—dare we say—“normal” shooting situation for these guys. And in doing so, they have no space and are taking difficult shots. So, to see the team struggle for good looks is something we should expect more often. Will Anthony Davis offer a remedy? To a certain extent. But I think it is fair to wonder if you just knocked P.J. back to sort of what he was in Charlotte on offense. The same for Dinwiddie everywhere he played but Dallas.
The open looks are gone because he is gone. And we haven’t even talked about crunch time—a place in every game where he excelled and where the Mavericks barely scored last night when the game was hanging in the balance. The space is gone. The time is gone. And for the most part, so is the efficient offense.
Who would have guessed this would happen almost immediately upon his exit? Well, literally everyone who was wondering what in the heck you were thinking.
The Mavericks can take solace in knowing they have continued to play hard and scrappy in the stretch since the trade and did fight their hearts out in Los Angeles last night, but in the end, they did not have nearly enough.
These are My Three (other) Thoughts: