The Dallas Mavericks (14-24) lost another soul-draining game, 116-114 to the Utah Jazz (13-24) at the Delta Center on Thursday, the team’s 17th clutch loss of the year. The Mavericks were led by Cooper Flaggs’ 26 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Anthony Davis chipped in 21 points and 11 rebounds but left the game with an apparent hand injury while defending Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen with 2:08 left to play. Naji Marhsall also had 17 points, Klay Thompson had 23 and Max Christie had 16 of his
own.
The Jazz were led by Markkanen’s 33-point, seven-rebound, four-assist night, scoring all but 6 points in the paint. Keyonte George also contributed 19 points and 7 assists.
The big talking point out of this game will be Davis’ hand injury late. Davis and a team trainer headed back to the locker room almost immediately after the injury.
“He hurt his left hand,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said in his postgame comments. “That’s all we have.”
The Mavericks’ starters had a rough start on Thursday. Max Christie got the scoring started with a tough driving layup, and Cooper Flagg got going early with a paint shot and finished off the rebound. The Jazz went on a 13-5 run later in the quarter, fueled by Dallas’ missed layups and bad contested shots. Utah led 34-29 after one.
Davis walked back on defense, sulking, throughout much of the second quarter, and the Mavs couldn’t wrestle control of the game from Utah for much of the frame. The Jazz led 53-39 with three minutes to go in the half. The quarter ended decently for the Mavericks, checking Cooper Flagg in and immediately finding some offense with a couple of dunks from Davis, a Klay three, and some points from Flagg. The end of the quarter was a weird series of fortunate events that got the Mavs to within three at half.
The Mavericks took back the lead early in the third with two 3-pointers from Christie and Marshall. After a couple more ugly possessions, Naji tied the game with a floater. Daniel Gafford bailed the Jazz out with a bad foul and a turnover along the way. Markkanen and Keyonte George accounted for every third-quarter Jazz basket but one until the 4:36 mark. After a couple of sloppy possessions out of a Mavs timeout, the Mavs tied the game with two layups from Christie and Marshall, followed by a gigantic sequence from Anthony Davis, getting a block at the rim and running for a wide-open dunk at the other end. The Mavericks finally started to protect the rim, and the transition opportunities opened wide for the Mavs, including a rookie alley-oop from Ryan Nembhard to Cooper Flagg. This momentum, with Flagg pushing the pace and the team protecting the paint, carried the Mavs into the fourth quarter with an 89-88 lead.
The fourth quarter was another nail-biter, marking the Mavericks’ 29th clutch game of the season. The game went back and forth, with turnovers and layups from both teams, keeping the lead in flux. Markanen continued his big night, making every Maverick defender look like a college player guarding him. The last seven minutes were just more back and forth, with Ryan Nembhard and Naji helping retake the lead after being down two, followed by a Cooper jump shot to go back up two scores, and a ridiculous fade-away three from Max Christie to put Dallas up by seven late.
After the Jazz came back, the game came to a grinding halt when Anthony Davis injured his hand and mentally checked out, basically giving up an offensive and defensive possession. Thompson hit his sixth 3-pointer to try and get back into it one last time, but Marshall forgot to guard Keyonte George, and then Cooper Flagg had a turnover that ended another gross clutch game for the Mavs as they dropped the 116-114 decision.
The Anthony Davis experiment is over
If, for some reason, you still believed in Anthony Davis’ experiment on the Mavs up to this point, get over it. Tonight was about the most typical experience you could get from Davis, scoring 21 points on 2o shots while tagging on eleven rebounds, but ended up getting hurt and checking himself out at a crucial point of the game. The injury came as Davis was trying to guard Lauri Markkanen, who had given him the business all night, finishing with 33 points. Markkanen tried to post up Davis with a perfectly legal shoulder bump into Davis’ wrist. After that play, Davis spent the next two possessions clinching his wrist on the baseline, effectively giving the Jazz the win before checking himself out and going to the locker room.
Davis’ box score does not do justice to how bad he was in his thirty minutes, constantly settling for tough, contested shots and literally walking back on defense. The statistical production, along with the slop it takes to get it, has been a constant for the Mavs this season. He’s making 35% of the salary cap. He’s expected to be the first or second option when Kyrie Irving comes back. He’s expected to be an elite, top-75, two-way player. Davis’ defense and inefficient scoring simply do not translate to any winning, though. Stop pretending that this injury-prone, expensive, aging, regressing, and simply flawed player is supposed to help this team compete in the near future. The Mavericks should take any deal they can get at this point.
Another big night for Flagg
Cooper Flagg was the star of the show yet again tonight, finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, along with three steals and one block on three total turnovers. Flagg also played a team-high 38 minutes and shot 55% from the field and 50% from 3-point range. Thursday’s game was Flaggs’ 37th game, matching the total he played in his one college season at Duke. In college, he averaged 19 points, 7.5 rebounds, four assists, on 48% from the field and 38.5% from distance. In the NBA, he is averaging 19 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 4 assists, shooting 48% from the floor and 27.5% from deep. Flagg was the national player of the year in college, and has seemingly filled into the number one overall pick’s shoes with ease, leading the Mavericks in points, rebounds, assists, and steals as a rookie playing next to two future Hall of Famers and numerous vets. Flagg should give the fans and the organization optimism in their investment in the future, not the present.
The Jazz have what the Mavs need
Watching this game tonight, you could not help but think about how much better the young, tanking Jazz look than the supposedly all-in Mavericks. Utah has a roster filled with young up-and-coming talent, with a young superstar in Markkanen and a flurry of incoming draft picks. The Jazz have loads of cap room to sign players and stay below the second apron, compared to the Mavs, who have an expensive, aging, regressing roster, who has no identity, and is supposed to be competing. This needs to be addressed. Watching Jazz coach Will Hardy out-coach and manipulate Jason Kidd on his way to the win is beyond frustrating. Even tanking teams should look more competent on the basketball floor than the Mavs do night in and night out, and the Jazz are a great example of that.
