Christian Wood sat down Monday night to chat with a few reporters after the 111-106 win at Houston and as he looked at the box score, one thing stood out.
“Five blocks. Season high.”
And three of those came in the fourth quarter, when the Mavericks clamped down on the Rockets, kept them to 19 points and 6-of-18 shooting. After trailing by 18 points in the third quarter, the Mavericks ran down the Rockets with their defense.
“I was trash on defense (in the first half),” Wood explained. “(In the second half), I was defending and altering shots. Good teams have to find a way to win.”
Wood has had at least two blocked shots in nine of the last 10 games (he had one at San Antonio). He’s averaged 2.7 rejections during that span and it’s not coincidence the Mavericks have won seven in a row.
He’s also averaged 20.9 points and 8.6 rebounds in those 10 games.
“C-Wood, defensively, he’s blocking shots, he’s rebounding the ball,” coach Jason Kidd said. “And offensively he’s playing off Luka (Dončić) and he’s not forcing anything. I think the combination is a really fun combination to watch.”
For the last couple three weeks, it certainly has been.
And here’s a few other takeaways from the Mavericks’ win at Houston.
FREE FOR THE TAKING: Dončić’s showing against Houston might look pretty typical. A 39-point, 12-rebound, eight-assist night just isn’t all that unusual anymore. But the way he went about it was. The superstar point guard had 10 points at halftime. His three-point shot was failing him (1-for-9 for the game) and his team was getting buried. He had to think of something. So he put his head down and went to work, literally. Luka began driving to the paint and he ended up making 22 trips to the free-throw line, 16 of them after halftime. “When things aren’t going well for him, if he’s not shooting the three well, just his maturity to understand there’s other ways to score (is big),” Kidd said. “And when you’re losing, to be able to score when the clock isn’t moving is a way to get back into the game and I thought he did that at a high level.”
EXECUTION IMPROVING: The Mavericks lost their share of games earlier this season by not making plays at crunch time. That has turned around during the winning streak, which has featured five games decided by six points or fewer. “Two things: Obviously, we went through it in practice,” Luka said. “But second, just knowing each other. I think those things have helped us. And we got four stops in a row (in the final 90 seconds) and that gave us the game.” The Mavericks clearly have learned that certain things have to be done in tight games and they are the difference between winning and losing. “You relish those moments,” Tim Hardaway Jr. said. “You don’t want to be in them. But it’s basketball, things happen. I’m glad we’re in clutch situations. We battled back and got the job done.”
FINAL THOUGHTS: Luka isn’t the only Maverick who is getting into the history books these days. Wood had 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists, five blocks and three three-pointers made. He’s the third different Maverick to post those numbers in a game, joining Dirk Nowitzki and Kristaps Porzingis . . . Spencer Dinwiddie was having a rough shooting night, missing all six of his shots in the first half. But he was symbolic of the Mavericks’ turnaround as he hit four of seven shots in the second half, including an 18-footer with 10 seconds to go that made it 109-106 . . . Seven-game winning streaks are hard to come by. The Mavericks haven’t had one since 2011. And we all know what happened that season. “I’ve been part of both, that’s kind of cool,” said Kidd, who was the point guard on the championship team. “The guys in that locker room, again, you could easily say the new year, being on the road, and can’t wait to get back home. But the guys came out in the second half and Luka gets going without the three-ball tonight. He trusted his teammates. We showed up in the second half.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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