Mavericks vs Pistons Recap: Luka Doncic leads a balanced effort on the road against Detroit

Mavericks vs Pistons Recap: Luka Doncic leads a balanced effort on the road against Detroit

No [Applause] Hello everyone welcome to pod Maverick after dark I’m Kirk Henderson joined as always by Josh Bo we are editors over at Mavs Moneyball domcom we are joining you at 9:06 on March 9th it’s a Saturday night the Mavericks played the Detroit Piston and won by many points in a game

That was weird in the first half at least no defense and uh in the second half the Mavericks ran away with it Josh how you doing I’m doing good I’m glad we’re not talking about a loss because I think if they lost this game that might have been the end of of Maverick’s

Fandom and people would have been getting Wild on the internet uh so it’s always good to see them take care of business against the team that they should that they should beat yeah so I had to miss the first half because because my wife and son are at the rodeo

And Arlington and I had to put the baby down and didn’t realize what time the game started what happened in that first half why was the game so close uh the Mavericks started sloppy uh Lucas started sloppy uh he had four turnovers in the first quarter wow um and in the

First half the Mavericks shot I think just over 54% but the Pistons outrebounded the Mavericks 29 to9 it’s really hard like it must be really hard to lose the rebounding battle and a half where you shoot 55% from the floor because there’s not a lot of Misses for the other team

To grab so so they were getting offensive so it was turnovers and offensive rebounds the Pistons like I think they were like 43% shooting for the first half they made some threes but it it was all the M it was it was turnovers it it was the inability to to

Grab a defensive rebound uh Pistons got extra possessions that they shouldn’t have had 20 offensive rebounds Jesus Christ yeah um so that was it I mean if the if the Mavericks rebound at a normal rate I mean this is like a 40o laugher from like the beginning so and if luuka

Kind of took the first quarter a little bit more seriously but he certainly took the second third and fourth quarters uh much more seriously so so that’s really it it was kind of a Fool’s Gold first half in terms of like you looked at it and I’m sure some people got really mad

That the Mavericks were not up by more against this crappy Pistons team and that’s fair but it was not nothing that happened in the first half Lo like made it seem like they were in trouble like it was hey just tighten some things up get the turnovers under control

Detroit’s not playing well offensively like they’re not going to outscore you uh so just you know get your s together so to speak and they did and they did and it was it was fine from there yeah I watched this the second half they seem

To have a a really good handle on Kade Cunningham uh he ended up with 33 points but I know he scored 22 in the first half and he really didn’t score a meaningful basket until the game was Out Of Reach for for the Pistons so whatever they did differently and I’m not going

To act like I watched that again I was kind of all over the place with um baby stuff but it really looked like the Mavericks got a handle on this game uh pretty pretty early in the second half uh and it was it was nice to see so it

This game was kind of a kind of a getright game for a number of guys it felt like in some respects um you don’t really call Daniel Gafford continuing to score every basket or every every bucket that’s thrown his way like a getright game but he had kind of a he had a

Pretty nice performance he’s up to 19 straight made field goals which is just I mean 19 or 18 because 19 I think is a Maverick’s record it is it’s 19 because they they made a point of of talking about how it’s the franchise record and I was just really cracking up at the

Fact um you know there’s all this like there’s just such continued talk from people who don’t really like Lucas’s game about how it must be hard to play with Luca like dummy MC dumbass and probably future general manager ch ch Chandler Parsons had some stupid ass

Quote about how it can be how how he guesses it’s frustrating to play with Luca sometimes but you know what if you are particularly Limited in an offensive way at least at the NBA Level Playing with Luca probably has to be amazing for some guys I’m I’m sorry it’s uh tell

Dorany Smith and maxi kba bank accounts um playing with Luca sucks right I I just I you know I the continued disdain from certain people about how he plays is so annoying like there is a conversation to be had about it but it just gets too far on

Either end of the spectrum that it’s hard to even make a r right I mean you know everybody thinks my friend Matt Moore like absolutely hates the Mavericks but I was just chatting with him because I made the uh uh I made the I asked him the question I said you live

In this MV data all the time looking at player stuff scoring has gone down in the NBA like on a team basis over the last several basically since the mid since allar break right or even before that I think it’s almost before that to the point to where uh former NBA writer

