Mavericks vs Pelicans Recap: Dallas and New Orleans face off in a division game

Mavericks vs Pelicans Recap: Dallas and New Orleans face off in a division game

A [Applause] Hi hello it’s Josh Bo it’s pod Maverick it’s after dark I’m coming to you guys live um just about 10:32 Texas time the Maverick just lost to the New Orleans Pelicans 118 to 108 if you just looked at that score without really paying attention to anything going on today in the NBA

Probably not too shocked but of course the news came down uh you know about a half hour maybe an hour or so before the game started that the Pelicans were uh not interested in doing all they could to win this game no Zion Williamson no uh Brandon Ingram no C.J

McCollum no Trey Murphy either who’s also like lowkey one of their most important players uh since they’ve started winning some games when he came back from his miniscus surgery should have been an easy win for the Mavericks even without Luca without Derrick Lively without Dante exm still should have been

An easy win considering this is the same Mavericks roster that just ran the streaking New York Knicks off the floor for three quarters the other night uh and then held on held on to their 20 Point win it got ugly but they still won and the Knicks were playing like the

Best team in the NBA so can’t really use the excuse of the Mavericks were were that undermanned especially with how the Pelicans were looking so not a great loss uh as you can tell it is just me Josh bo uh and one of the editors of mmone bell.com

Co-host of pod Maverick um Kirk requested the day off uh today he didn’t request it today he requested tonight off and he did it like a week or so ago like he did it well in advance before we even knew what this game was going to look like and I got

Really P I got really mad uh the way the game was going on just because of course Kirk is abandoning me before the Mavericks play another game against a team that really you know is not trying to do its its best to win you look before I get really deep into this game

And I’m sure how frustrating it was to Mavericks fans the Mavericks for the last like 14 games you can count maybe three or four where it felt like both teams were either full strength or or trying to win um as someone who gets paid peanuts to cover

The Mavericks and as someone who has done media for so long that the fandom part of me is dissipated and like I’m more of a media person now so while yes it is it is fun as a fan to watch the Dallas Mavericks uh Club to death the Portland

TR Blazers in two straight games for me I’m tired of watching crappy teams and there’s a lot of crappy teams in the NBA this season it’s historically awful uh Portland San Antonio Charlotte Washington and Detroit are not only the five worst teams in the NBA they are

Five of like the worst teams in the last like 10 to 15 years and they’re all playing together in the same season so I am tired of watching The Mavericks you know since Friday December 22nd um they have either you know aside from a small handful of games but I

Would say like four out of the 14 aside from those four games it’s either been the Mavericks are missing too many guys so what’s the point the other team missing so many guys so what’s the point or they’re playing against such a crappy team that there’s not even really anything to take away

From it um so not to dismiss you know Mavs fans that have you know you should have fun when the Mavericks beat the Portland sh Blazers by like 40 points but for me I don’t really like I don’t really care I want to watch better basketball I want to know more about the

Mavericks I don’t learn anything when the Mavericks uh take a big runny dump on one of these tanking teams I don’t learn anything when Luca and half the team’s not playing against Minesota Timberwolves which was another game earlier they lost by 10 I don’t really learn much when the Mavericks beat an

Underman team with Luca full you know I just want to learn more about the team and we’re we’re we’re at January 13th we are are you know getting close to crossing the halfway mark and there’s still so much we need to learn about this Mavericks team because so many

People have been hurt and their schedule has just been outrageous and I’m just tired of watching I’m tired of watching Bad teams tired of watching teams not play at full strength I’m tired of resting uh this would have been a really cool Benchmark game for the Mavericks if

Uh the Pelicans were at full strength maybe the Mavericks would have gotten a slightly better effort because it’s pretty obvious that they underestimated their opponent tonight um so just I just want to watch better basketball you know fans you guys have the the the choice

