The Dallas Mavericks were blown out Saturday evening by the San Antonio Spurs, xx-xx. Stephon Castle put on a basketball clinic for the Spurs, posting 40 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists, and three steals.
Klay Thompson was the high point man for Dallas off the bench with 19. The Mavericks have now lost seven in a row.
There was a furious pace to the early minutes of the game, and the Spurs took full advantage of a questionable Dallas transition defense. Head coach Jason Kidd was forced to call a timeout with San Antonio going up 16-6 following a Flagg turnover where he appeared to hurt his shoulder. New Maverick Marvin Bagley burst out of the timeout with a couple of hustle baskets. A Brandon Williams three forced a Spurs timeout with Dallas down 21-18. The Mavericks kept the energy high all period but San Antonio had an answer for every Dallas shot. They weathered the Dallas push and closed out the first quarter up 39-32.
The Mavericks continued to fight in the second frame, taking their first lead at 8:30 on a Caleb Martin drive and finish. As the period wore on, the Spurs finally matched the Dallas energy; slowly and surely they overtook the Mavericks on the scoreboard. An end-of-quarter scoring flurry put the Spurs up by 14 as Dallas could not match the talent level San Antonio put out on the floor. Dallas entered halftime down 81-67.
Nearly all season long, the Mavericks have made a living off of simply playing hard. They’ve stayed in games due to consistent effort married to reasonable enough talent. But the third quarter against the Spurs was one of the rare times that energy just didn’t matter. The Spurs thumped Dallas, growing the lead bit by bit. The Mavericks simply couldn’t hang. Halfway through the period, the San Antonio lead grew to 24. There was a Cooper injury scare (maybe his third of the game?) in the frame where his foot bent at a concerning angle, but he seemed fine. The Spurs led going into the fourth 116-91.
The final quarter was largely about Castle beating the brakes off Dallas and everyone getting out of the game without an injury. Dallas tried to eat into the lead, but could not stop the Spurs from scoring. Dallas fell to San Antonio, 138-125.
Dallas is a long way off from what San Antonio is doing
There’s optimism among the Dallas fanbase, and there absolutely should be. Cooper Flagg rules and clearing off a bunch of salary, which will allow the Mavericks a chance to build something new, is important. But make no mistake: Dallas has a long way to go to even being a playoff team in my view.
Kyrie Irving’s return will be great if he stays in Dallas. A top-tier draft pick will also help and if the Mavericks get lucky, that may change my view somewhat. But compared to the Spurs, they lack in every area. That’s not an insult either, the Spurs are loaded for bear and ready to go try and win a title. But there are levels to this whole NBA contender thing, and Dallas is much closer to the bottom of the league than the NBA playoffs, and I think the optimism folks are feeling is blurring just how much this team actually needs. But one player can change things, and you never know what happens in the lottery and in free agency. Maybe I’m wrong here, but getting bushwhacked by the Spurs in two straight games puts a damper on my positivity.
