The Dallas Mavericks got shelled on Friday night, losing their first home game since March 1st, 138-105. But if you want to know more about what happened from a sequential point of view, click this recap here. Otherwise, scroll on down and see the numbers by which the Dallas Mavericks died.
61.5%: Cleveland’s field goal and free throw %
Oh brother, Dallas, are you going to stop anyone? The Cavs went nuts both inside and outside the arc, which has me wondering what the defensive point of emphasis was in this game. The Mavericks aren’t a great defensive team
but they aren’t this bad either. The Cavs shooting nearly 50% from outside the arc was obnoxious to watch and what I thought was the main reason Dallas lost this game.
At least until I got to the next stat.
72: Points surrendered in the paint by Dallas
At some point these last 10 games, the Mavericks have gone from being a team that scores in the paint and rules there, to being a team that invites their opponent to score there instead. The Cavs shot 75% inside the paint! Just no paint or rim protection to speak of anymore for this team. Since these two teams play again Sunday, we have to hope they find some pride otherwise that game is going to be a beatdown as well!
4: Dallas Mavericks steals
I mainly want to talk about this stat so I can tell you the Cavs had 12 in comparison. Live ball turnovers killed the Mavericks tonight and the sloppy defense from Dallas didn’t force any. It’s hard to say what kind of defense Dallas is running lately because it sucks, but you can see this by the other datapoints I mentioned. Dallas needs better on ball defense, better help coverage, and way better three point defense.
