You kind of get the feeling that Brandon Knight was signed to a 10-day contract by the Mavericks just in time to fill in for Spencer Dinwiddie on Wednesday night.
The Mavericks knew Dinwiddie would not be available at Cleveland. The guard has not played both ends of a back-to-back situation all season after having knee surgery last year.
He played only 29 minutes Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Mavericks stuck to the game plan and sat Dinwiddie against the Cavaliers.
Knight, who had a 10-day contract with the Mavericks in December and signed a second one on Tuesday, joined the team in Cleveland and quickly was pressed into action.
“When you talk about what he did for us on the floor, it was big,” coach Jason Kidd said of Knight’s work in December, which was ended when he was sidelined by COVID-19 protocols. “He fits the environment, the system, the things we asked him to do.
“And when you look at some of names that are out, they’re all ballhandlers. So we need someone to dribble.”
Kidd said the 6-3 Knight, who played in Milwaukee when Kidd coached the Bucks, would be in the rotation and he put in six first-half minutes that were important to help give some rest to Jalen Brunson and Luka Dončić, both of whom wound up having big games.
“He’s ready to go,” Kidd said. “He understands what we’re doing. We know each other not just here at the Mavs but before at Milwaukee. So we thought there was an opportunity we could bring him back and it worked out that way.”
Thinking cap: Luka Dončić came into his postgame news conference wearing a Texas Rangers cap.
“Yeah, I’m a Texas Rangers fan, thanks to DK,” Dončić said. “It was DK, who I think is the most important guy in our organization.”
DK would be Don Kalkstein, the Mavericks’ director of sports psychology. a role he also had with the Rangers for 10 years starting in 1995 before also spending time with the Boston Red Sox.
Perhaps it’s Kalkstein who has helped develop Luka’s ability to out-think his opponents.
He’s not the fastest or most athletic player in the NBA. But he also knows he has gifts that can more than make up for anything he might be lacking. Knowing how to make opponents play at the pace Luka loves is one of those skills.
“I think a lot of times, I go at my own pace because I am not fast,” Dončić said. “But I think I just read the defense and who is coming behind me. Reading the game is what I want to do and I want to do more of.”
Of course, when you rack up 35 points, 13 assists and miss a second triple-double in two nights by one rebound, clearly you are reading the game pretty darn well.
Teammate of the year? When you hear chants of “Bo-ban, Bo-ban, Bo-ban” late in games that the Mavericks have already stashed in their hip pocket, fans probably don’t realize that teammates of Boban Marjanović feel the same way.
They’d like to see the 7-3 center get more chances, too.
That sentiment is part of the reason why Marjanović was named by the NBA on Wednesday as one of 12 finalists for the league’s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award.
“When you look at what Boban does daily, he’s always in a good mood,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I’ve never seen him in a bad mood. He’s a true pro, comes to work and is always prepared to play and does what he has to do to stay ready.
“He never complains about not playing. He’s all about the team. For him to be a finalist, hopefully he wins it because he deserves it.”
The Twyman-Stokes award went to Portland’s Damian Lillard last season and the Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki won it in 2016-17. It honors the player deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as well as a commitment and dedication to the team.
Six finalists from each conference were named, including Kevin Love from the Cavaliers, who played the Mavericks Wednesday.
Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said Love is deserving because of the way he handled coming off the bench so young big men like Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley could be starters.
“The sacrifice that he made at the beginning of the season and how he handled it and carried himself throughout the entire year – he’s a guy who has truly been supportive of the guy he had to pass the torch onto,” Bickerstaff said. “And we’ve all seen in sports, that’s not always the case.
“He knows what’s needed of him. He has to be the adult in the room because, obviously, of the youth that we have here.”
Brown prospering in Cleveland: The Mavericks saw an old friend Wednesday night when center Moses Brown started for the injury-depleted Cavaliers.
The 7-2 Brown was with the Mavericks until the trading deadline, when they had to make room for their incoming players in the Kristaps Porzingis deal.
Brown has surfaced with Cleveland, having signed a pair of 10-day contracts because of injuries to Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
“He has a high-level motor,” Cavs’ coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “And when you mix that size and the motor that he has, it can be productive. We’re going to need him, obviously, with all these guys down. He can bring an energy to us that can give us a spark.”
Kidd was a fan of Brown’s when he was with the Mavericks. Brown had a very impactful game in the paint on Wednesday. He made all five of his shots and had 12 points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes against the Mavericks.
“We’re all happy for his success and what’s happened here in Cleveland for him,” Kidd said.
50-50 proposition: The Mavericks need two more wins to reach 50 for the season, a plateau they haven’t gotten to since the 2014-15 season, when they hit 50 on the nose.
It’s no longer the benchmark of being an elite team like it was a generation ago. But it is still an accomplishment.
“Back in the day, it used to be a mark of a good team if you could get to 50,” Kidd said. “Normally, when you get to 50, that punches your ticket to the playoffs. Now, with the new format you could be playing in the play-in tournament. It wasn’t one of our goals. We just wanted to win games.”
Final word: Dwight Powell played in his 500th game as a Maverick on Tuesday against the Lakers. On Wednesday, he made it 501, which moved him past some dude named Jason Kidd for 11th on the all-time games-played list. Powell celebrated with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Twitter: @ESefko
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