The Dallas Mavericks played their last game before breaking for Thanksgiving, losing to the Miami Heat by a final score of 106-102. Although the once-venomous rivalry between these two teams has waned
some, losing to Miami to fall even further below .500 is a sour note the Mavs will look to rectify on Friday when they take on their former teammate Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Let’s get to the grades!
Brandon Williams: C
12 PTS / 2 REB / 5 AST / 1 STL / 0 BLK – 21 MIN
Williams struggled with his shot for a few games, got red hot for a game, then regressed once again tonight. Still, he seems to bring tenacity and savvy play, even when the shot isn’t there. Williams had a great poke away that turned into a fast break in the third quarter, a byproduct of his smarts and quick hands. The intangibles aren’t enough to make up for the combination of poor shooting at volume (4-for-13) and the amount of turnovers he committed (three), even with a decent assist total in limited minutes.
Max Christie: B+
15 PTS / 5 REB / 1 AST / 0 STL / 1 BLK – 30 MIN
Christie has been a steadying presence of late, and tonight was no different. He didn’t necessarily blow your mind if you were watching, but had a great shooting night (5-for-9 from the floor with 3-for-5 from beyond the arc). A completely unforced turnover — stepping out of bounds on a drive — really hurt the Mavs’ cause in the closing minutes, but he had a very solid game overall.
Cooper Flagg: C+
12 PTS / 7 REB / 3 AST / 2 STL / 0 BLK – 34 MIN
Flagg had a rough night shooting and was generally quiet throughout. He did a fair bit of everything else, but had the worst plus/minus of the starters and turned the ball over three times. A few nice plays in the fourth quarter help his grade a bit, but this was a relatively mundane outing for the rookie phenom.
P.J. Washington: A-
27 PTS / 8 REB / 1 AST / 0 STL / 2 BLK – 34 MIN
Washington was the best Maverick by far against the Heat. He did everything the team asked him to. He hit his shots from the outside, had a few great rotations on defense to get some weak-side blocks, took care of the ball — you name it. He did miss two 3-point attempts in the waning minutes, but I’m not holding that against him too much relative to the fact he was the primary reason the Mavs were in the game at that point anyway. Washington’s terrible inbound pass for a turnover in the final minute left a smear on an otherwise great game.
Daniel Gafford: B-
11 PTS / 11 REB / 0 AST / 1 STL / 2 BLK – 28 MIN
Gafford was a mixed bag. He looked bad in the early going, then started putting together a solid game. His stats are the stuff of a very good Gafford outing, but his grade gets walloped by how much he was outplayed on the other end by Kel’el Ware. Granted, he didn’t match up against Ware every play, but Ware had a massive game on the other end. Gafford fouled a bit too much again, especially in the first half, but took care of the ball and was active on the offensive glass (four).
Klay Thompson: C
13 PTS / 2 REB / 1 AST / 2 STL / 0 BLK – 20 MIN
Coming off his season high in scoring on Saturday night, Thompson couldn’t put up a repeat performance. As has been the case frequently this season, he could not find his shot. He showed quick hands on defense, but it just wasn’t there for him tonight, even though he caught a rhythm in the fourth quarter for a bit.
Andrew Nembhard: B+
2 PTS / 3 REB / 8 AST / 0 STL / 0 BLK – 17 MIN
Nembhard got some burn at the expense of D’Angelo Russell, who had nothing going once again. Nembhard didn’t shoot well, nor did he get quite enough playing time to adequately grade, but he makes the list for his assist total. Given his limited playing time and the fact hardly any Maverick could shoot for much of the game , it was an impressive lesson that he can run an offense. He led the team in assists despite playing under 17 minutes. You decide if that’s a credit to him, or an indictment to the team at large.
Final Thoughts
With Dallas having a little break heading into Thanksgiving (they don’t play again until Friday), the hope was they would have left it all out on the floor and brought maximum effort. While they weren’t necessarily apathetic, they looked a bit flat too often. Their shooting was flat out horrendous and there were too many instances where Miami would beat Dallas to a rebound or the Mavs would be too slow to close out on Heat threes. Miami shot poorly from beyond the arc (5-of-27), but grabbed offensive rebounds off errant 3-point attempts and capitalized on poor rotations by the Mavs for drives to the basket.
To their credit, Dallas stuck with it and were tied in the final minute after trailing by as many as 13 to the highest scoring team in the NBA (who, in fairness, were without Normal Powell and only just welcoming back Tyler Herro). Having done so much to claw back, an unforced turnover on Max Christie stepping out of bounds and a horrific inbounds pass to the wrong team are things that simply can’t happen if you expect to win. The Mavs also held the Heat to a disastrous 5-for-27 from beyond the arc, yet somehow couldn’t bring it home despite outscoring Miami by 21 from distance. In the end, Monday’s game was winnable — the Mavs just did all they could to lose for too much of the game.
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