If you thought that last game was bad, just wait until you see THIS one!
It’s the Dallas Mavericks vs the Washington Wizards, round two, but this time both teams have lost four or five games in a row, and
they’re both playing on a back-to-back. This is what Dr. James Naismith envisioned when he nailed that very first peach basket to a pole.
Dallas will be looking for their first road win, and Washington will be on the hunt for just their second win of the season and first in front of a home crowd, with their first and only win thus far coming on the Mavericks’ court.
You’re locked in here with me
The Wizards are one of the NBA’s most reliably incompetent franchises. As such, most of the players on their roster are well acquainted with the concept of packing it in shortly after the All-Star break and starting to plan their offseason. The Mavericks, on the other hand, have holdovers from a team that went to a Western Conference Finals and NBA Finals run. To be truly broken, you must have had the opportunity for greatness and have it slip through your fingers.
Now they’ve been brought down to the Wizards’ level. Bottom dwellers who, nonetheless, are contractually obligated to go out there and play 48 minutes of basketball for people who, likely, thought they were buying Commanders tickets, one presumes. Can Dallas beat Washington at their own game? Or will despair and darkness consume them, as Gmork warned Atreyu would happen to all of humankind who tried to rise up against the Nothing.
Got any other bright ideas?
Moving Klay Thompson to the bench to bring a guard, in this case D’Angelo Russell, into the starting lineup was the right move if for no other reason than if Thompson isn’t hitting threes, and he wasn’t, there’s no reason for him to be out there, really. Still, there must have also been some hope that it would help cut down on Dallas’ atrocious turnover problem they’ve been afflicted with to start this season. Well, it hasn’t, and it may have actually gotten worse. With Russell in the starting five, Dallas gave up 15 and then 17 turnovers in their last two games.
Due to the roster construction, there is no real solution other than simply hoping they get out there and play better next time. But, so long as we’re in the business of sucking ass, might as well through Nembhard back out there. Get these young guys as many minutes as you can to see what you might have. Yes, it’s already that point in the season.
Personal Improvement
Last time these two teams played, Dallas was done in by a 34-point effort by someone named Kyshawn George, a career high for the second-year player who averaged 8.7 points per game. Don’t mean to belittle the guy, glad he’s making the jump and seems to have improved. But it’d be nice to see Cooper Flagg take the challenge to make sure George isn’t the game’s leading scorer this time around.
All we heard about was how important it was to have elite two-way players, and while Cooper is still working on his offensive consistency (he had a decent shooting night in the loss to Memphis, going 5-of-10 from the field), seeing him lock down one of the opposing team’s offensive weapons would give fans something to believe in. He had two blocks and three steals against New Orleans, and followed that up with one block, one steal night against Memphis. Despite the direction the team is headed, seeing Flagg stay locked in defensively would be a good sign he’s not falling into the doldrums.
