DALLAS, TEXAS- There is no place like home for the holidays as Dallas hopes to ring in the New Year with a .500 record, and will host their first home game of the season against the Charlotte Hornets tonight.
The Mavericks started the season not the way they expected, losing their season opener to the Suns in an underwhelming performance on the offensive end of the floor and then followed suit with a Christmas Day loss to the defending NBA champions the Los Angeles Lakers.
It didn’t take the Mavericks long to bounce back after getting their first win of the regular season against the Clippers on Sunday. Not only did Dallas win the game in a blow out but set records while doing so.
The Mavericks became the first team to lead a game at half by 50 points in NBA history, and held the Clippers to 27 points in the first half making the Mavericks the first team to hold an opposing team to 27 points or less in the opening frame in the last three seasons. The Mavericks also handed the Clippers their largest loss in franchise history. The new dynamic duo in Dallas Luka Doncic and Josh Richardson made history together as they were the first Maverick teammates in 20 years to score 13+ points in the first quarter.
Tonight Luka Doncic has the opportunity to make history again. If Doncic leads the Mavericks in scoring, rebounding, and assists it would be his 38th time doing so in his young career tying Dirk Nowitzki’s streak.
All history and historical events aside, the Mavericks need this win.
Through three games, the Mavericks have shown how well they can play with this new roster, and how disastrous it could be if they do not approach the game in the best way that suits the team. I believe the former is what we should expect from this team for the remainder of the season, but games like the one they have tonight should be circled on the calendar from the beginning of the season.
The Charlotte Hornets are still a young developing team and are currently 1-2 on the season but have respectively given good teams headaches. Despite tipping off the season against the always rebuilding Cavaliers, the Hornets lost a close game to the Oklahoma City Thunder 109-107, and beat a Nets team over the weekend that features superstar players Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving 106-104.
The Hornets outrebounded the Nets 52-46, but really made a difference rebounding on the offensive end out rebounding the Nets 13-6. This a concern because in the Mavericks Christmas Day loss to the Lakers, Dallas was out rebounded on both ends of the floor and the Lakers were able to convert offensive rebounds into second chance points, which resulted in the Lakers scoring 23 second chance points while the Mavericks lodged zero. Charlotte’s defense is nothing to scoff at either as they forced 19 turnovers and 8 steals, and shot 45% from the field in comparison to the Nets surprisingly average 43% from the field.
The Hornets are a team that can sneak up on good teams at the right time, and can exploit a team’s weakness, if taken lightly.
In the past three seasons the matchup between the two squads is an even draw.
In their season series last year, Dallas and Charlotte split the series, with both road teams taking home the W. The Mavericks have won the last three meetings and won the last matchup 116-100. In that game the Mavericks outshot the Hornets from the field and three point line, and outrebounded the Hornets. Much shouldn’t change about their overall approach in this matchup compared to last year, but it will be encouraging to see if this team will be able to carry their momentum over from their historical win on Sunday.
Rick Carlisle has spoken several times about placing emphasis on the defensive side of the court but based on the Mavericks last performance the players are removing the emphasis tag and swapping it out with the “identity tag”. Defense is no longer an extension of what or who this team is.
Defense is the identity of this team, defense in the words of Luka Doncic is the Mavericks “specialty” from this point forward.