To uh to turn off the TV or not buy tickets if you don’t want to watch the team because it’s not a good opponent or you know someone’s hurt or something like that I have to watch I have to spend my Saturday night watching this

And what do I get rewarded with I get rewarded with watching the Mavericks uh take a dump on the middle middle court of the American Airline Center that’s two uh metaphors in the first you know five minutes of this podcast so I hope you’re ready um they lose 118 108

The Pelicans basically played two starters herb Jones and Jonas Valen chunis um otherwise it it was guys at back of the bench still a talented team I like Dyson Daniels I love Jordan Hawkins um I love Naj Marshall I mean Valen chunis is still pretty good her

Jones pretty good Larry uh Larry n Jr is a pretty good backup uh big Jose might be the best backup point guard in the NBA they got some guys they got some guys for sure you know let’s not short change the talent on the Pelicans roster they’ve done some good job they’ve done

A good job at at building their team um but I’m sorry the Mavericks literally beat the Knicks with ogan and Obi who might be with might be playing the best basketball of anyone in the NBA when the Knicks came into Dallas when the Knicks came into town uh so there’s no excuses

They should have won they had multiple opportunities to take the game over and they didn’t um they had they got a five-point lead going into halftime uh squandered it very early in the third quarter built another five-point lead later in the third quarter squandered that then trailed the fourth quarter by

Eight and that was pretty much it because the Mavericks just didn’t have it um this is a game where the Mavericks should have won and I think fans should be very disappointed and upset that the Mavericks lost this game and put on this kind of performance I’m not ready to say

Doom Gloom yet uh because I feel like you know I need to see Luca Kyrie Jones exom Lively those five those five have played a half of NBA basketball this season a half they’ve played about 50 possessions that is nothing and those most of those possessions when they did

Play was when exom was kind of in and out of the rotation they have barely played since exm became you know one of the best players on the roster in the month of December when he was filling in for Kyrie Irving that version of exm is not played with Lively and Jones and

Luca uh and Kyrie so we still need to see those five um they haven’t played a lot together I want to see what those guys look like but in the meantime you know the the depth issues the size issues they’re not going away um I actually thought it was funny think yis

Valunas had like eight points and like five rebound like he had a pretty normal line going into the fourth quarter I remember looking at the Box SC and be like why isn’t he killing this team like why aren’t the Pelicans going to him more why isn’t he getting more touches

Like why like he dominates the Mavericks at full strength um sometimes so like why isn’t he doing it now of course he grabs like four or five offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter uh scores six points gets fouled a bunch kind of pretty much took over the game and

Controlled it had a blocked shot on Kyrie in the fourth which was really nice play by him so he ended up you know dominating the game 14 and 12 had seven assists passed the ball well out of double teams uh the other story you know Jordan Hawkins who had 34 career tied to

Career high I’m going to look it up right now I should have looked it up before we went recording but I believe his previous career high did it come against these Mavericks no it did not it came against the Denver Nuggets he had 31 but he did have 25 against the

Mavericks back on November 14th um so the Mavericks are familiar with him he they know what he’s capable of they know what the p lineup is they know that they’re kind of throwing out a junk lineup they’re setting all their guys because they would rather try to win a

Tuesday’s game than they’d rather try to win after a back-to-back tonight and the Mavericks acted like they had never seen Jordan Hawkins before uh leaving him pretty open not assigning him their best defenders uh Josh green looking completely clueless trying to guard him after he just did a

Great job against jayen Brunson not sure why the Mavericks didn’t face guard him more uh considering the the options the Pelicans had otherwise on the from their perimeter players they kind of let him run free like he was just another guy and he’s not um I know he’s a rookie

Mavs Twitter was acting like some scrub was going off against him like guys he was a tremendous college player and he was the 14th overall pick in the draft uh last summer he’s good like he’s he’s a rookie but he’s got skills so for the way the Mavericks kind of treated him

