G54 Match Report: Reversal of the Wizards.
The Dallas Mavericks continue their good momentum. Despite a rough start, a strong performance in the end allowed them to beat the Washington Wizards 112-104.
New signing Daniel Gafford continued to shine as he finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds, seven of which were offensive rebounds. He set the tone from the start, grabbed seven rebounds in the opening six minutes, and was active under the basket all night. Defensively, he did his best to limit Avdija, who still scored a team-high 25 points for the Wizards, but Gafford was still very solid.
Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving each scored 26 points, both shooting 2-of-7 from the field on the night when Dallas' three-point shooting was cold. Still, a win on a night when the offense wasn't perfect was always something to celebrate, and it put the team on a five-game winning streak heading into the final game before the All-Star break.
Key Temperament:
By all accounts, the Wizards are not a good team. Dallas had won four in a row, and the Wizards, who had just nine wins for most of the season, shouldn't have been in their way. Dallas waited until the final moment of truth to take the suspense out of the game.
At the start of tonight, everything went wrong in Dallas. They missed shots, made a lot of mistakes (13 in the first half), and Luka's jaw was bleeding. Then, after failing to break 30 points in any quarter, Dallas scored 34 points in a single quarter in the fourth quarter.
Don't get me wrong, if you can suppress the Wizards every minute of 48 minutes, it will certainly be the best state of mind and will keep the fans hooked, but good teams always find a way to win bad games. And Dallas has been playing more and more like a really good team lately.
After Jaden Hardy hit two big three-pointers, Dallas finally found their shooting touch and narrowed it down to one point, while solid team defense limited the Wizards' scoring to 16 points in the first quarter.
Restriction rights:
Everyone in Dallas didn't feel good tonight, so their 9-of-36 long-range shooting efficiency wasn't the fault of individual players. Despite this, Hardaway Jr. opened with 0-of-8 shooting and 1-of-7 from three-point range to .......
He's an important role player in Dallas and arguably the frontrunner for Sixth Man of the Year. He can fire up on any given night and win games for his team. You don't want to take him off after his first throw. The team needs him to shoot threes, and they have to make him shoot threes, but when he can't shoot threes, they need a backup plan. Since Dallas still had to use the two new pieces on the board, it made sense to say a mantra to Hardaway first.
When Dallas completed the comeback in the fourth quarter, Hardaway spent most of his time on the bench. He certainly can't shoot 5-of-8 threes every night, and on nights like these, Jason Kidd would do well to get rid of his excessive loyalty to his veteran as soon as possible.
Remedy:
After three quarters, this game is clearly not going to be a symbol of beautiful offense in modern basketball. The Wizards took a 10-point lead at 88-78, but neither team's offense was fully played. The Wizards shot just 30 percent from three-point range. Dallas is even worse, only 185%。
Considering the Mavericks' shooting percentage is so low, 10 points may seem like a big difference, but good things happen when they remember that they are one of the best long-range shooting teams in the league. Both sides continued to shoot, hitting nine three-pointers each in the fourth quarter. The Wizards threw them all, while Dallas shot 4-of-9.
Jaden Hardy hit two goals, Luka hit one, and Maxi Kleber's three-pointer with 5:32 left gave Dallas the lead for the first time since the first half. His dunk put Dallas up 97-96 and held the lead for the rest of the game.
Add to that the fact that Dallas had only one turnover in the final quarter, and most of their problems in the first three quarters were resolved at the end. It's not too late to start playing well.
It feels good to win by eight points, and if Dallas can play well at the free-throw line in the final stages, the margin could be even bigger. Fortunately, their poor efficiency on 6-of-12 free throws in the fourth quarter didn't affect the outcome of the game.
—mffl———
Here are some notable stats from the game:
Gafford offensive rebounds: 7.
Gafford was active on the rebound tonight. He grabbed a total of 17 rebounds and, more importantly, grabbed seven offensive rebounds. This means a lot to the Mavericks, who have struggled to get by their opponents on rebounds for the past few years. Lively has helped them a lot this season, and now with Gafford's backing, Dallas will always have a reliable big man in the box.
Mavericks' three-point shooting percentage: 25%.
The Mavericks couldn't find their groove outside the three-point line, shooting 9-of-36 from three-point range. But the good thing is that they found another opportunity to attack the basket and cause a foul. Once upon a time, Dallas couldn't win a game if he couldn't shoot a three-pointer; Now this is slowly changing. Of course, this happened against the underdog Wizards, but there was no shortage of overturns on the underdog before. Of course, the Wizards only made seven three-pointers.
The Mavericks' current momentum: Five wins in a row.
Dallas are on a five-game winning streak, their longest streak so far this season. Barring something odd happens, they're likely to extend their winning streak to six against the San Antonio Spurs. It's an excellent way to get into an all-star break. If the Mavericks can maintain that momentum in the final twenty games of the season, it will do them a lot of help.