SALT LAKE CITY – Somehow, you had to figure something like this would happen.
It wouldn’t be a Mavericks’ season without some turbulence in the first month or two. They’ve made a habit out of muddling along until things start humming. And when they clear the choppy times, the food tastes better, the beer’s colder and every day is sunny.
So it’s nothing they haven’t been through before. They are 5-7 and riding a four-game losing streak. They went 0-3 on the road in the past week. In their four-game skid, the total margin of defeat is eight points – a one-point loss to Phoenix, two points to Denver and Utah and three points to Golden State.
So what’s the secret elixir that the Mavericks had last season but has been missing so far in 2024-25, when they are 1-6 in clutch games.
“I don’t know,” Naji Marshall said. “We’re still trying to figure it out. Stuff happens. Obviously it didn’t go in our direction, all we can do is get better from here. It’s still early in the season.
“We’ve been in every game. It’s sports. We’re just having a rough patch right now, but we’ll definitely get through it. We’ll get the next one.”
That would be against San Antonio on Saturday at American Airlines Center.
And the only real way out of any slump in sports is to fight your way out of it, which is what the Mavericks plan to do.
And they did that on the trip that finished with a 115-113 loss to the Jazz. The six-day journey was an utter disaster in terms of results. But the Mavericks insist this will serve them well at some point. They are getting a terrific education in what not to do in clutch games – those in which the score is within five points in the final five minutes.
“There’s a lot of hope,” Luka Dončić said. “We just got to be better. We’re getting beat, especially on the offensive glass. We can’t get a rebound. I think that’s mostly the main reason why we’re losing.”
Which brings us to our takeaways from the Utah loss and the trip as a whole.
A real glass-kicking: The Mavericks were outrebounded by the Jazz 40-30, the same 10-board deficit they had against the Warriors (50-40). In Denver, they were a bit more respectable, getting beat 45-42. They have been outrebounded in five of their last six games, reflecting their 1-5 record in those games. Not having Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber for most of those games had something to do with it. The Mavericks have been a smaller team with the injuries to their big men, including P.J. Washington. The bottom line is that they simply are giving up too many extra possessions to opponents and that makes it tough, no matter how good you are offensively.
Winds of change: Before the Utah game, Kidd was asked about the differences in the Mavericks’ offense in general and Dončić in particular. The number of pick and rolls is down so far this season. Kidd prefers to look at that as a glass-half-full situation. Basically, numbers can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say. As for Kidd? “I can say we have a better team than we did last year so he (Luka) doesn’t have to do those things. However you want to attack that question – when you do get better players, some things (numbers) do go down. That’s a compliment to the team. You have to embrace that, be unselfish with that, promote that. That’s a good thing, a positive thing. If the game is easier for one of the best players in the world, you’ll take that all day. And that’s what we’re getting used to.” And then he added: “Sometimes when things change, you got to be able to change with it. And I think he’s going to be able to do that as this marathon goes on.”
Target practice: It’s clear that opponents are throwing some silver-bullet efforts in the Mavericks’ direction. There are no off nights, or at least they are few and far between. “When you add someone like Klay, and (with) the depth we have and you have Luka and Kai, you’re going to show every night because if you can knock off the Mavs, that gives satisfaction of beating the Western Conference champs, but also a team that is talked about winning a championship,” Kidd said of what his team is seeing nightly. “Trying to digest that every night that we are hunted is something new for this group. And so we’re going through that right now and I think we understand where we are and what we have to get better at.”
Final thought: Despite times like these, the Mavericks remain one of the teams that has a legitimate shot at the championship this season. They have too much talent not to be in that group. And there are going to be more close games that the Mavericks are going to have to execute in. Said Kleber: “Sometimes, it goes one way, sometimes the other way, but we have two of the best closers in the league (in Luka and Kyrie Irving) and Klay (Thompson), who can knock down any shot. So we shouldn’t hide from those situations, we should embrace them.” Amen to that.
X: @ESefko
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