Ethan Sherwood Strauss basically put out an article today implicating that there not implying like there’s a lot of on the like off the records GM saying that that they think the NBA has implemented rule changes in season which is going to just which which has changed how the thing’s

Going on yet and I and and I I’m getting off a little bit of a tangent here but Luca scoring has gone up so I was like what and so I just asked him I was like what the heck is going on and he goes Luca is getting the line less but

Scoring better from the field he’s scoring more efficiently in every element of the game so it’s like I sit there and you watch people that hate on Luca and I’m just like look if you don’t like LCA because you don’t like Luca that’s fine just say so but everything

Else in in in regards to not liking how he plays makes you the he’s incredible and when he turns it on it’s it’s just it’s he’s Unstoppable it’s a matter of can he focus and of course he can of course he can so he turned it on in this game and the

Mavericks really seemed to to run away with it yeah it’s actually kind of hilarious that during the five of six losing stretch um which there were some warning signs on offense I wrote about it sure um despite that he’s shooting 51 almost 52% from the floor since the

Start of February he’s shooting 52% from month of March I know let me look that up but basic I mean like yeah there is some stuff going on with the offense and the way you know we saw those him as an individual player it’s it’s it’s not a

Thing it is the you know and and and Luka you I think you’ve said this so I apologize if I just haven’t listened to my own podcast host uh co-host here but with Luca taking on the load on offense and and having to go kind of a little

More ISO ball with how defense are covering the Mavericks offense yeah as a result he is tired and worse on defense he just it makes sense if he’s taking a bigger load of course he’s GNA play worse on defense now I don’t really like that excuse like sorry bro you’re

An NBA player play better defense but at least it makes sense so anyway I interrupt he’s at 62.4% true shooting which is a career high um by about almost 20 percentage points like that’s like that’s aachen Yannis level horeshit and Yannis just runs at the basket I’m not just but it’s

Like Giannis gets to the basket like it’s his life Luca is also shooting 10 threes a game yeah he’s he’s shooting a career high on threes like easily like uh what is he at now he’s at 38% career high was 35 a couple seasons ago so he’s up about three percentage points over

His career high his career average is 34 so four percentage points up so yeah I mean he’s his shooting is has been unbel and it was unbelievable again in this game I know he was only four 13 from three I think he kind of got tired in

The second half and was missing some long ones but from like the second to the third quarter he was he was freaking automatic well the rest triple double you want hit that before we go yeah record s straight they they kept him in the game for probably five minutes more

Than kid would have liked uh but during that five minutes he got three assists and three more rebounds which is just hilarious and probably could have had like two more assists players got fouled on some really nice Hardway missed I think three looks that Luka just served

To him um you know which uh shout out to Tim Hardaway Senor who in the same time span has also had a series of dumbass comments about Luca um that’s you know whatever it’s some Hardway now um the rest of the lineup had Prett like I this

Was a much more balanced game from other players on the floor yeah you only get seven points from PJ Washington but PJ Washington probably had the teammate play the game which we can discuss here in a little bit uh nice little game from drik Jones jior who’s

Back in the starting lineup Kyrie Irving um finished with 21 I mean his he’s he he turned it on after being kind of BL which is it’s it’s nice but the fact that they’ve not need they didn’t need a superb Kyrie game is nice and and I I just I still I you

Mentioned this last game this is the longest stretch of consecutive games he’s had since 2018 2018 was six years ago people six years is a long time two years before the Pand yeah and I don’t want to and I’m not you know it he’s a smaller player we we emphasize this we

Don’t mean it disdainfully it’s just NBA takes a toll on a guy who plays like him because he gets the cup he gets knocked down like he it’s a taxing game and so I’m impressed that he’s played this many games in a row and I that was the thing

That’s the thing with him like we talked about it like I sort of made the opinion that Kyrie needed to play 65 games if the Mavericks were going to have a decent year and like that’s not going to happen but if he can get to 55 I think I

Think the Mavericks are going to be a pretty interesting place um I I will say I really think that like an absolutely Bonkers Kyrie game is coming yeah that’s fair I think so he just he’s too skilled on of a and like the kind of shots that he gets he just

Like the the pullup three-point shooting is just I I think we’re going to get like one of those 21 point quarters from him where it’s like magical looking because he’s just slicing and dicing like he’s like somebody is playing him in a video game so I’m looking forward to that for sure