Like he wasn’t even part of their scouting report is blowing my mind um the way like I don’t know how to explain this without sounding really mean but in the fourth quarter when the Pelicans were trying to run this game out with Valen chunis in the post knowing that

The Maverick for double like basic basketball principles is you put your best shooter the closest um to the post player that’s going to get doubled because you want him to be one pass away from a double team make makes it harder to to double you know it may it forces

The opposing team to maybe double from the weak side and then you can do Swing Swing Swing but you do that to kind of force the defense to adjust the Mavericks decided to double off of Jordan Hawkins one pass away multiple times made a I think he made one or two

Threes missed more could have been worse uh he got a drive on a closeout from a three uh three-point like shot fake not you know because the Maverick were able to rotate a little bit but like just the attention to D was like not there like

The game plan was not there like there was nothing about this game that made it seem like the Mavericks were prepared and that goes to coaching uh Jason kid did not coach a very good game I thought he coached an okay game for about the first half um and then the second half

It was just like they just kind of did what they wanted to do uh they gave to Kyrie they gave the ball to Kyrie hoped and prayed and then defensively I don’t know what they were doing they didn’t do anything um they didn’t do anything against Hawkins that

They should have they started to double late when the game was already over on the perimeter which I thought maybe they could have done a little bit more earlier in the game although credit to New Orleans they did have 29 assists uh they were passing the ball very well

Only 10 Turner only 10 turnovers considering who was out on the floor not bad um I thought Alvaro played a really good fourth quarter in controlling the game um but yeah I don’t know they they played I wrote a post um I don’t know if you guys saw it uh about Josh Green’s

Defense against shayon Brunson the win against the Knicks on Thursday and specifically how Josh was picking up Jaylen full court almost every single time first three possessions of the game for the Knicks Josh Green is right on top of Brunson as soon as Brunson touches the ball in the back court and

Follows him all the way up gunks up the Knicks offense allows the Mavericks to get off to a 44 to 26h first quarter lead obviously the Mavericks offense was great in the first half against the Knicks but I don’t think that they get to that big lead if they don’t have that

Defensive identity and pressure uh with Josh green and obviously that’s a coaching decision too like the coaches I don’t think Green freelanced picking up Brunson like that was obviously something in the game plan um and when the Mavericks play aggressive on defense they also can play faster fast break

Points uh turning teams over getting out and transition they had a ton of Fast Break points like correlation causation there is not that hard uh to discern when you watched how the Mavericks open that game defensively against the Knicks tonight against a team with less offensive talent I think they played

Softer and I don’t understand you know they played on their heels they allowed the the Pelicans to kind of get into the sets they wanted they allowed Hawkins to get free um when there wasn’t a lot of alternatives for New Orleans scoring the ball on the perimeter um it was baffling

The Mavericks had nine fast break points nine I understand maybe the pelic I don’t have the numbers maybe the Pelicans transition defense is significantly better um than the Knicks but to go from 26 fast break points to nine like that’s to me that’s a failure of coaching uh defensively but that’s

Also like you know we can beat Jason kid over the head as much as we want he’s not really going anywhere right now but it’s also on the players like I don’t know the players didn’t come out ready to play and you could put some of that

On why didn’t the coaches get ring to play these guys get paid millions of dollars to play like they needed to come out ready to play and they didn’t play fast and they know they needed to play fast when you don’t have Luca Don on the floor he’s not available Kyrie’s your

Only your best player on the floor what does Kyrie like to do he likes to go fast what does Derrick Jones Jr like to do what when is he best at going fast what ises Josh Green best to do going fast Dwight pal going fast playing a

Slow half court game with Luca makes sense but doing it without him and not forcing the issue was UN like was inexcusable and and like I said that’s coaching but that’s also on the players the players can do that too um you shouldn’t have a coach telling you to to

Run after just played that game like the Knicks which go like I just think the Mavericks let their foot off the guest because they thought they were going to cruise to an easy win with all these guys out and they they paid for it um it’s really disappointing to see the

