Mavericks vs Pelicans: Deja vu all over again with Dallas playing New Orleans

Mavericks vs Pelicans: Deja vu all over again with Dallas playing New Orleans

N [Applause] Hey hello it’s Josh bo uh it’s pod Maverick after afternoon uh it’s not after dark as you can tell in my room which is not well suited for uh daytime video recordings so if you’re watching I apologize I do not have a blackout curtain um over this

Light um so apologies but hey it’s me no Kirk because Kirk is working I know it’s MLK Day and a lot of people have the time off around the country um Kirk unfortunately uh did not have a company holiday and has to work today so he he

Is dealing with his full-time real job because uh again like we like to emphasize this is not our full-time real job so it’s just me today um so I know you guys were probably I know these last two games have basically been y y yin

And yang and you’d like to see the full range of Kirk but uh maybe we will we will get that later in the week as things calm down a little bit and we get back to normal schedules with our our real day work lives but hey it’s me I’m

One of the ERS M Moneyball Mavericks beat the Pelicans 125 120 in a bounceback effort in one of the wildest games the Mavericks have played this season I don’t know where to start well I do know where to start um the Mavericks made 18 three-pointers and the Pelicans made

Seven um that’s it that’s our show I I’ll talk to you guys later uh and we’ll we’ll talk to you after the next game um I mean really I could do that uh I mean obviously there’s way more stuff to talk about but at the end of the day um this

Was a variance win for the Mavericks this was a math win um the Pelicans were doing whatever they wanted at the rim and in the paint uh and it did not matter uh because the Mavericks had two of the most culan legendary shot making performances I’ve seen in a Maverick’s uniform with a

Combination of Kyrie and Tim Hardway Jr uh Kyrie Irving had uh 42 points Timar Jr had 41 I want to say that’s the most points Timar Junior has ever had in a Mavericks uniform but I can’t look that up right now um the two combined to make uh 12

Three-pointers um they shot 24 so they shot 12 of 24 from three all of them basically I mean they were everything was jumper I mean the Maverick shot chart and the uh Pelican shot chart is absolutely hilarious the Pelicans were 26 of 32 at The Rim that’s 81% League

Average 66 they scored 60 points in the paint and they made 31 free throws and they lost by five um if that’s not an argument for or for the make or Miss nature that the modern NBA is I don’t know what to tell you the Pelicans made Seven three-pointers Mavericks made

18 um the Mavericks basically Mavericks scored 34 points in the paint they only attempted 18 shots at The Rim made 12 um and what’s hilarious is the Mavericks didn’t shoot a bunch of corner threes they they shot 10 which is a decent amount they only made two they were two

Of 10 from the corner threes the Mavericks were 16 of 33 on above the break three pointers which again basically all Kyrie and basically all Tim Hardway Jr although Grant Williams hit a clutch one in the fourth quarter as did Josh Green so I don’t know I I don’t know how much

You can take away from this game other than Kyrie Irving is in the middle of one of the best stretches of his life I feel like you need to take a look at his January game log it is absolutely outrageous entering this game entering this game in the month of January he was

Scoring 30 points per game seven and a half assists five and a half rebounds on 50% from the floor 49 uh from three and 88 from the free throw line so obviously those are going to bump up a little bit actually the percentages are going to go

Down um he shot 46% today at 33% from three but I mean good Lord I mean he had to he got got to the free throw line a bunch 13 of 15 everyone got the three throw on a bunch um there were almost 60 combined fouls in this game which really

Made it really really really really difficult to watch um so that was unfortunate um but otherwise you know I mean the Mavericks made shots and the Pelicans didn’t it was all jumpers um it was pretty outrageous uh and again you know Kyrie the thing that was outrageous was with

Kyrie and Hardaway I mean these guys were basically making contested jumpers like the this wasn’t necessarily drive and kick get open looks although Maverick certainly had their fair share of of those three-pointers I mean so many of these were just self-created running off screens with a hand in your

Face and drilling them and that’s the kind of Advantage having two shot makers like Kyrie and Tim arway Jr for you where you could play some of your worst defense you can get bullied in the paint uh and you can win by two possessions because you make more three-pointers

Than your opponent it was pretty crazy um not to say that there weren’t other contributions of course Derek Lively back in the lineup for the first time in about four or five games was massive um he did not really do anything in the rim scoring wise uh but he had 12 rebounds

