WASHINGTON – Sometimes, the residue of a basketball game is better left untouched.
When the Mavericks lost 131-110 at New Orleans on Tuesday night, it was a lousy in-season tournament game played on a court that was hard on the eyes and even harder to play on, if you listened to some of the Mavericks.
But, as Tim Hardaway Jr. said, the court didn’t really have anything to do with getting spanked by the Pelicans.
“It doesn’t matter what I say,” he said. “They (NBA movers and shakers) are going to do whatever they want at the end of the day. Court, outdoor court, windy conditions. It doesn’t matter. Basketball is basketball.
“They just kicked our ass.”
That was the bottom line, for sure.
The Mavericks had 20 turnovers, a season worst. They did not shoot the three-point shot as well as they have been (14-of-42, 33.3 percent). And they did not pay attention to details that often decide games.
And so, they fell to 8-3 with a rough back-to-back coming Wednesday night against the Wizards.
We normally believe that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, but nevertheless, here’s a few takeaways from the debacle in New Orleans.
TOUGH TO DOUBLE UP: The Mavericks were reminded just how tough it is to beat a team twice in a row, especially on their home floor. The Pelicans are banged up and had not been playing well after five consecutive losses, including Sunday’s blowout win for the Mavericks at Smoothie King Center. But New Orleans played like a desperate team, which made them dangerous. “They came out with way more intensity. We expected that,” Grant Williams said. “You knew after a game a team is always going to respond in a tougher, more physical way. They also just played harder than us. We gave up 30 fast-break points in the first half. That’s got to be unacceptable for us.”
UNDER THE RADAR: All of the attention among this year’s NBA rookie class is about San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama. But the Pelicans appear to have a keeper in Jordan Hawkins. In his first season out of Connecticut, the 6-5 guard is averaging 13 points per game and he scorched the Mavericks for 25 points in 33 minutes. The Pelicans also got a lift from the return of Herb Jones, one of the NBA’s best defenders who missed Sunday’s game. Jones had five of the Pelicans’ 17 steals.
STOP THE SKID: The Mavericks haven’t lost two in a row this season yet and will look to keep it that way Wednesday in Washington. Yes, they had a complete dud on Tuesday. But the worst thing a good team can do is let one dud become two. “It happens over the course of a season, but you can let it be recurring,” Williams said. “The three losses we’ve had, they’re uncharacteristic of us. We have a game where we don’t do our job and rebound in Denver. And the game we lost to Toronto, they were more physical and out-toughed us. And this game, they played faster than us and with more edge. We know that team is very athletic and they do a great job getting out in transition and they’re very hard to beat when they do that.” The Mavericks found that out the hard way.
X: @ESefko
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