Performances some of these guys put out I thought Josh Green going from I mean he ended up scoring nine points but I thought he was invisible um I thought that was a really disappointing effort after what he did against the Knicks um and kind of this yo-yo Act of him his performances is

Just it’s it’s pretty m for Mass fans and you can’t blame like oh you know he plays worse with Luca because Luca doesn’t give him the ball he needs the ball no Luca tonight and green looked pretty bad uh he had back-to-back uh um bricks at The Rim on The Fast Break um

Didn’t make his presence felt defensively he should be able to hang with a guy like Hawkins and he did not um and that was a shame but I mean you go down the board it’s not just Josh Green basically everyone but Kyrie Irving Hardaway and Jones played all not

Great games pal did his best you had nine rebounds eight assists three steals did his best but then got dominated in the fourth quarter by valent chunis which is kind of what’s gonna happen um Grant Williams followed up his you know people kind of saw his

Game against the Knicks and was like is he turning a corner no no 14 minutes five fouls zero points one block one assist one rebound uh Dreadful um um it was actually pretty funny watching Grant Williams um and they’re like talking about his foul trouble and I was like

They should just let him stay out there and foul out like like the sooner he fouls out the better for the Mavericks because he every time he checked into the game Off the Bench the Pelicans went on a massive run um the run that I think

That got them a nineo or 11-point lead um in the first quarter second quarter uh happened when Grant checked into the game and then when the Pelicans got back into the game in the third quarter and and took their lead again in the third Midway through the third uh that also

Corresponded with Grant checking into the game like both times he checked into the game the Pelicans went up by more than two possessions so I don’t know I don’t know what they got to do with him um but he killed the team tonight like he was just not good

In his minutes and then Jaden Hardy you know 23 minutes eight points you know there’s a weird I keep hearing he’s playing better I guess he is compared to what he was doing in October and parts of November um but for the month of December he’s averaging about

10 a game shooting well from three but he’s shooting awful on twos um not playing any defense like at all like he the defense was really bad and if we want to talk about lineups and stuff we got to talk about the fourth quarter then we’re going to take a quick

Break um because I don’t want talk all night um because this game sucked I didn’t want to watch it uh I don’t want to watch you know g-league rosters you know when teams sit Their Stars I didn’t you know I was already in a foul mood before the game started so I apologize

Um you know I’m spending my Saturday night it’s almost 11 o’clock doing this when I could be doing literally anything else be more productive with my time um the fourth quarter like Midway through the fourth like the time in the game where it’s like they needed to make a

Run to get back into it or you’re in you’re in too big a hole to make a run they had Jaden Hardy Kyrie Irving and Tim Mar Jr all out on the floor uh defensively the Pelicans kind of did whatever they wanted which is not surprising because Kyrie played a great

Overall game but his defense was pretty much non-existent tonight um which is I don’t really care that much I mean I don’t know how to say this like he should be better defensively but he was doing his part on offense for the most part so just kind of like Luca

Where Luca has to conserve energy on offense and sometimes I just don’t even think about Luca’s defense even if it’s bad that was kind of how I felt about Kyrie but then you double that down with Tim Maro Jr who played an awful defensive game and Hardy who’s just too

Small to even really play a good defensive game uh it was bizarre I just don’t really understand why that was the lineup that they chose to go down the stretch well let me phrase that I kind of do understand but they should have done something else um it was obvious kid was frustrated

With green because green did not that was that should have been green spot right if green is playing well that’s who comes in that’s who’s in the game at the important part of the fourth quarter uh green wasn’t playing well Grant was not playing well like the thing that I

Would have done was I would have gone back to AJ Lawson who played six minutes uh was a plus four in his six minutes looked good um well looked fast he was only one of three missed a wide open three I think he missed a wide open

