Mavericks hope to stay on right path
In early February, the Mavericks began a seven-game win streak during which they traded Grant Williams to the Hornets for P.J. Washington and added center Daniel Gafford from the Wizards.
But then came a four-game road trip during which the Mavericks were blown out by the Pacers, lost to the Cavaliers on Max Strus’s 60-foot buzzerbeater, then won in Toronto before being pounded by the Celtics. Coming home offered no salve, as the Mavericks were thumped by the 76ers and again by the Pacers.
There is a level of impatience in Dallas. The franchise hasn’t been to the Finals since winning the title in 2011 and there’s a perception it is wasting the prime years of Luka Doncic because it is unable to surround him with a capable supporting cast.
But those two aforementioned trades and a healthy Kyrie Irving were supposed to turn the Mavericks into contenders. There are questions as to whether Jason Kidd is the right coach or whether Doncic’s teammates enjoy playing with him because of his balldominant style and propensity to take shots.
After the second loss to Indiana, which shot nearly 54 percent and hit 18 3-pointers, Kidd admonished his team’s defense. And that came after Kidd complimented the Celtics for playing team ball, “It’s about team for them, you could tell by the ball movement.”
Some may have taken that as a shot at Doncic. Kidd said he’s just trying to devise ways for his team to reach its potential, to contend in the Western Conference.
“We have to be better,” Kidd said. “I’ve said this before, when we score, we’ll play both sides of the ball and that third quarter, we kind of went cold and they kept playing and that’s a credit to Indiana. They kind of play one way and that’s with their pace and putting pressure on you, shooting the three. We’ve got to be able to take the three away. We gave up way too many corner threes.”
The talent is there. Doncic entered the weekend leading the league in scoring, third in assists, and 18th in rebounding. Irving remains a dynamic scorer. Washington needed a change from Charlotte and has become a nodrama replacement for the talkative and sometimes combative Williams. Tim Hardaway Jr. is a consistent bench scorer and Gafford joined rookie Dereck Lively II for a formidable front line. So what’s the problem?
“We have the personnel,” Kidd said. “We have the team. This is actually a great test for us to be able to go through a hard time in March because it only gets harder in April, May, June. And so, this is a great test, to be tested in the sense of, ‘Are we going to let go of the rope? Are we going to continue to come to work?’ Everyone’s come to work. Everyone has a positive mind-set, energy. Everyone’s trying to do the right thing. Right now, it’s just not falling our way, but we’ve just got to keep continuing to keep pushing.”
Doncic has been accused of disregarding his defensive assignments, becoming a turnstile for opposing point guards while focusing solely on offense. Doncic and Irving comprise one of the weaker defensive backcourts in the NBA. They can score, but they don’t stop anybody.
“When you look at leaning on Luka offensively, which we do and he delivers, we have to be able to cover him and cover not just Luka, but [Irving] and the other three that are out there have to protect each other,” Kidd said. “It’s not just one on one. The players are too good in this league to just play one on one. We have to do, as a group, as a team, defensively, we have to guard the ball better. We have to help each other and then we have to finish the play by rebounding, and we can do this. We show signs of it.
“We just have to be — all and all, we can’t just give up the three, we have to be consistent. And we’re not being consistent right now, but we do have the guys who can do it. Luka can play defense, but we’re asking him to do a lot on the offensive end too, and so just understanding that it’s March. We can fix this. We’ll be ready for Thursday [a 114108 win over Miami]. We’ve got a lot of games left, but the personnel, we can look at different rotations. We can look at different starting lineups. We’ve talked about that before the game. We have options, and we’ll explore those.”
Gafford, who’s been in Dallas about a month, was left to explain what’s happening with his new team. Of course, his situation is more optimal than Washington, but there are concerning issues.
“I would say it’s just overall effort and communication,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s the trust factor with the team that has to level up if we want to at least make that push to get out of the bottom third [in defensive rankings]. Those are some of the main things I’ve seen, those are some of the main things we’ve talked about in practice, too.
“That’s one of the main things I want to do. I want to be the teammate that, if we don’t have any type of energy on the floor, I just come in and work.
It’s contagious. It goes from one person to the next, and then it helps us make that push down the stretch.”
It’s apparent chemistry could be an issue. Do the players like each other? Doncic is a remarkable player, but is he a leader? These are questions that have yet to be answered and the Mavericks need to address these issues immediately.
“With this league, it’s tough to win games consecutively,” Gafford said. “Everybody is going to give us their best shot, night in and night out. They’re going to give us 110 percent effort. We have to be ready for that, especially if we’re going to make that push to be the playoff team we want to be.
“It’s most definitely sticking together, but at the same time it’s the mindset of coming in night in and night out. Kyrie has said it, Markieff [Morris] has said it. We have a target on our back at the end of the day. We’re one of the best teams in the league, and we have to understand the fact that there’s going to be a lot of things that are thrown to us on a night-to-night basis. But we just have to stay poised in those situations, because the team that we want to be, that’s a team that’s going to be able to withstand those punches and then throw something back.”
Layups
Former Nets executive Jeff Peterson has taken over as executive vice president of basketball operations for the Hornets and one of the first decisions he’ll have to make is whether to retain coach Steve Clifford. Clifford, in his second stint as Hornets coach, was hired by former owner Michael Jordan both times. And while he has not had much to win with, Clifford may become the victim of Peterson’s promised changes for the moribund franchise. The Hornets will have another high lottery pick and a healthy LaMelo Ball returning, as well as All-Rookie team candidate Brandon Miller and center Mark Williams. There is a young foundation in Charlotte, but the franchise has never been able to attract premium free agents and has been rather stingy when it comes to coaching salaries, making it tough to attract top-tier coaches. Peterson, 35, is a fresh face and voice who now has one of the league’s more unenviable jobs . . . Another team that’s likely looking for a new coach is the Wizards, who lost their 16th consecutive game Wednesday night under interim coach Brian Keefe, a Winchester native. The Wizards are in line for the No. 1 pick and their new management team will have to determine how to attract quality free agents. The Wizards have drafted poorly over the past decade and have a serious lack of talent. Jordan Poole, expected to make a major impact after being acquired from the Warriors, has flourished since being moved to the bench. But he’s still guilty of some of the mental lapses from his Golden State days. Kyle Kuzma, who rejected a potential trade to the Mavericks, is having a career-best scoring season, but it’s done nothing to impact victories. Kuzma, who has a tradeable contract, could be moved this summer. Washington also is playing to avoid history. They are 4-26 at Capital One Arena and need two more home wins to avoid the worst home record in a 41-game home schedule in NBA history. The 1993-94 Mavericks, the season before they drafted Kidd, finished 6-35 at Reunion Arena. In case you’re wondering, the 1972-73 76ers, who finished an NBA-worst 9-73, were 5-26 at the Spectrum. Philadelphia played 13 neutral-site games that season, including several in Pittsburgh and Hershey, Pa.