What a terrific night Wednesday was at American Airlines Center.
First the Mavericks took down the Golden State Warriors 99-82, locking down the Steph Curry-led visitors defensively. It was the lowest point total for the Warriors this season.
Then, it was Dirk Nowitzki’s moment (again) as his No. 41 jersey was retired in a postgame ceremony that was touching, funny and well worth the price of admission.
Those are the highlights, but here’s our other takeaways from the joyous night.
DIRK IS THE MAN: As his kids sat there on the court while their dad was talking to the massive crowd at AAC, you couldn’t help but wonder what the three Dirklets think about their dad. They are getting old enough now to know that their father was more than just a basketball player. “They understand a little more now,” Nowitzki said. “When we travel and people follow me – ‘can we get a picture’ – and they (the kids) joke around a little: papa, for Instagram, let’s do it. So they do get it a little bit . . . they understand that papa was halfway decent at something.” Yeah, halfway decent. No. 6 all-time leading scorer in NBA history. Halfway decent.
DEFENSIVE ROLL CONTINUES: This was the fifth consecutive game that the Mavericks have kept their opponent under 100 points. The last three have been limited to fewer than 90 points. Not surprisingly, the Mavericks overall defensive rating has risen markedly. They woke up Thursday as the No. 6 overall defensive team, according to basketball-reference.com. And their won-loss ledger is benefiting, too. They have won four in a row for the first time this season and five of their last six to get to 20-18, the first time they’ve been two games over. 500 since Dec. 1. As Luka Dončić said: “Today, it was just unbelievable the way we played defense, everybody together.” They held Steph Curry to 14 points on 5-of-24 shooting. He was 1-of-9 from 3-point range. Not all of that was the Mavericks’ defense, but it certainly bothered him to some degree. And, by the way, they are defending well without fouling. They had 15 personal fouls against the Warriors, the third time in their four-game win streak that they have had 15 or fewer fouls.
STRONG NUMBERS: Dorian Finney-Smith continues to be on a nice roll. He’s scored in double figures in his last 11 games and is averaging 13.9 points and 5.5 rebounds in that stretch. He’s also shot 39.7 percent from 3-point range. He had 17 points and nine rebounds against Golden State as the Mavericks improved to 5-2 this season when he scores 15 or more points. In addition, Jalen Brunson extended his career-best double-figure scoring streak to 19 games. He’s averaging 17.5 points since Dec. 1.
DISTRACTIONS? WHAT DISTRACTIONS? When you have a big event accompanying a game – like a ring ceremony or a jersey retirement – it sometimes can cause the home team to lose just a little focus. That was not the case for the Mavericks on Wednesday as they stayed in the moment well enough to put the NBA’s best team (by record) in the loss column. Coach Jason Kidd said before the game that his team had a job to do and could party with Dirk Nowitzki later. And so, the Mavericks went out and took care of business.
TIME FOR A SURGE: OK, the Mavericks have won four in a row. Could it become seven in a row? Two of their next three opponents are below .500 (Houston, 11-28, New York, 18-20). In between is East-leading Chicago (25-10), but that game comes at American Airlines Center where the Mavericks are 2-0 in 2022. After that, the Mavericks get lightweights Orlando and Oklahoma City, who are a combined 20-56 before Toronto (18-17) visits. Clearly this is a time to pad the record, especially since the Mavericks are getting healthy with players coming back from health and safety protocols and the way they have embraced the defense of late.
Twitter: @ESefko
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