Um what else do we have here so we had the the I I thought the the Josh Green coming off the bench uh you know kind of a a light game for him got the line five times but what did you think well what did you think about kind of the lineup changes

Tonight uh yeah I mean they’re kind of following through with the lineup changes from the the heat wind so they’re not to 2 and0 since kind of mixing things up and of course you know the heat are kind of a weird team and Detroit’s really bad so you don’t want

To be like they fixed it you know fix their issues but I think it makes a little bit more sense um green still like even in this game uh he played much better than he has previous games but he still dies on a vine on screens like nobody’s business and at least with

Jones there’s kind of an effort to kind of get around the screen and fight through it a little bit more than green can even if green can maybe do a little bit more than than Jones can over overall um and that’s kind of what you need with the starting lineup right like

It’s it’s cool that green can make some really awesome passes and maybe he’s a better shooter in certain aspects but when you’ve got Luca and you’ve got Kyrie like you’ve got so much offense in that starting lineup just from those two guys and you’ve got Gafford or Lively as

A rim Runner like you really just need those two forward spots to be can one of them do a little creating if needed which is PJ Washington can attack close outs he didn’t have to tonight um and then can they just play some defense guard ball handlers and get around

Screens and and make things a little bit more difficult so like if you are playing drop with a center like Gafford it’s just not so killer because you don’t have these guards walking into wide open pull-up shots because you’ve got a player that can get through around

A screen a little bit better uh and so I think Jones you know he did a much better job I think that’s kind of what helped contribute to Cades po second half because Kade was kind of killing them in the pick and roll um that’s how

He was getting most of his buckets had a couple nice step back threes the first half so uh I thought I I like the balance I don’t I don’t think Jones needs to be the like the full-time starter you know what exom showed in the

Heat game and even a little bit of what he did tonight even though he had two points in 18 minutes so another five assist game for exom Off the Bench I know that the Mavericks are playing it safe with him because that Nee brittis is not like that’s something you have to

Like worry like manage about like the knee swelling up is not something that like gets better and you’re like okay it’s not like an ankle sprain getting healed and you’re and you’re totally fine to kind of go back to what you’re doing like that’s something that needs

To be managed and needs to be cautious with that because you don’t want that to flare up again so I understand the Mavericks are being cautious with him but ideally like exm like their best five is Kyrie Luca Washington either Gafford or Lively and then exom as that

Fifth guy so it’s not ideal necessarily I think that Jones is a starter like if everything was perfect and exom had healthy legs you would put exm in that lineup but I think the way they’re able to manage him off the bench and and give the you know also exm coming off the

Bench I think helps because like before that they didn’t have a backup point guard when he was hurt like Jaden Hardy is not a point true point guard Tim Mar Jor is not a point guard like Josh Green even if he’s coming off the bench like

He’s not a point guard you can’t like necessarily funnel offense through him that way so it’s nice to have someone can come off the bench when Luca or Kyrie goes off that can still like you know triple and pass and make the right reads and get people where they need to

Go well let’s so you look at this minutes distribution tonight and it’s it’s kind of interesting and so LCA playing 30 37 minutes sort of skew stuff because he easily could have played 30 and sat out like Kyrie did but if you consider point guard shooting guard

Small forward you got 48 minutes spread out between three players that’s 144 minutes you got Luca eating up on average 36 of those a night so you you know you start and and probably Kyrie averaging 36 as as well so you take off 72 immediately and so you’re trying to

Figure out 72 more minutes over the rest of the game between drik Jones Jr um let’s here Tim Hardaway Dante exom and Josh green and green and so tonight you know Green played the most with 27 the other three guys all played 18ish minutes uh and and I think happened last

Game too right and you know we are not we’ve been not kind to kid I think for good reason because kid has sucked I also think it’s worth noting that if this is what they’re trying to do and they’re getting Equitable minutes distribution with the ability to kind of

Pull the toggle back and forth I think they’ve honestly been been toggling Tim Hardway way too much um him playing you know and I I got I got my one friend who’s always texting me and and dming me about hardways minutes I think with the lineup that

They have now and I agree he keeps texting me this it’s it’s 15 minutes a game for Hardway I think that’s a good Bell weather I think if you’re playing Hardway more than 20 minutes a game this team is either doing really well or offense and things that come with it are

