NEW ORLEANS – It didn’t take Luka Dončić more than a few seconds to sum up the Mavericks’ worst game of the young season.
“Bad game,” he said. “People don’t understand. It’s 82 games in an NBA season. Of course there’s going to be bad nights.
“We played bad, that’s it.”
It was a blanket and accurate statement for a night when, really, nothing went right for the Mavericks.
Dončić may have had worse halves of basketball than the first 24 minutes Tuesday. Maybe. Like when he was 14 and playing against 20 year olds.
This stretch was forgettable, to say the least, and the rest of the Mavericks pretty much followed suit as they dug themselves a massive hole and never climbed out of it.
The Pelicans blitzed the Mavericks 131-110 at Smoothie Kings Center, gaining a split of these two games in the shadows of Bourbon Street’s glitzy nightlife and the steady, dreary drizzle that engulfed the Big Easy for most of the Mavericks’ extended stay.
“It was a bad night all the way around,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Our defense, our energy and then the turnovers hurt us. It’s hard when you turn it over in transition. You give up that many fast break points (46) . . . give New Orleans credit. They came out and they played hard. We took their first punch in the first, it was 30-26 and they make a half-court shot. You didn’t play well in the first, but it was just a domino effect from there.”
But, as Luka said, “that’s what’s great about the NBA is you got another chance tomorrow. Good and bad. I don’t like back-to-backs, but it is what it is.”
The Mavericks are hoping Luka and his teammates respond from this clunker by taking out frustrations against the Washington Wizards Wednesday night. It’s a challenging back-to-back. But nothing the Mavericks haven’t handled before.
“This is the great thing about the league,” Kidd said. “We’ll learn from this. We got to take care of the ball. This is not an ideal back-to-back, but we’ve been through back-to-backs at home and in Orlando and now we go from New Orleans to D.C.”
Grant Williams hit on the key point that really has been part of the Mavericks’ three losses as they slipped to 9-3 overall.
“In our three of our losses,” he said, “the biggest thing that’s been our Kryptonite is our turnovers. So we have to address that and understand that when we take care of the ball, we’re very hard to beat.”
And for all that Dončić does for the Mavericks, it was OK for him to be human for one night. He went 2-for-12 from the field in the first half with six turnovers (all in the first quarter). It had to be chalked up as just one of those nights. He would finish with 16 points on 5-of-16 shooting.
The only good news was neither he, nor Kyrie Irving, played in the fourth quarter. The Mavericks were down 114-85 after three periods and with the back-to-back at Washington looming, there was no need for any extra wear and tear.
The Mavericks also now are 1-2 and in the NBA’s in-season tournament. That effectively eliminates them from any chance to reach the quarterfinal knockout stage of the tourney.
They have one tournament game left against Houston at American Airlines Center on Nov. 28.
Tuesday’s debacle was a polar opposite from Sunday’s meeting, when the Mavericks led by 20-something most of the second half.
This time, they were down 53-38 with six minutes left in the first half.
The biggest difference was the court, which was visually challenging with its multicolor look. But Luka said there were other difficult aspects to it.
“The court today was really bad,” he said. “It was really slippery and some places the ball didn’t really bounce. So if we’re going to have these courts, we got to make sure they’re stable court. In Dallas, it wasn’t stable so we had to change it.”
The Mavericks did not use their in-season court last season when they played the Los Angeles Clippers because of manufacturing issues.
But as Kidd said, it’s more aesthetics than anything when it comes to the court.
“The floors are hard to watch on TV,” he said. “And so, the league has gone a little too far with the floor. The uniforms, I get. But the floor is maybe a year or two from now. We’ve had problems with the floor.
“But it’s too late. There’s nothing about the floor. We’re not using the floor as an excuse. Turnovers (cost us) and give credit to New Orleans coming out and playing hard.”
Kidd had emphasized before the game that taking care of the basketball – something the Mavericks have been very good at so far – could still be better. He cited a propensity for first-half miscues as proof. Then, they rolled up 20 turnovers for the night, including eight in the first quarter that set a terrible tone.
And the Mavericks were a bit unlucky, too. When Naji Marshall tossed in a 62-foot bank shot at the first-quarter buzzer, a four-point lead became seven points. Then it was 16 at halftime and the Mavericks had to face the facts that they needed start revving up the plane for Washington.
X: @ESefko
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