DALLAS, TEXAS — The loss against Charlotte resonated amongst the Maverick players and not much needed to be said afterwards. The players knew they needed to focus on their next game on New Year’s Day and change the narrative going forward.
“There was nothing else for us to talk about, collectively we knew what was going on in the game previous, and we know we have a lot more levels to get to.” Mavericks forward James Johnson said after the Mavericks 93-83 win against the Miami Heat.
“I think today was one of those days we knew exactly what we had to do and how to execute. We came out more physical and you can tell we wanted it more.”
This game had an old school vibe to it. Neither team scored over 100 points in the game, and both teams struggled from three like the three point line was just invented. It was a very slow start for both squads.
In the first quarter Dallas only converted on 37% of their shots from the field and the Heat 33% and neither team could hit from three as both teams combined to hit one three point shot. This resulted in a rare early 20-16 Mavericks lead going into the second quarter.
What allowed the Mavericks to gain a lead and ultimately separate in this game was their performance on the defensive end, and on the boards, which is the area of improvement Rick Carlisle has wanted to see out of his team since the beginning of the season.
“The notion that we need to be a better defensive team has only resonated in 2 out of 5 games. This is going to be a different kind of year if we are going to have success, we aren’t going to set a lot of offensive records like we did last year. This is about doing the little things hard, sacrificing yourself physically to get 1 or 2 more stops a game and believing this our key to getting further.” Carlisle said during his post game press conference.
Dallas out rebounded Miami 14-8, two of those boards coming on the offensive end.
The Maverick defense showed up late in the first half recording 4 steals, 1 block, forced 6 turnovers and the Heat only shot 16% from the floor in the entire second quarter.
Another key to the Mavericks early success in this game was getting Tim Hardaway Jr. going early. Hardaway Jr. finished the first half with 10 points shooting 2 for 5 from three and was the team’s second leading scorer. Luka Doncic finished the first half with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and finally was able to knock down a shot from the perimeter thanking the man above after doing so. James Johnson played a major part in the teams offensive and defensive efforts as well hitting a pair of three pointers and stealing the ball two times to solidify a 14 point lead going into the half.
So far this season the Mavericks ended the first half with a lead only once before tonight. The Mavericks have been on the opposite end of losing leads in all of their games this season so it’s no surprise this team turned it on at the right time. The Mavericks stole the ball 3 more times and blocked 2 shots and outscored the Heat in the third 27-22 and finished the third quarter with a 73-53 lead.
Dallas’s defensive efforts began to let up to an extent in the fourth quarter as the Heat began to make more of their shots and the Mavericks lead began to decrease in margin. Miami hit 54% of their shots from the field in the fourth but only hit 25% of their shots from three in comparison to hitting 57% of their shots in the third. Dallas struggled and knocked down less than 30% of their shots from the field resulting in their 20 point lead shrinking down to a 9 point lead with less than 2 minutes to play. The Heat only made one more shot after their run and the Mavericks defense at the end of the game deserves much credit.
Dallas won this game primarily because of their willingness to defend at all cost. They put defense at the forefront and held a team that scored over 100 points in 3 out of 5 of their games to less than 100 points, and took away what the Heat do best which is shoot the three ball.
The final piece to the Mavericks puzzle is consistency at the defensive end and this team could be one of the better defensive teams in the NBA by season’s end.