Corner three in the third quarter or the fourth quarter I can’t remember which but it was in the second half and I felt like kid kind of pulled him after that um kid kind of has a quick hook with these guys at the end of the bench if

They don’t make their open shots which is funny because he’s like a defensive-minded coach I would have had Lawson as a fifth guy if he if he had no confidence in putting green back out there felt like playing Hardy um Hardy Kyrie uh and Hardaway like and you’re

Down like I don’t know how you’re going to get back into the game unless you’re hoping New Orleans misses shots um really that’s it like they just miss open shots and you hope that you’ve got enough offense to juice you juice you out there I want to look it up on

Cleaning the glass before we go to break I actually want to see what that Trio does uh together because I can’t imagine the defense is that good when we’ve got uh Kyrie Tim arway Jr Jaden Hardy sorry to do this live on the podcast but I want to

Know uh actually I’m surprised for they’re actually pretty good um they’re plus 18 points per 100 possessions defense is actually pretty good too so I don’t know maybe kid had some data um yeah with with uh with Kyrie Jaden and Tim Hardway Jr on the floor the Mavericks score 130

Per 100 and give up 111 per 100 possession so there you go kid with the data analytics ruining the game that we love I’m just kidding but that’s clearly why he went to that there’s data backing it up so uh silly me uh shows what I

Know and I only cover this team every single damn day so we’re about 22 minutes into the podcast I’m talking about myself I need a break we’re g to take a quick commercial break I don’t know how much we’re going to talk on the other end because I don’t really know

What else to talk about but I got to get an ad break in here otherwise all of this is for nothing um except for you know your sweet comments which we we hold near and dear to our heart so like the stream if you’re watching it live uh

Subscribe to our YouTube channel if you’re watching us live or on YouTube after the fact if you’re on our Audio Only feed uh you know please subscribe to us uh whichever audio podcast you use to listen to us audio podcast app that is and we’ll be right back after this

Message okay we’re back uh Mavericks Los an embarrassing game to the New Orleans Pelicans 118 108 lot of lot of March 2023 Vibes for the Mavericks they lose a game they should have won against an underman team uh and then Jason kid after the game just kind of gives the I’m just the

Coach I don’t know what’s going on excuse uh which is what he was doing a lot last season when the Mavericks were in their tail spin so the Mavericks really played all the hits uh tonight which is pretty funny I’m not gonna get worked up about kid quotes because it just feels like

I don’t know there’s something else I could get mad at maybe um I’m not really mad other than the fact that I was mad that the Pelicans tried to punt this game and still won um but yeah I I I think the schedule isn’t getting any

Easier the Mavericks are going to play a full strength Pelicans team um on Monday um that’s going to be a difficult game we don’t know if Luca or exm or Lively will be back I think Lively will be back he got upgraded to questionable before this game and then and then got

Downgraded and was out so Lively should be back I think on Monday I would guess um then you’re playing at Los Angeles at Golden State neither of those teams are actually playing all that well but to go on the road makes it tougher um then you come back you play home Boston

Phoenix so that’s four games against teams that are trying to win a lot with one of them Boston uh playing as about as well as any other team in the NBA um they get a reprieve to go to Atlanta which Atlanta is playing terribly so that should you know we’ll see what

We’ll see there uh then Sacramento Orlando Minnesota Milwaukee Philadelphia so if you look at the Mavericks next few games home New Orleans at at Lakers at Golden State home Boston home Phoenix at Atlanta home Sacramento home Orlando at Minnesota Home Milwaukee at Philadelphia you’re looking at one team Atlanta which is

Currently like totally out of the playoff picture um that’s a tough schedule that’s a tough part like we’re going to learn about this Mavericks team real fast if they can get healthy um this is going to be a pretty good Gauntlet of games here um so we’re we’re going to see what happens

Um I you know otherwise I don’t know I don’t know what to say this was just such a bad loss I didn’t really talk about you know more specific like the stats the Mavericks Lost Pelican scored 50 points in the paint so 50 to 40 points in the paint Advantage um they