He had seven offensive rebounds basically Mavericks don’t win this game if he doesn’t grab the offensive rebounds he did in the fourth quarter which led to three-pointers um so he was absolutely huge he you know the difference between Jonas Fen tunes’s game on Saturday with no Derrick Lively and today with Derrick

Lively I mean it was a night and day difference had six and six 6.6 rebounds it was a non-factor in the game in fact the stretch that he played in the fourth quarter was the stretch that the Mavericks came back he was a minus 22 uh and really that’s how the Mavericks

Engineered their comeback so that was really impressive I thought the Pelicans kind of slept walk to start this game um and the Mavericks really made him pay I thought defensively there was actually a pretty good Edge in the in the first quarter where the Mavericks did the

Thing where Josh Green was picking up CJ McCollin full court like he did against uh Jaylen Brunson in the New York Knicks and that win a couple days ago for whatever reason they didn’t do that on Saturday with all the Pelican starters out which you would think you would want

To do more Force backups to make more decisions with the ball in their hands and they didn’t they played on their heels and the Pelicans made him pay this was a completely different disposition from the team uh and the Pelicans you know those guys that were resting in

That first quarter they totally thought that they were going to come in and just Cakewalk over this team uh I mean I know that’s not hard core analysis and that’s not X’s and O’s but you could see in the body language that they were not ready

For this to be a challenging game and credit to the Mavericks for for making it a challenge they get up 33 to 17 in the first quarter they settled in and the Pelicans scored 42 in the second and 30 in the fourth because the Mavericks defense right now is just not there

There was no Derrick Jones Jr um Maxi kba played 19 minutes I thought he did okay he had his moments he had two blocks first time he’s had uh more than one block in a game since since uh March of last year which I guess isn’t too surprising when you consider he

Basically hasn’t played all season um but he had his moments I only played 19 minutes and again Derrik Livy was great when he could be on the floor he had foul trouble but again his offensive rebounds were huge Kyrie I think stepped up his defense in the fourth quarter um

He played McCollum pretty tight after really I mean considering his offensive workload he him and Hardaway had no they had no interest in playing defense for most of this game but they stepped it up in the fourth would it mattered at least Kyrie did I thought he

Stuck close to CJ mccullin pretty well got his hand in the cookie jar a little bit poke the ball away didn’t get a ton of steals I think he only had yeah he had no steals despite the fact that he’s had I think two or more steals he’s had

At least one steal in the last six games five of those games he’s had at least two steals he had four in the Memphis loss three in the Knicks win and two in the New Orleans lost the night so um defensively he’s been making plays even if you know the off ball

Stuff isn’t always there um but yeah I mean it’s you know schematically it’s hard it’s hard to say what the Mavericks did is sustainable uh other than you know Kyrie is this is Kyrie and you know Hardway making a bunch of jumpers is not crazy either

He’s been in a little bit of a slum but like those are what those two guys do they got just enough from Lively with the seven offensive rebounds just enough from Josh Green who made a good three a clutch three in the final five minutes had a couple decent drives although he

Fouled a I mean there’s no point in making talking about fouls because everyone fouled a bunch so you know kid was trying to find a defensive lineup that worked and nothing really worked um and the Mavericks got a win that they really should have I mean

I really don’t know I mean I’m I’m gonna be honest I don’t I don’t know what else uh to say because this is such a crazy you know shot making variants game so this is probably going to be a short podcast but what I’m going to do is I’m going to

Take the commercial break right now those of you uh watching live uh you know it’s just going to be a quick pause on YouTube if you’re doing that please like And subscribe to the YouTube stream and our YouTube channel those of you on the audio only feed we are creeping

Closer to fixing our Apple podcast issue um so you know stay subscribed to us keep listening to our Audio Only feed if you can and we really appreciate it and we’re going to be right back we’re going to talk about some late game coaching decision-making uh that I

Thought was really key for the Mavericks to win the game and wrap up any odds and new sends uh you’re listening to pod Maverick after dark we’ll be right back okay we’re back Mavericks beat the Pelicans 125 120 talked about the ridiculous shot making from Kyrie and

Tim Hardway Jr in the first half of the podcast and really how that was the game that and Lively’s offensive rebounding I those were basically the two things got the Mavericks to win because they couldn’t play defense on the other end of the floor and thankfully the Pelicans missed so many jumpers

Um you know the Pelicans were seven of 23 from three and I don’t want to say all of you know not a ton of those were contested so Mavericks might have gotten a little lucky but it’s better to be lucky than good what wasn’t lucky though

