Mavs’ depth has been on display early

The Mavs’ bench has been getting it done early in the season.

That shouldn’t exactly be a surprise, as for several years Dallas has had one of the best benches in the NBA. But this season is sort of different. The Mavs’ starting five has been shooting the lights out in first halves through four games, scoring 129.9 points per 100 possessions in the first two frames on 61.2 percent shooting and 50 percent from three. Unfortunately, though, that unit has run into trouble to open second halves. That’s when the bench has come in not only to halt the run, but to shift momentum completely back into Dallas’s favor.

Take Monday’s game against Boston, for example. With 4:42 left in the third quarter and the Mavs lead at eight, 77-69, reserve Devin Harris drew a shooting foul and went to the line. After his first made free throw, Brandan Wright and Richard Jefferson checked in alongside starters Chandler Parsons and Monta Ellis. Dallas would proceed to score seven points in 47 seconds to stretch the lead to 15 and force Boston head coach Brad Stevens into using a timeout. The Celtics obviously would surge back even further later in the game, eventually reducing the Dallas deficit to just one point, but the second unit provided a boost that momentarily turned the game back around.

That’s been that unit’s calling card all year long. Perhaps the two best five-man units for the Mavs this season are made up mostly of bench players. Below are the two common second units we’ll see in an average game, with their stats compared to the starting lineup’s.

Those are ridiculously positive numbers for Dallas. None of this is to say that the starting lineup isn’t getting it done, either — a 7.8 net rating for 12 minutes per game, as the starting lineup is averaging right now — is going to win you a lot of games. The Mavs’ second unit is simply piling on even more points (and playing excellent defense) on top of what the starters are doing.

A huge key to the second unit’s floor spacing and performance in general is Dirk Nowitzki. Although the German is a starter, he spends much of his playing time with the second unit because of how Rick Carlisle manages his rotation. Nowitzki is often the first starter out of the game, at least when no one is in foul trouble. By the time Dirk checks back in with around 1:30 left in the first and third quarters, most (or all) of the other starters have been replaced by reserve players. If starting power forwards have a tough time stopping Nowitzki, backup forwards are going to have it even worse.

It isn’t just Nowitzki, though. Wright and Harris have been spectacular this season, as has Al-Farouq Aminu, currently nursing a knee injury he’s said isn’t serious. JJ Barea has fit in seamlessly as we all thought he would — he doesn’t look like a player signed last week into a team full of new pieces. Finally, both Richard Jefferson and Jae Crowder have contributed minutes as the fourth forward. Aminu and Jefferson were starting and playing major minutes for their respective teams last season, and Barea earned plenty of playing time in Minnesota. Not many teams have the luxury of being able to go 11 or 12 deep on any given night and not experience a drop-off. (In fact, the numbers suggest that Dallas actually gets better when the second unit checks in, which is a terrifying thought for the rest of the league.)

Two reserve lineups put up similarly crazy numbers last season. The Harris-Crowder-Carter-Dirk-Wright and Harris-Ellis-Crowder-Nowitzki-Wright groups each finished with net ratings of at least 25.8 last season, which put them both near the very top of the league in that category. Injury robbed both Harris and Wright of large chunks of last season, but they’re both healthy this fall and are playing like it. Barea has done a fine job filling the creator role Carter filled on last year’s team; although they’re obviously much different players due to size and various other factors, Barea’s ball-handling ability has allowed Harris to play off the ball more and spot up for threes. Meanwhile, Aminu and the other forwards off the bench have done a good job of knocking down shots and supporting the other bigs on the glass.

The acquisitions of Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons made the most headlines for the Mavericks this summer, but the other, smaller deals the team made have paid dividends just as much as the two biggest ones. The Mavericks can beat you 1-13, and that’s a testament to the entire roster.