OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA — The Mavericks are doing a Drake number playing in back to back games to begin the second half of the schedule. Dallas is coming off a decent win against the San Antonio Spurs which helped the Mavericks tie the Spurs for first place in the Southwest division and the 7th seed in the Western Conference.
Despite their win, there were still small inconsistencies. Rick Carlisle described it as a “tale of two halves” and went even further stating that the first half was “disjointed” and said his team was distracted by a lot of things in the first half.
An encouraging statistic to take away from this game was how deep the team went to get production. 10 players on the Mavericks scored a basket in the first half and the bench scored 25 first half points. Members of the bench mob Jalen Brunson, Willie Cauley- Stein, James Johnson, and Trey Burke converted on 91% of their shots from the field and knocked 2 of the Mavericks 4 three pointers.
The Mavericks focus shifted to ball security and playing better on the defensive end going into the second half, and the proof is in the outcome. Dallas held the Spurs to 36% shooting from the field and from beyond the arc in comparison to their strong first half performance converting on 55% of their shots from the field and 47% from their shots from beyond the three point line.
Speaking of three pointers, the Mavericks have shot worse from three point land than the opposing team in their last three games but still came out with a victory.
Now that’s impressive.
What I found most interesting about this team is how quickly they adjusted from half to half, and how effective they were in slowing down the Spurs attack. During this impressive stretch the Mavs have shown the ability to shift into their second gear seamlessly and doing so mostly in the fourth quarter, leading to the Mavericks grabbing their 11th win in 13 games.
Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis playing well has been the formula for success. When KP records a double-double the Mavericks are 7-2 and 4-0 when he goes 20-10. In the last 11 games Luka has averaged 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. In those games Luka has 30+ points in five games and 40+ in three games.
Dallas will face the 15-21 Oklahoma City Thunder tonight who held them to their lowest scoring total of the season 8 days ago. Luka missed the series opener, but the Mavericks still pulled out a win concluding the first half of the season in a nice collective win for the squad.
There will not be any easy outs from this point forward, and only a few games separate the lower ranked teams from the middle of the road teams in the Western Conference playoff race. Dallas is right in the thick of it and if they can continue to build upon their winning streak, it will help establish a beneficial position amongst the ranks in the West.
