When Moses Brown dug out a rebound in the second half of Sunday’s Fan Jam scrimmage, he quickly wheeled and put up a short jump-hook over Boban Marjanović, no small feat given Boban’s 7-foot-4 status.
The ball cradled into the net.
A few plays later, the 7-2 Brown blocked Marjanović on an attempted layup.
Nearby, Tyson Chandler, the Mavericks’ special adviser for big men like Brown, waited at the next timeout to high-five the third-year center.
Of course, Boban, who probably was correct in yelling that he got hacked on one of the earlier plays, would get the better of Brown a couple of times later in the half.
It was a noteworthy matchup in the scrimmage in front of a cozy gathering at American Airlines Center.
While the work of Luka Dončić and Kristaps Porzingis provided plenty of optimism going into the preseason starting on Wednesday, it was plays like the ones Brown had that gave some clues about how the Mavericks’ rotation might look later this month when the regular season begins.
So has this been happening a lot in training camp’s early practices?
“Moses has frustrated everybody, especially on the offensive rebounding,” coach Jason Kidd said. “He’s going to help us be a better rebounding team just because of his length and his effort. Moses has been great, putting a lot of pressure on us at the rim defensively and then being able to give us second and third opportunities.”
Is Brown getting Kidd’s attention when it comes to dividing up playing time?
“He has everybody’s attention, coaches and teammates, because they know if there’s a missed shot, there’s a second opportunity to come unless he’s shooting it,” Kidd said.
Brown, by the way, was only credited for one block in the 40-minute scrimmage, but he was the leading rebounder with nine and helped anchor the Blue team’s defense in their 72-57 win over the White team.
Luka sharp: In the first half of the scrimmage, Dončić had it rolling offensively.
He led the White team to a 14-2 lead early on. And when the mandatory timeout came at the 10-minute mark, Dončić playfully told Kidd that the timeout should not have interrupted play.
“He’s competitive,” Kidd said. “He’s ready to go and he thought he had the advantage, but the timeout was called.
“I told him that was the only way we could stop him from scoring at that point because he was on fire.”
Kidd added that the communication so far has been “high level” between him and the superstar point guard.
Kidd also saw some improvement from Dončić in at least one key area.
“We pointed out to him that he wasn’t arguing with the officials and he wasn’t arguing with the scorekeeper, which people have brought to my attention he has done in the past,” Kidd said with a laugh. “And he didn’t argue with the officials at all today.”
Enthusiastic crowd: Attendance for the Fan Jam was down somewhat from past events, probably because of the Cowboys playing at roughly the same time.
But the smallish crowd made up for a lack of numbers with plenty of enthusiasm, especially when Dončić began throwing T-shirts into the stands during a timeout.
“That’s great for a Sunday with the Cowboys playing,” Kidd said of the crowd. “It shows how strong the Mavs’ fans run. It was a great turnout, especially with the circumstances we have right now. Great to see.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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