PRESS ASSOCIATED
A day after Luka Doncic outlined his problems with his teammates ’effort, the Dallas Mavericks showed they still have some fighting. It didn’t matter. Dallas dropped its fifth straight game Saturday night to the Phoenix Suns.
The Mavericks have now lost eight of their last 10.. The streak they are currently missing is the longest time the Mavericks and Doncic have been in since falling seven in a row in March of the 2018-19 season. For a team with a playoff desire and an MVP candidate, it’s hard to say at least the way Dallas is going right now. If the team can’t find a way to win, Doncic ‘s campaigns will only grow.
“Luka Doncic cares deeply about winning,” said Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle. “This man was raised in a winning environment. There’s a lot of frustration going on. I understand the feelings. They are very sad. ”
What prompted Doncic’s criticism of the team’s performance was a big loss at the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Friday night. Nothing went right for the Mavericks as they fell 120-101. When asked to comment on the team’s effort, Doncic quickly said: “Awesome.”
“Right now, it looks like we don’t care, honestly, if we win games or not,” Doncic continued. “We arrived [have] more energy, more effort, diving for every ball, box out, everything. There are a lot of things we could improve, and I know we can. I know we will, and that is what matters. “
The Mavericks can add much – but not all – of their feelings to the impact Covid-19 has had on the team. At one point, five major circulating players were going out under league health and safety protocols for openness. Four of them have returned with a fifth, Maxi Kleber, scheduled to play Monday.
While the absences certainly did not help matters, it was the performance on the court that was most worrying. The body language of the team, as Doncic noted, was a lack of money and not just in Friday night ‘s game. Dallas is just in funk.
Over the last five games, the Mavericks have fired the worst 29% in the league on three-point hits. They are also the worst rebounding team, capturing just 36.8 per game. Their offensive rating is 109, which is twenty-second and their last defense level of 122.1 dead during their lost streak. Overall, their level of defense has dropped to 111, twentieth in the league. As far as Jan. 14, Dallas ’defensive rating was then 104.6 in the second-best place in the league.
Against the Suns, the Mavericks showed life. They fought throughout, matched Phoenix at every turn, and took a 15-point lead at one point in the third quarter. However, Dallas left when it came to a close in the final minutes when Chris Paul of Phoenix replayed the game down the field to lead his club to a 111-105 victory.
Doncic did not make this loss as much as he did the night before. However, he knows his team can be better.
“I think the effort was great today and I think we had a bit of bad luck,” said Doncic. “We had five or six open hits at the end and they don’t fall. We need to work on that. ”
Even in a loss, the game proved that the Mavericks are capable of competing and displaying a level of effort equal to that of professional athletes – something that was once a concept-like thing. foreign. The energy on the floor was palpable.
“I feel like that to be great, you have to go through the trenches with your brothers and crawl and dig out of that hole,” said Tim Hardaway Jr. “Tonight, I think we have moved one step closer to the right path.
“I’m not saying it was good, because we didn’t win, but at the same time, people showed effort. [and] people were moving the ball. It felt like there was a bit of joy outside today and it was a great job from our boys who came in to show that. ”
Moral virtues do not appear in the standings, however. As Dallas recovers the players recovering from a long coronavirus-related absence, the road ahead may still be rocky. If the Mavericks can’t start pushing some wins out of the schedule, their playing chances or temperance will not improve.
“We’re getting boys back,” said Carlisle. “We are at the height of our timetable. … We have to fight and stop the tide – that’s what we have to do. It’s a very difficult time but we’re going to live in it and we’re going to keep fighting through it. ”