Way before the doors of American Airlines Center opened to the public on Sunday morning, thousands of fans were wrapped around the
building, eager to get inside to see the defending Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks perform in their annual Fan Jam.
It was the Mavs’ first appearance in front of their fans since winning Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, 122-84, on June 14. The Mavs went on to lose that series in five games.
However, with the offseason acquisitions of Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, Spencer Dinwiddie and Quentin Grimes, the fans know the Mavs have drastically improved their roster. And over 12,000 fans showed up Sunday and were anxious to get their first glimpse of the new-look Mavs.
But while guard A.J. Lawson scored a game-high 23 points, and center Dereck Lively II got the crowd all lathered up with 20 points, 11 rebounds and a truck load of dunks, the Mavs’ Big 3 of Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson did not play.
Dončić had already been ruled out beforehand as he’s dealing with a left calf contusion, and spent his time coaching the Blue team, who won, 88-79. Irving didn’t play and served as the coach of the White team.
And Thompson, who signed a three-year, $50 million free agent contract with the Mavs over the summer, also did not play in this glorified scrimmage.
Naji Marshall, who signed a three-year, $27 million free agent contract with the Mavs this summer after spending his first four seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, was awe-struck by how many fans were on hand for this 40-minute intrasquad scrimmage.
“I’ve had a lot of open practices and I’ve never seen that many fans,” Marshall said. “It was exciting to play in front of those guys.”
Marshall treated the fans to a star-studded show as he finished with 19 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals, showing that he’ll likely play a major role in the Mavs’ bid to win this season’s NBA championship. Marshall was 9-of-15 from the field and converted a pair of awe-inspiring field goals when he spun around the defenders and dropped in two baskets.
In addition, Marshall negotiated two alley-oop passes to Lively for dunks, including one where he tossed the ball off the glass and Lively grabbed it and dunked it in one fell swoop.
Marshall said: “I’m throwing lobs to big Lively and watching (Grimes) shoot it and knowing Klay is on the bench. Luka is coaching one team and Kyrie is coaching the other is still amazing to me.
“I’m assessing my first switch (of teams) in the NBA, too. It kind of feels so crazy to me. I feel like it’s all going to end and I’m going back to the Pelicans soon.”
Well, not exactly.
Lively definitely made his presence felt as he’s looking forward to following up on an impressive rookie season. On Sunday, Lively was 10-of-14 from the field and totally abused the rim as he collected nine dunks.
Two of Lively’s lob dunks resulted from passes by Jaden Hardy, who also had an impressive showing. Hardy was 5-of-7 from the field – he was 4-of-8 from three-point land – and collected 14 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Also for the Blue team, Jazian Gortman tallied 17 points and picked up three steals, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper finished with 12 points on 6-of-
10 shots, and added six rebounds and two steals. Even Mavs player development coach, God Shammgod, played one minute and registered an assist on a three-point shot by Hardy before he happily went back to his seat on the bench.
In addition to Lawson, the White team got 17 points from Emanuel Miller, 16 from Grimes and 15 points and eight rebounds from Daniel Gafford. Grimes wowed the crowd when he raced up and tossed the ball off the backboard, and finished his creative maneuver with a dunk.
Wanting more, the fans unleashed chants of: “We Want Klay” in both the first half and the second half.
“I would have been chanting, too, if I was a fan, for sure,” Marshall said. “But he’s holding it down and he’ll be here soon.”
Maybe the fans will see Thompson on Monday when the Mavs open preseason play at 7 p.m. at AAC against the Memphis Grizzlies.
As far as his own overall performance on Sunday, Marshall said: “When I’m working with – shooters, bigs or great wings – I’m just so excited. They put me in an unbelievable position to make plays and that’s what I thought I’d do best.”
Meanwhile, while he’ll be re-evaluated on Wednesday to determine if he’ll play in Thursday’s preseason game at AAC against Utah, Dončić did convert a wild length of the court shot once the scrimmage ended. So, how were his coaching skills?
“Unbelievable,” Marshall said. “We were up by 30. I think he did a pretty good job.”
X: @DwainPrice
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