Was what Jason kid did at the end of the game so the Pelicans have the ball with 17 seconds left Mavericks are up two Pelicans are basically being getting an automatic two points every night so you worry that you know this is going to

Be a tie game or at worst you know if the Maverick collapse because they’re so cognizant of what New Orleans is doing at The Rim maybe they give up an open three at the buzzer and you lose a heartbreaking game so interestingly enough Jason kid had

Did hack a Zion uh Zion Williamson who’s a 66% free throw shooter not automatic by any means believe he was shooting he was shooting five of I think he was five of nine yeah he was five of nine um at the time so he’ already missed four free throws and kid

Uh kid had Maxi cleeveland intentionally found Pelicans inbound the ball they give it to Zion who at the top of the key who is either going to be a fulcrum for a dribble handoff or CJ mcum or Brandon Ingram or he’s going to drive himself because he was basically just

Taking the ball one-on-one and scoring whenever he wanted to he had 30 points 12 of 17 from the floor and Mavericks fouled him with 14 seconds left and at first I was like did they forget that they were in the B the Pelicans were in the bonus because they might have just

Sent you know the the tying two free throws to the line um but when you think about it you know Zion isn’t a great free throw shooter he missed one so it worked out but even the if you think about it it’s not just a well of course

You’re saying it work because he only because he missed the free throw but if you would have made both of them you would have been calling kid an idiot and I don’t think so because someone pointed this out on Twitter I need to I need to see who this

Was Michael clemenson on Twitter appreciate you responding to this and pointing out the logic he said a port free thr to the line first off Zion’s under anyone who’s under 70% for this season I think is a poor free throw shooter who’s destroying you in the paint so

Basically what you’re doing is you’re taking control of the game and you’re not letting the Pelicans dictate the end of the game because Pelicans could have ended the game and shot a three-pointer at the end and and if the Mavericks can’t do a lot about that besides contest Pelicans make the three-point

Shot you lose so what the Mavericks did is said no we’re gonna end the game on our terms so worst case scenario if Zion makes both those free throws the Mavericks have the ball in a tie game with 14 seconds left with the ability for themselves to take the final shot

And you’re not going to lose the game there wasn’t a fouling Zion uh the odds of you losing the game maybe the odds of going into overtime increase but the odds of the Mavericks losing the game by fouling Zion did not go up maybe there maybe you get unlucky

With an offensive rebound on the second free throw but Zion missed the first made the second so it worked out there but yeah again Zion makes two free throws you still have the ball the Mavericks have the two best shot makers going with Kyrie and Hardaway like you

Take your chances with Kyrie with the ball with 14 seconds left in a tight end like that’s really good odds so you know why risk giving up an open three-pointer uh why risk letting a team that’s demolished you with the paint tie the game up in the paint maybe get

Fouled Zion had a lot of n1s uh tonight didn’t always convert on him again because he only was six of 11 from the free throw line but uh you know why you know why risk giving up an N1 late why risk letting the Pelicans dribble the

Clock out out and take the final shot I thought it was really smart so good on Kudos on kid or whoever it was on his coaching staff that came up with that idea I thought I mean that was a game when Z missed the free throw the Pelicans didn’t have any timeouts so

They couldn’t really extend the game that much because they basically had one more chance to go full court get a bucket and that was it Brandon Ingram missed a three-pointer at the buzzer for the most part and with like a second or two left but with the Pelicans not

Having timeouts the Pelicans could not draw this game out and play the foul game because it’s just impossible to go full court full court with that much time left and make buckets you know they couldn’t inbound the ball from half court so you know I think it was intentional I

Mean you know the way kba fouled him that’s why I thought they messed up because kba kind of looked back at the bench like wait we’re in the boat like he shooting free throws like there was definitely a moment where I was like wait are the Mavericks on the same page

But if it if they weren’t if this wasn’t a tactical decision and kba just fouled him because he thought the Mavericks had a fou to give well again it’s better better to be lucky than good and the Mavericks get a pretty solid win tie this season series with the Pelicans

Which helps for tiebreaker purposes later on the season the teams are now both 24 and 17 and funny enough Mavericks go five and two on a seven game home stand so they basically do what they’re supposed to and of course the two losses are the two games

That they should have won handedly and the you know their last five games of this home stand they get three wins against full strength wolves Knicks and Pelicans who are all very great good teams and their two losses are Memphis without jobar and jiren Jackson and then the Pelicans missing you know three

