Dallas kept things interesting in Embiid’s return, but ultimately dropped the ball in the clutch
The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 118-116, despite a spirited fourth-quarter comeback and some solid showings from several different Dallas players.
As in flux as the Dallas Mavericks roster is at the moment, there aren’t going to be a lot of solid, trendline-forming takeaways from tonight’s game. That Dallas is still finding ways to stick around against healthy teams is a testament to their effort, but there’s just not enough cohesion or continuity when they find themselves in close games like tonight.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was Daniel Gafford leaving the game late with a shoulder injury. Dallas just didn’t have the personnel to prevent Joel Embiid from running roughshod over Dallas’ smaller lineup down the stretch in crunch time.
Hello, Max Christie
For essentially being a single shoot-around into his new digs in Dallas, Max Christie looked to be a quick learner. He fit in as seamlessly as could have been hoped. He grabbed a season-high-tying eight rebounds and scored 15 points to boot. It’s just the seventh time Christie scored 15 or more this season, so to perform so well in a debut with a new team shows impressive flexibility.
He also showed some solid team synergy when he grabbed an offensive board and immediately whipped it full-court to Kyrie Irving who had leaked out for an easy bucket late in the fourth that got Dallas back to within one. There’s a lot to build on with this debut.
Roll deep
The level of competency the Mavs can roll out down to their 12th man is impressive. Dante Exum and Kessler Edwards were in the starting five, but Spencer Dinwiddie, Naji Marshall, and the newly acquired Max Christie all played double-digit minutes from the bench. That motley crew took a team with Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid to the wire.
If nothing else, a good exhibition for the Coward General Manager Nico Harrison to show off his shiny baubles to the rest of the league so he can pull off some more trades which he seems psychologically incapable of preventing himself from doing.
Grabbed boards, missed opportunity
The Mavericks did well as a team on the glass tonight, in particular on the offensive end. As a unit, they reeled in 15 offensive rebounds but were unfortunately only able to go 5-of-13 in second-chance scoring opportunities for 17 points. It was better than Philly’s 11 points, but an area where Dallas left something on the table.
A lull in the third quarter that saw Dallas’ seven-point lead turn into a seven-point deficit. Daniel Gafford, usually an efficiency machine when he gets the ball down low, missed an uncharacteristically high number of putbacks. Having Embiid duty on the defensive end might’ve sapped some of the energy that usually goes into getting the ball over the rim.
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