Sometimes, it takes a village. Or a committee. Or a band of brothers all willing to pull in the same direction, although so far for the Mavericks, they haven’t been able to pull all at once.
Through the first four games, the Mavericks had four players who could stake a claim for being their most important player off the bench in at least one of those games.
Dereck Lively II has been the most consistent producer in a reserve role. But Spencer Dinwiddie, Jaden Hardy and Quentin Grimes also have had games when they provided the key spark that ignited the Mavericks when they needed a jump-start. And Naji Marshall is no doubt primed to join the party soon.
The Mavericks are built around three future hall of famers who are terrific offensive players.
But even that wealth of firepower needs help.
And while sometimes teams rely on one player to be the sixth man and do the bulk of the damage offensively off the bench, the Mavericks so far haven’t been built that way in the infancy of this season.
“We would love to have Jason Terry or that type of player,” coach Jason Kidd said. “It makes it easy because that role is filled.
“We’re trying to get guys comfortable in their role. We’ve had different looks as we go through this journey to see who’s comfortable in that role.”
Thursday wasn’t particularly comfortable for anybody coming off the bench. And really, the starters were blah, too, for the first three quarters when the Houston Rockets earned as much as a 23-point lead. The big three came alive in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets were able to hang on for a 108-102 victory, the Mavericks’ first home loss of the young season.
The Mavericks’ reserves were outscored 33-21 by the Rockets’ bench, not a good sign for a team that considers itself one of the deepest in the NBA.
This clunker aside, Lively so far has been the most reliable bench member. He’s not necessarily the prototype for bench scoring. Usually it’s a guard or small forward who fills that role, as Terry did for the Mavericks so well for years, including the 2011 championship run.
But the 7-1 center, who shares time with Daniel Gafford but who has averaged 26 minutes to Gafford’s 20, has been a force at both ends of the court.
“(He’s) one of the guys who may be a little taller than Jason Terry and might not shoot the three at a high clip, but D-Live is being looked upon as that sixth man,” Kidd said. “He could be Jason Terry in a different light.”
Another possibility, Kidd said, is Dinwiddie, who had 11 important points in the 110-102 win over Utah on Monday.
“Spencer, he’s a pro,” Kidd said. “Coming here, he could be the 15th guy. He’s turned out to be the sixth guy right now. That role could change as we get healthy or that role could change if someone’s out where he could start.
“You need those type of guys on your team to be able to adjust to a role on the fly and he’s one of those guys that can do that. He’s doing that for us at a high level right now.”
Klay reaches 2,500: With his second three-pointer, which got the Mavericks within 98-94 with under four minutes left, Klay Thompson reached 2,500 triples for his career.
He becomes the sixth player to nail that many trifectas in NBA history, joining Steph Curry (the leader at 3,758 and counting), Ray Allen, James Harden, Damian Lillard and Reggie Miller.
Thompson will pass Miller for fifth on the list with 61 more three-pointers, which could happen sometime around New Year’s Day.
Rockets growing up: The Rockets are a team built around a handful of good players, none of whom have made the leap to superstar status.
Jalen Green may be trying to change that. He came into Thursday’s game averaging 28.8 points and shooting 41.5 percent from three-point land.
At halftime against the Mavericks, the 6-4 fourth-year guard had just seven points. He heated up in the second half and his three-pointer with 1:12 to go put the Rockets up 103-97. He would finish with 23 points to go with 12 rebounds.
Behind Green, the Rockets entered Thursday with four other players behind Green averaging between 10 and 15 points. That trend continued as they had five players behind Green score between 10 and 17 points.
Briefly: Dereck Lively II, who lists his favorite movie as Jurassic Park, arrived at American Airlines Center dressed as one of the workers at the dinosaur park . . . Dante Exum (right wrist) and Maxi Kleber (right hamstring) remained sidelined for the Mavericks. Kidd gave no timeline for Kleber, saying it was unclear if the 6-10 center/forward would be able to return on this five-game home stand. Exum is out indefinitely after wrist surgery . . . Rockets’ coach Ime Udoka had this to say about the Mavericks with Klay Thompson: “It’s another threat out there. Already hard enough with two really good scorers and creators like Irving and Dončić. So another threat that everybody respects. Great addition, another good job by Nico adding to the pieces thay already have. Got the lob threats, the scoring threats with those two and the shooting threat now.”
X: @ESefko
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