As he stood at his locker in the visitors’ dressing room at the fancy Intuit Dome, which might be AI generated from the ground up given the crazy gizmos and electronics it has, Naji Marshall didn’t waste two seconds thinking about where the Mavericks will have their first game in the SoFi play-in tournament.
“Doesn’t matter,” the Mavericks’ forward said. “Hell, no. Just get there.”
With the Mavericks trying to create a new identity in the span of, oh, about a week, they would obviously prefer to have the first game at home. They already have promised to provide season-ticket holders seats at that game. Making good on that pledge would be a nice way to end a turbulent season. And it might set up a spot in the playoffs.
But what a lost weekend in Los Angeles showed is that the Mavericks are either a terrible matchup with the Clippers or learning exactly what works and what doesn’t work as they try to fit pieces together that have not been at coach Jason Kidd’s disposal very often this season.
Both of those may apply.
The good news is that the Mavericks don’t have to worry about seeing the Clippers again this season, unless it’s in the second round of the playoffs or beyond, and who wouldn’t take that if you’re a Mavericks’ fan.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Gaining some shred of chemistry before the first play-in game on April 16 is of great concern. The Mavericks still have a 5-2 record when Anthony Davis plays. That’s good news.
But they also are 1-10 against teams with winning records since the All-Star break. That’s the bad news.
And in case that’s not enough for you, the Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t help out the Mavericks on Sunday as they lost at home to Sacramento, which meant the Kings moved to 38-40, a nose in front of the 38-41 Mavericks.
With Phoenix virtually eliminated from play-in contention, the home court in the first play-in game will come down to the Mavericks and Kings.
Since Sacramento has the tiebreaker, the Mavericks must finish with a better record to win the home court in that win-or-go-home game.
So what’s the key to finishing the final three games of the regular season with a sense of urgency and building a bit of momentum?
“Just play Mavericks basketball – come out with energy,” Marshall said. “We’re fighting for something and we got to play like we are. As long as we make the play-in, that will be good for us.”
Here’s a few other takeaways from the weekend in LA:
The Davis difference: Davis sat out Friday’s game for injury maintenance and returned Saturday with 27 points and nine rebounds. While the outcome was no different, the way the Mavericks played was as he started alongside Dereck Lively II and P.J. Washington on the front line. “You look at AD at (power forward), you’d say that we’re going to have the advantage on most nights,” Kidd said. “And that’s going to create the double team or if they play straight up we can win that matchup. He’s always wanted to play the four. And the plan is to keep him at the four, but at the end of the day, you want your best five out there to win the game so sometimes that might mean he slides over to the five (center). He’s a special talent because he can guard one through five. So I believe that him at the four defensively and offensively gives us an advantage to win.” And Kidd did not stop there, saying that Davis has handled the trade in February that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers “like a champion. Trades aren’t easy, especially midseason trades. But he’s done everything we’ve asked him. And he’s played at a high level when he’s been able to get on the court. Unfortunately, that injury against Houston set him back. But he’s excited to be a Mav and we truly believe he’s going to help us win a championship.”
Shooting not the only problem: While their shooting eyes betrayed them in LA (a combined 10-of-47 from three-point range in the two games), they had other issues, too. Mostly, the Mavericks didn’t push the tempo the way Kidd would have liked. “We missed some open looks. We got ‘em, we just didn’t knock ‘em down,” he said. “And then the pace just came to a halt. So that’s something we got to address. We got to play faster. As much as we want AD to touch it, we can’t just wait every time down and play through him on every possession. We got other guys who can score. So we got to be better at understanding the situation and our spacing – we have to improve that, too.”
Early look at Wednesday: The Mavericks will try to downplay it, but there will be no denying that Wednesday will be the craziest night of the regular season. Luka Doncic comes back for the first time since the trade that sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers in February. “Just another home game,” Kidd said with a deadpan grin. Then, he admitted that: “It should be electric. I think the fans will be excited to see Luka and we’ll be excited to figure out how to protect home court.” And then there was Davis, who when asked what extra emotions he will have on Wednesday against Luka and his former team, said: “No emotions.”
X: @ESefko
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