The Mavericks went 3-2 over the last week-and-a-half, and sit at 4-4 overall. They won three in a row against Miami (113-109), Oklahoma City (120-96), and Houston (116-111). They have lost their last two against Sacramento (115-100) and San Antonio (112-111). Cooper Flagg led the team in scoring with 24.8 points per game.
Grade: A-
Despite the sour taste that Cooper Flagg’s last two games have left in everyone’s mouths, the Mavericks deserve a good grade. They beat two great teams in the Thunder and Rockets,
and a Miami team with multiple former All-Stars. For three games in a row, they looked like a playoff team. Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg’s pairing made sense, P.J. Washington has been excellent all year, and Daniel Gafford has given Dallas a lot of what he gave them two years ago. Even Walter Clayton Jr., the 18th overall pick just last year, has given them a bright spot in a dark guard room.
Unfortunately, they tested fate by resting Irving on Monday against the Kings, and the basketball gods punished them by giving Sacramento their first win of the season in Dallas. The bad vibes continued for another two quarters, where the Mavericks got embarrassed in the first half against the Spurs. These six periods dropped them from an A+ to an A-. Luckily, they came out with energy in the second half and made what was looking like a stomping into a really exciting one-point loss against the defending Western Conference champions.
As previously mentioned, it is important to note how bad Cooper Flagg has looked in the last two games. He is just 10-of-38 (26.3 percent) from the floor, has not made a three, and has looked overwhelmingly disinterested on offense. Something doesn’t look quite right, and they’re going to need him to figure it out to take advantage of the next week of games.
Dallas has a three-game home stand against Brooklyn, Utah, and Indiana coming up.
Straight A’s: Zaccharie Risacher
Risacher was the first overall selection by Atlanta just three drafts ago. By no fault of his own, he was scrutinized for underperforming a draft placement he shouldn’t have been taken at. When he was traded to Dallas, those expectations dissipated. It seems like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders, because Risacher has been one of the most important pieces to winning the Mavericks have.
He is just one of five players with 10+ steals and 10+ blocks this year. He is a legitimately good rebounder and has made threes sporadically. His commitment to defense has been enlightening, and his signature performance came this past week when he held Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to just 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting in a 24-point win. If Dallas is going to be a playoff team, Risacher will be in the rotation.
Failed the assignment: Morez Johnson Jr.
Yes, we are just eight games into his career. Yes, he was dealing with shin splints before the season. And yes, he was never supposed to be a flashy lottery pick. But it is impossible to ignore the tape that Morez Johnson Jr. has put together. Especially when Yaxel Lendeborg, his Michigan teammate, was picked after him and is averaging 21.5 points a game in Golden State.
Johnson Jr. was finally taken off a minutes restriction against the Spurs on Wednesday, and looked significantly more mobile. But for the majority of his minutes he has been a step slow, fouled a ton, and has given the Mavericks little to nothing on the offensive end. He is scoring just over seven points a game, grabbing just 3.1 rebounds, and fouling three times in his 16 minutes a night. Hopefully he can stack minutes as he ramps up, but he has been disappointing thus far.
Extra Credit: Kyrie Irving
It’s taken a little bit of time, but Irving is starting to look like himself again. The paint touches are not quite there yet; it takes a lot of time to trust your legs to jump and move in traffic again. But the three-point shot looks good, he is moving well laterally, and he is digging in on rebounds and the defensive end. He’s coming off back-to-back games of 35 and 29 points, and although the latter was not super efficient, he is starting to score in bunches like he did pre-injury. It is only a matter of time where he is doing things again that leave us in awe.
