You know that message on the side mirror of your car that reads: objects are closer than they appear.
Didn’t apply Wednesday night at American Airlines Center.
The Mavericks kept checking their rear-views and the Chicago Bulls just kept getting smaller and smaller, finally disappearing in the dust left behind by Luka Dončić and friends.
The Mavericks lapped the Chicago Bulls 119-99 to move to 5-3 overall and 2-2 on this home stand that ends Friday against Phoenix. Dončić did most of his damage as the Mavericks were building a 25-point lead in the third quarter.
It was all window dressing after that. The Mavericks’ lead reached 30 before Chicago’s deep reserves made it look a bit more respectable at the end.
Dončić finished with 27 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds. Daniel Gafford and Kyrie Irving had 17 apiece. But it was the defense he and his teammates exhibited that turned this into a rout. The Bulls shot poorly, lingering in the 38 percent range until some easy buckets late got them to 41.9 percent for the game. The Mavericks clearly had something to do with the Bulls’ inability to score as their defensive rotations were crisp. And their rebounding improved as the game went along.
“Definitely one of those wins where we needed it,” Irving said. “Now we just need some carryover into Friday.”
The result made this a successful fact-finding mission for coach Jason Kidd, who often says that a long NBA season is about finding out exactly what players can and can’t do.
He liked what he saw on Wednesday.
“Our intent was right as a group for 48 minutes,” he said. “This is something we got to build on, especially if we’re going to have these injuries. This is one of our first (games) that you could see the flow and rhythm were on our side. We’ve been fighting to get that rhythm and hopefully we can build on this for Friday (against the Suns).”
One of the best aspects of the win was the Mavericks’ ball movement. They handed out 33 assists. For Luka, it was his second big assist game in a row after he had 15 on Monday against Indiana.
“Guys are making shots,” Kidd said. “It’s hard to get assists if we’re not shooting the ball straight.
“The catch-and-shoot is there. I thought the run-outs were big. If we can throw that ball ahead and put pressure on the defense, if we can rebound the ball, we can get out and run and get some easy baskets.”
Irving was one of the keys to springing the Mavericks early. He hit his first six shots and could have been headed to an epic scoring night. But that wasn’t in his plans.
The early scoring was great, but reading the game sometimes requires more than that.
“It’s going to depend on who’s got it going early,” Irving said. “And how well we utilize the gravity of our skill sets. That’s what we’re in the process of figuring out. How do we get the best out of each other? Because a lot of teams are scheming for us and we have yet to find that perfect game for us where the ball’s hopping and we’re running and getting defensive stops.”
So after his hot start, did he look to change things up?
“Just trying to keep everybody involved,” he said. “When I start off that hot I would love to keep pressing the gas. I think a lot of people at home are like, keep shooting, keep shooting. But as we build this team, I want to continue to have that selfless approach and do the little things on both ends to get guys open.”
It was a different sort of game for the Mavericks in that they were missing some key players.
That’s when Kidd likes to do some of his fact-finding missions. And he found out a lot on Wednesday – by necessity.
They were without three important pieces – starter P.J. Washington and key reserves Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber. All were out with injuries and it forced Kidd to adjust the rotation. Naji Marshall stepped into the starting lineup for Washington, who has a right knee sprain. O-Max Prosper and Dwight Powell were pushed into bigger roles.
Powell had impactful moments, particularly in the third quarter when the Mavericks put the game away. He drew a flagrant foul-1 on Bulls’ center Nikola Vucevic and hit both free throws to start what would be a four-point possession.
Powell ended with five points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in 20 minutes.
By the end of the third quarter, and in the first possessions of the fourth, it turned into a track meet, with the Mavericks converting a slew of breakaways.
Considering the Bulls came into the game owning the No. 1 ranking in pace of play in the NBA, the Mavericks showed they can put on their running shoes, too.
And their rebounding glasses, too. After getting beaten badly on the boards in the first half, the Mavericks did a much better job of not allowing the Bulls extra possessions in the second half.
X: @ESefko
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