The ups and downs of an NBA season can sometimes be awful brutal on the nervous system. Such was the case
Sunday night at the Amway Center.
With a win over the hapless Orlando Magic, the Dallas Mavericks would have moved into a tie with the Utah Jazz for fourth place in the Western Conference standings. Instead, the Mavs were surprisingly upset by Orlando, 110-108, and now they find themselves in sixth place in the West standings.
What bothered the Mavs more than anything is that they led the Magic, 34-23, after the first quarter, only to see Orlando outscore them, 41-25, in the second quarter. And not only that, the Magic have the NBA’s worst record at 11-40.
“Obviously they’re an NBA team, they have young guys, they have a lot of talent, they play hard and they showed that (Sunday),” point guard Luka Doncic said. “But we shouldn’t give up 41 points in one quarter.”
Here are our five takeaways from the two-point loss to the Magic.
DONCIC RECORDS ANOTHER TRIPLE-DOUBLE: By now, teams know they can’t stop Luka Doncic. They can only hope he doesn’t get into one of those zones where no matter what they do – and if he sets his mind to it — he’s going to put up some rather staggering numbers. Doncic finished Sunday’s game with 34 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. It was his seventh triple-double of the season – fifth in the last 12 games. He also has 43 career triple-doubles, tying him with Fat Lever for 10th on the NBA’s all-time list.
POINTS IN THE PAINT: There were just way too many times where the Magic had way too many easy journeys down the lane and directly to the basket for dunks or layups. The Mavs know they have to do a better job protecting the paint, and they usually offer better resistance than they did Sunday. Overall, the Magic outscored the Mavs in the paint, 60-46. Orlando attempted 44 shots inside the paint and converted 30 of them for a percentage of 68.2 percent.
SECOND-CHANCE POINTS: Sometimes the 50-50 balls just get the best of a team, and that appeared to be the case Sunday. The Magic picked up nine opportunistic offensive rebounds and turned them into 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting. By contrast, the Mavs grabbed seven offensive rebounds and scored just four second-chance points on 0-of-4 attempts. (Don’t forget, free throws made following an offensive rebound count as second-chance points). That 12-point differential impacted the game immensely.
THE LAST EIGHT WERE NOT GREAT: The Mavs were having a terrific night from long distance. At one point they were 16-of-30 from downtown for a highly respectable 53.3 percent. Then came the frantic final few minutes, and suddenly three-point shots disappeared from the Mavs’ arsenal. The Mavs missed their final eight three-pointers, including four by Maxi Kleber – he also missed the game-winning three pointer – and one each from Luka Doncic, Marquese Chriss, Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock.
CHRISS HAD AN IMPACT: He may be under-sized when the Mavs use him as a center, but at 6-9 and 240 pounds, Marquese Chriss can certainly hold his ground around the basket. Chriss scored 14 points Sunday – one point shy of his season high. He also collected four steals, which is as many as he collectively had during the entire season going into the game against the Magic. And to top things off, Chris blocked two shots and was 6-of-12 from the floor in 19 minutes of work.
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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