The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 112-124.
The road, in the literary sense, is often described unfavorably. Terms like “long,” “winding,” and “hard” are often attached to it in any number of permutations in an attempt to truly capture the lonely feeling of desolation that can often be found there. The road is not for the faint of heart. If anything, that would be the street. Famously “easy” and “taking it to the (celebratorily)”. Well, the Dallas Mavericks don’t play on the street; they
play on the road. And against the Atlanta Hawks, on the road, they lost their eighth game in a row. A losing streak separated from seperate, equally draining 10-game losing streak, by a pair of wins.
It wasn’t a blowout, but it also never felt all that competitive. Even when Dallas tied it early in the fourth at 97 apiece, you could feel the script unfolding, like a bad sitcom trope. Dallas was outscored 15 to 27 the rest of the way, and that’s the ballgame.
It felt like a game in March from a team that is weary of flying all over the country for most of the month and has no postseason prospects to think of. Dallas actually had a decent shooting night, shooting 41% as a team from deep, and putting up 38 points in the third, outscoring the Hawks in the frame by seven and cutting their lead to four.
Dallas was led by a pair of Vets who arguably would be much better suited to a playoff-bound squad — Klay Thompson put up 21, powered by a hot night behind the arc, where he shot five-for-eleven. Khris Middleton got in on the scoring as well, especially in Dallas’ big third quarter when he earned 10 of his 16 points for the night.
For the Hawks, all five starters made it to double-digit scoring, but Nickeil Alexander-Walker led the way with 29.
Good habits
It’s surprising that, on the rare night when Dallas was actually seeing their shots falling from three, they still came out on top in the free-throw contest. Dallas took 22 free throws to Atlanta’s 18. It was Brandon Williams who earned eight of those attempts for Dallas (and hit seven).
For an NBA team, getting into the paint and drawing fouls feels a little like establishing the run for a football team. It’s not always glamorous, but it opens up so much more of the offense down the road. For Dallas, establishing these kinds of good offensive habits will hopefully pay dividends sooner rather than later.
Bullied
The Hawks seem to have taken out their frustration of being robbed of a Magic City theme night by beating up the Mavs in just about every physically demanding stat that can be counted.
Dallas was out-boarded 42 to 46, out-scored in the paint by 12, and had eight of their shots blocked while blocking zero of Atlanta’s. There was something of a little brother vibe to it all, to be honest. Sure, it was nice to watch Klay nail a bundle of threes, but make no mistake – the Mavs got outcompeted tonight.
Not quite Clutch merchants
Dallas was about one second away from notching their 40th and league-leading clutch game this season. Atlanta hit a three-pointer to go up seven just before the clock struck five minutes. 39 out of Dallas’ 65 games this season have counted as clutch, but the Mavs have won 15 of those contests while dropping the other 24.
The optimist must wonder how many of those losses can be flipped to the win column by a team with a second-year Flagg, the return of Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively, and a top-10 draft pick. That future is potentially bright, but it has never felt further away.