Got to the free throw line 37 times they made 28 free throws Maverick made 19 that’s huge lowkey like kind of the reason maybe this was a game um I’m sure people were a little frustrated to see the foul discrepancy and the free throw line discrepancy but the the fact of the

Matter is the Mavericks played terrible defense couldn’t keep their man in front of them uh which led to a lot of cheap fouls on drives and at The Rim because when you’re letting guys Blow by you you don’t want them to get wide open layups

And dunks so you foul them so that was one part of it second part of it the Mavericks are too small valentus got some got some good free throw attempts Pelicans got some free throw attempts from offensive rebounds near the basket so that part help didn’t hurt help at

All and for the Mavericks they don’t who’s drawing free throws on this team um Kyrie Irving should probably shoot more free throws uh but he does not engage in kind of the he does not foul bait let’s just say that which is admirable but that’s why

He doesn’t get a lot of free throws um he’s kind of got the Monta Alis issue where he’s definitely is near the basket for a good portions of the game but since he doesn’t contort and twist his body in a way that you know he tries to

Make shots when he goes to the basket he doesn’t try to get fouled which is fun to watch and I respect that but that’s why he doesn’t get the free throw a lot and then otherwise you know you’re just looking at a lot of guys that don’t

Drive the ball a lot you know Derrick Jones and Hardaway did okay but the Mavericks had one free throw attempt from a bench player which was Lawson who got an and one like no one else really on the bench is gonna do much to get into the lane even with Jaden Hardy so

Um that’s why you know the Mavericks were just limited did with their with the dribble ders tonight excuse me um other thing to say um is maxic cba’s back which I’m sure for some of the people listening um don’t really care uh because I know Maxi

Kba is not a favorite among the online very online Mavericks uh Community but I actually thought he was like the one bright spot from this game um he only played 11 minutes and that was kind of weird not that he played 11 minutes because Jason kid said he was on a

Minutes restrict and said it would be 10 to 12 minutes when their minutes restriction is that short like I wasn’t sure why he was playing it all you know like if he can only play 12 minutes why don’t you just wait until he can play a little bit more but I mean

I’m not kind of Judge of training staff or how they view that because I don’t know any better so but when he did play he was okay plus five and 11 minutes I thought the first quarter or second where when when he played in the first

Because he had a s in the first half and a s in the second half when he played in the first half I thought that was the best the Mavericks looked as a team for most of the game maybe outside of the end of the first half uh just having

Another big and I know Maxi isn’t like a true Center big but just having someone that can play the four and small ball five that can guard um that can rebound just makes a world of difference um he did you know missed both of his threes

He was one of three from four so obviously we need to see what his offense looks like because it did not look good before uh he went out with the dislocated toe so that needs to come around but with the Maverick’s depth right now he’s a sight for Shorr and

Hopefully he can make some shots and that’ll help a lot but there wasn’t a lot to to there wasn’t a lot of good from this game to take so that’s how I’m taking it I thought he looked okay um in his 11 minutes at least defensively so so we’ll

See from there but I think I’m going to go talking for about 30 minutes by myself no Kirk apologize guys I know you were probably fired up because Kirk Kirk would have been fired up I’m sure if you got to talk about this game um but we’ll

See uh we’ll we’ll see where we go from there I’m sure me and Kirk will be back on Monday as Mavericks play the same Pelicans team and hey maybe with everyone back from New Orleans the Mavericks give a little bit better effort we will see but I’m Josh Bo of

Podm Maverick this is your after dark game recap the Mavericks lose to the New Orleans Pelicans 118 108 you guys enjoy your Saturday night or your early Sunday morning depending on on where you’re listening and when you’re listening uh and we will talk to you guys later see you guys see you well

Josh is probably hosting this one solo. With so many key players out from either team, this might be a slog. Come hang out!

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