Starters so I thought it was pretty funny how it worked out um but the Mavericks you know at the end of the day the Mavericks kind of took care of business what they were supposed to do five and two on the home stand they’ve got a hellacious schedule coming up I

Don’t know if they’re going to be lucky enough to keep getting through the next few games if Luca and Dante XOM uh don’t play but you know we’ll see with Kyrie I mean if Kyrie wants to keep making these shots I mean I don’t I don’t even know

What other teams can do I mean because the Pelicans it’s not like these guys like I said these were not easy shots um so kudos to the effort of of those two guys being able to make those shots I thought it was very very impressive

Um I’m not going to lie the way this season is going and the way that the way that the Mavericks have survived all of these injuries I mean when you consider the totality of the injuries and the way that they’ve been staggered where guys come back other

Guys get hurt other guys get healthy other guy you know Jon you know Maxi comes back Jones misses this game it’s been really tough and the Mavericks are still 24 and 17 they’re right in the thick uh of getting out of the play in um they’re still within earshot of home

Court advantage in the first round they’re two games back of the clippers for fourth you know but they’re only you know they’re basically tied for the six six and seven spots you know the Suns and the Jazz are are kind of lurking they’re both played well in their last

10 games so we’ll see and part of me is wondering with the Mavericks surviving six and four in their last 10 despite luuka missing multiple games and everyone else missing multiple games does this I’m curious what the front office thinks like it feels like a special season for for Kyrie especially

Like do you push the chips in do you do you get more aggressive to go after a pascal cakam because you look and you say oh my God like look how well we’re surviving with all these injuries like can you imagine if we get healthy and

Then can you imagine if we get healthy and we add you know the the the missing piece quote unquote to the front Court in a seak or what any other kind of trade the Mavericks can make I wonder if the Mavericks you know are they more motivated to make a trade because they

Feel like this is a potentially special season with with the way Kyrie Irving’s playing and his age and you wonder you know you got to make good on Kyrie while he’s here and as productive as he is or do they think you know we don’t need to

Make a trade because we’re surviving as is and when we get exen back when we get uh Luca back and when we get our top six or seven guys are all healthy in one game maybe they think why should we why should we bust this team up because

We’re playing pretty well as is I don’t know which way they’re going to lean um but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s people in the front office the think man we need to make like if we could make a move this could we could make a run here um because it’s really

Impressive that the way the Mavericks have kind of held in the fight right now um obviously the next few games we will see maybe that puts a a damper on those thoughts the Mavericks go on the road to play the Lakers and the Warriors which both those teams are scuffling so not

Necessarily the hardest games in the world but then they play Boston they play Phoenix they play Sacramento Orlando Minnesota Milwaukee Philadelphia the Knicks again the thund th again those are all within the next month um that’s a lot of difficult games a lot of those are on the road as well so we’re

Going to know by the end of February I think what this Mavericks team is made of hopefully if everyone can get healthy because it’s high of hard to evaluate the team when when everyone’s hurt so we’ll see I’ve talked for about 20 minutes I don’t really feel like talking

Anymore because I had to talk again last night and I feel like I used up all my fan energy to talk about that that crappy game but everyone should be really happy about this one this was a really fun game kudos to the fans made

It to the arena uh with the the DFW winter freeze that’s going on and all the snow falling and the cold temperatures we really appreciate you know I’m sure the Mavs really appreciate the crowd that was there because I was worried it was going to be a little dead

And the energy in the building wouldn’t be there but it was it got surprisingly loud there uh for for the second half so you know also afternoon game makes it weird I think we saw um the you know the first quarter was definitely these teams

Were out of of sorts so good for the Mavericks to find a way again all the kudos to Kyrie Irving and Timo Jr playing basically two of the best games of of their of their Seasons together just remarkable shot making I don’t know if it’s sustainable I don’t know if you

Can look at it and say let’s do that again in the next game but they’ll take it you take everyone you can get while the team’s dis injured so I’m Josh Bo for pod Maverick after dark go to our site money ball.com to look at Recaps postgame reactions all that good stuff

Hopefully me and Kirk will be back for the next game against the Los Angeles Lakers who play on Wednesday January 17th that’ll be an ABC nationally televised game so hopefully Luca is back so we can get Luca versus LeBron because that’s always a fun one so again I’m

Josh Bo for pod Maverick you guys take care if you’re in the DFW area please stay warm and stay safe and we will talk to you guys later

Josh goes solo again to talk Mavs-Pelicans. Kirk had to work today.

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