Doing really poorly does that make any sense yeah I think so and in March he’s he’s played five games he’s here minutes totals for each of those five 20 15 13 21 18 which is a pretty marked like that’s a pretty big downturn from what he was doing the previous like three or

Four months and you got like and he’s playing as many as third and when this team was lacking defensive options I get it you want to try to outscore teams it’s not so you play him 15 minutes a game you pull the trigger or you you

Know you pull the hook on him if he misses three straight threes because I mean play 18 Minutes tonight I’m pretty sure he still got up 12 shots yeah 13 shots that’s incredible that’s that’s really guys that’s hard to do I’m sorry but he made him tonight which was good

Yeah you play you play luga Don and Kyrie Irving and you get up that many shots is amazing anyway so it’s like I I think that’s that’s really something I’m I’m going to keep an eye on over the next several weeks where and granted this is what coaching is it’s toggling

It’s figuring out who’s working and who isn’t a lot of fans I think want to see exm start and exm play more minutes but I think you got to be cautious when it comes to Dante’s minutes I don’t think you want to overextend him now and you

Would rather be able to push that toggle up to 25 28 minutes in a in a playoff game right yeah as and as long as you’re keeping you know as long as the management doesn’t lead to you not making the play like you know you got to

Get there first so you gotta make sure you’re utilizing what you can to get there like you can’t you can’t just assume that you’re going to get there especially with how the West is right now and then the playin is going to be I

Mean if the playin is is what I think it is if the Mavericks are in it I mean it’s going to be a blood bath to get out of the play if you’re right if you’re not one of the seven eight teams so you got to get there but you know they won

By 20 like you know you you don’t need to push him if if you can get by and win games without him playing huge minutes so we’re not gonna take a break tonight just because uh this is going to be a little bit of a shorter show I got to go

Do what’s called a dream feed for my infant here shortly Josh wants to get on with his night but we’ll we’ll round this out I think with touching on the only really sort of like emotional moment of the game um there’s a weird play and this was fourth quarter yeah

Top of the fourth quarter about 9 Minute Mark Daniel Gafford gets fouled by Jaylen durren uh durren gives him a little extra when he’s going to the floor which was just look I remember being 20 and being an idiot I did dumb stuff too he pushes

He gives he gives uh uh durren gives um Gafford a little bit of extra sauce just going to the floor made me mad they’re get they’re they’re getting the kicked out of them in the the fourth quarter like he’s pissed off it’s it’s not a good play but it’s also not like

Reprehensible you know yeah and duren’s one of their good players like he’s one of their actual NBA level players that I think will will be something in this league the longer he plays well and going to help up Gafford PJ Washington basically gives um durren a light

Like love tap on the chest I mean he he doesn’t extend too hard he basically is like he’s like it’s like he’s trying to get through a crowd at a con yeah yeah he like and Duren takes takes offense to that proceeds to shove PJ PJ comes to

Shove Duran Falls over and all of a sudden we have uh a Ruckus frus yeah Frack it’s it’s it’s great and you know it is look I I love it when teammates go to bat for one another and Gafford immediately went up to Washington afterwards and hit him on

The chest and app you know kind of showing his appreciation for it yeah that was cool I like seeing that I like I mean I like yeah go ahead go ahead well teams pull together and stuff like this it’s stupid but it’s it Ma it’s it’s it matters you know and like you

Know our our friend of the show Mavs employee Bobby carala did the closest thing he’s ever done in my time knowing him the other day on a live stream talking about kind of who’s to blame for this current string of that we’ve watched from the Mavericks and he

Essentially says and he’s correct okay we’re all mad at kid but he lays this at everyone’s feet Bobby did and the thing about a little fracus a little emotional thing like this is that it reminds you that this game while it is these guys job it is also incredibly emotional and

Over an 82 Game season things get taxing and things get boring and things get gross the Mavericks have had some gross spots if you go and look at their win loss schedule they really have like three or four streaks where it’s like what is this team their season has been

Kind of a roller coast yes it’s been real bad to where you know I’ve had some people tell me that they could be a playin team they could be a lottery team if it just you never know what Mavericks team you’re going to get over a two-e

Span and I I say all this to bring back home the point that I think a little reminder a little jolt of energy at the right time can go a long way you know I really couldn’t stand uh the Mavericks 15th man the 2021 22 uh who’s our

