Heading into today’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Dallas Mavericks are 1-3 in their last four games.
The Eastern Conference road trip didn’t go as planned for Dallas, as they lost to the Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. The end of the Cavs game was crazy, as Max Strus drilled a Buzzer shot from beyond half court to defeat Mavsbut the other two defeats were a bit worrying.
The Celtics are clearly the best team in the league and the Mavs have been trailing, but Dallas ultimately lost the game.
After watching this game, it’s clear that the Mavs struggle to defend bigs who can stretch the court and knock down threes. In the game against Boston, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford combined for a 6-13 shot from downtown, and one of them always looked open on the perimeter.
The Mavs didn’t contest many of their close threes, and a lot of their looks were wide open. This was even with the Mavs going small, as Maxi Kleber played small-ball center for a large majority of the second half. This came at the expense of Daniel Gafford’s minutesas he didn’t play in the second half, and the Mavs need to find a way to slow down teams that have centers capable of stretching the court.
Derek Lively II played very well against Boston, but was late to contest some of Porzingis’ threes that he was knocking down. Lively II is still extremely young and his overall game will continue to improve, but he needs to improve a bit to finish his big shot quickly.
The same goes for Gafford, but it appears he won’t be on the floor if the other team has a stretch center on the floor. Gafford did well guarding space against Boston, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be in the late-game rotations given the Mavs seem to like to play small late in games depending on matchups.
With Lively II and Gafford excelling as defenders in drop coverage in the pick and roll or pick and pop, it’s clear the Mavs need to get better at slowing down bigs who can stretch the floor, whether he whether Kleber, Lively II or Gafford. on the floor.
For all the latest Maxi Kleber, Daniel Gafford, Derek Lively II and Dallas Mavericks basketball news, stay tuned.
