CLEVELAND – Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II was a fresh 25 games into his NBA career when he had to face one of the game’s
most dominant centers.
It was Cleveland’s All-Star Jarrett Allen, who has a history of chewing up opposing centers and spitting them out like they’re some worn out piece of bubble gum.
Allen finished that Dec. 27 game in Dallas with 24 points, 23 rebounds, six assists and two steals, while Lively had four points, four rebounds and two blocks. Allen also picked up nine offensive rebounds – two more than the entire Mavs’ team.
Needless to say, Lively would like to exact some type of revenge when the Cavs (37-19) entertain the Mavs (33-24) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Lively knows – as a rookie — being matched against an established veteran like Allen does not work in his favor.
“People who’ve been in the league, they’re able to get away with a lot more,” Lively said following Monday’s practice. “They’re
able to do a lot more hinging around the game without the refs worrying about them.
“He knows where he can block shots, he knows where his positioning needs to be, he knows where he needs to be.”
Lively experienced a similar education of sorts Sunday when Indiana Pacers’ center Myles Turner scored a game-high tying 33 points in his team’s 133-111 win over the Mavs.
“The game plan was for the bigs to come in and help, because (the Pacer guards are) going to penetrate, they’re going to penetrate, they’re going to penetrate (and) they’re going to have cutters to space it out,” Lively said. “It was (Turner’s) game (Sunday).
“Hats off to him. He’s a great player, but we got to have a different game plan (next week) when it comes to that team.”
Back in December, Allen led a charge which saw the Cavs outrebound the Mavs, 57-37. That performance by the Cavs has extended throughout the season as they come into Tuesday’s game owners of the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.
“They’re an amazing team,” Lively said. “I feel like they have a lot of pieces, they have a lot of ways to score and a lot of ways to play great defense.
“I feel like they’re one of the top teams in the East. So, we’ve got to be able to come out there and bring the energy, and we have to be able to take a punch and throw a punch again.”
Lively discussed the fact that the Cavs can beat teams on the perimeter with Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Caris LeVert, and also beat them on the inside with Evan Mobley and Allen.
“They’re a great team,” Lively said. “That’s why we’re here. We’re trying to get better, we’re trying to play everybody, we’re trying to learn.
“You want to go up against the best of the best, figure out what they do, learn from it, adapt to it and be able to try to come out on top.”
Lively figured t
he Mavs would have come out on top against the Pacers had they not turned the ball over 15 times, and if they were able to slow down Indiana. He hopes all of that will change against the Cavs, especially since the Mavs are an NBA-best 17-6 in clutch games – when the score is within five points with five minutes or less remaining in the game.
“We just got to be able to get our principles right,” Lively said. “We got to be able to get our rotations right. There were some times in our defensive transitions that we weren’t playing the ball, we weren’t talking, we weren’t rotating right and we weren’t picking up our man.
“But it really just comes down to us just being able to lock into the game plan and lock in on the floor. We had a lot of turnovers the last game, but we’ve got to be able to move on and go to the next (game). It’s a long road trip.”
A long road trip that’ll get longer if Lively and the Mavs can’t control Allen on Tuesday night.
“I’ve watched his film, I understand kind of what he does,” Lively said. “So, you just got to be able to try to neutralize what he does and try to be able to exploit his weaknesses.”
X: @DwainPrice
Share and comment