Podcast guy the the zero turnover Mr Theo penson Mr Theo penson I really couldn’t stand Theo penson okay but what Theo brought to that team was needed was needed emotion it was hyping up Stakes sometimes it’s like sometimes you gotta like this is what Michael Jordan

Was amazing at he would go into games and find something to be pissed about Okay and like you just got to over this many games otherwise it becomes boring and it’s it’s like you know maybe maybe this little two- game Run if they are able to beat the Bulls you three three

Wins you know maybe this will be enough to kind of get them going down the stretch to where they could pull out of that that tail spin that they had I don’t know I’m probably reaching but that’s just it’s something I was thinking about when I was watching it

Because I really liked to see that sort of thing these guys are all teammates they spend a lot of time together you know they I’m sure they they get on each other’s nerves just like co-workers do but I just I I really that that felt like something that I’m going to

Remember in the next couple of games no no I don’t think you’re overreaching to it and I mean good Lord I mean they it’s the Pistons they have 10 wins it’s hard to find something to talk about that feels meaningful and impactful um I liked it too for all the reasons you

Said like that’s those are all great reasons like you love to see camaraderie building especially from two guys that have been playing together for like three weeks yeah like to you know that’s also really nice to see and then another thing is it’s just good to see a

Teammate do that because to be honest in the Luca era we haven’t seen a lot of that like you know Dorian finy Smith would would do was kind of that role um occasionally but like remember the first playoff series against the Clippers um the the game one that KP got ejected

Because Luca got cheap shotted and basically no one did anything about it and KP was the one who kind of got involved and he ended up getting attacked to get thrown out I remember watching that like why you know great that kp’s doing that but good Lord could

Can someone else on this roster like stick up for lo I remember that that was a big deal we’re all really annoyed it’s like why is KP the one that has to go do this who already has the technical like someone should have gotten in front of

Him and and taken the bullet for him and you know it’s just good to see this you know you want to see guys respond like DN pushed him in Washington no hesitation was like no no way like it’s and it’s good like you said it’s good

Reminder that this is more than a job you know like it’s it’s competition like we played we did not play high l basketball but like when we played like I’m a competitive person I don’t care what I’m doing you know I don’t like losing like I don’t care if I’m playing

Basketball in high school or pickup during college or if I’m playing freaking Halo online like I’m her Edwards I play to win the game like I don’t want to lose like it pisses me off when I lose it anything um so you know you can’t get to the level that these

Guys get if they’re not also somewhat you know if they’re similarly wired you just you’re just not going to be there like to be one of the best 400 players on planet Earth basically uh in the game of basketball which is the only way you

Can get to the NBA for the most part like you have to be a little bit of a psycho or you have to have a Competitive Edge so you know it’s always like you said A2 games it’s so long sometimes you forget uh so it’s always nice to see

That little reminder like I like it I like more scrappiness yeah okay um let’s see here then oh this is a good important note from Daniel in the chat he says the next two games are going to be on WFAA that is you know for those of you

Depending on your cable situation your local situation this is good to know thank you Daniel appreciate that note everyone get a get get a TV antenna yes get some free Mavs basketball that’s right that’s right okay so the Mavericks play the Bulls when not tomorrow Monday

Monday okay so we get a day off let’s go look at the Maverick schedule real quick just then a trio from hell like right after the Chicago game that’s okay that’s okay let let’s take a look here then they go Warriors Thunder nuggets uh that’ll be real fun yeah no

It’s it’s Ser you know if they’re able to pull off two out of three on on that just just on happen stance then that that could be really something that that 230 game uh on the 17th which is a Sunday is against the Nuggets is really

Going to be fascinating um so okay well let’s just close it up early thanks so much for hanging out guys I was going to do another live I I mean I cannot do a live show tonight just because I got to go take care of the baby uh we’ll do one

After the bull show I’m sure thank you so much uh everybody be good and go enjoy the rest of your weekend and go Mavs thanks guys

Kirk and Josh connect after the #DallasMavericks play the #DetroitPistons on the road Saturday night. #LukaDoncic and #KyrieIrving lead Dallas to a pretty comfortable win following a tightly contested first half (though there wasn’t much defense) #BlueWireVideo

Start time is an estimate! Anywhere from 8:30 to 9:15

LIKE the stream, SUBSCRIBE to the show, CLICK THE BELL to get notified when we go LIVE, and LEAVE a comment.

Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/6632355645227008