Make it stop. Dallas has now lost five in a row and seven of its last eight.
The Dallas Mavericks (32-33) triage unit went through the basketball motions on Sunday in a 125-116 loss to the Phoenix Suns (30-34) at American Airlines Center.
There’s not a ton to say about this one, other than that it couldn’t end fast enough. The Suns showed no sense of urgency as they let the Mavericks hang around for far too long on Sunday. But Dallas was so epically shorthanded, they still couldn’t do anything about it.
Naji Marshall was brilliant once again, posting a new season-high scoring mark, but it went to waste as part of a team effort that came up painfully short as Dallas tries to hang onto 10th place in the Western Conference despite all the injury attrition the universe can throw the Mavs’ way. Devin Booker led Phoenix with 24 points and six assists, despite shooting 0-of-6 from 3-point range in the win.
Here are the grades. Read them silently at your desk while the teacher escapes out the back door to go chainsmoke a few lung darts for the rest of the period.
Dante Exum: B+
12 Points / 2 Rebounds / 2 Assist / 1 Steal (22 Minutes)
Exum was on a minutes restriction, but showed some good signs as he works his way back from that foot injury. He played some nice on-ball defense and stepped through for an open mid-range jumper late in the second. Exum battled for an offensive board that led to a Naji Marshall 3-ball from the top of the key with 1:25 left in the first half, to bring Dallas to within 58-50. He shot 5-for-8 from the field in the loss.
Exum made some nice plays in the second half, but fouled Devin Booker on his way to the hoop midway through the fourth on a 3-point play that set the Mavs back 113-102.
Max Christie: B-
12 Points / 2 Rebounds / 2 Assists (37 Minutes)
The only problem with Cormac Karl “Max” Christie’s game on Sunday was that he wasn’t assertive enough to get his shots up. He canned his first three 3-point attempts and left us wanting more, the true sign of any good showman. He played decent on-ball defense when he wasn’t assigned to the much longer Kevin Durant.
Klay Thompson: A-
26 Points / 6 Rebounds / 4 Assist / 1 Steal (32 Minutes)
Thompson has been called upon lately to become a playmaker in addition to a spot-up shooter and the results on Sunday were mixed, to say the least. He made just one of his first seven 3-point attempts and hesitated far too much on a possession late in the first quarter, which led to a head-scratching shot-clock violation with the Mavs down 30-24.
Thompson made two quick 3-pointers early in the third to right the ship a little on his way to 26 points on 8-of-20 shooting overall in the loss. His fourth 3-ball of the game early in the fourth brought Dallas back to within 105-97, but the comeback just wasn’t in the cards with such a shorthanded roster. He padded his stats late to make the report card look a little better than it felt in real time.
Naji Marshall: A+
34 Points / 9 Rebounds / 10 Assists / 2 Steals (41 Minutes)
Marshall played distributor from the forward position early on, dishing five assists in the first quarter. Then he converted on a couple savvy drives to the hoop later in the second, showing the full range of his game as the Mavs tried to hang in there as the first half wore on. He went on a personal 7-0 run late in the first half to buoy spirits throughout DFW and bring the Mavericks to within four, down 58-54 with 30 seconds left before the break. He led the Mavs with 15 points at the break after scoring 29 and pulling down 17 boards in Friday’s 122-111 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Marshall might be the only Maverick whose game is worth watching at this point in the season. He knocked down 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions late in the third as the Mavericks refused to say die all over again. Later in the third, he bullied his way for a reverse layup along the baseline that brought the Mavs to within 91-80, but Dallas was never really in danger of a real comeback.
Kessler Edwards: C+
10 Points / 3 Rebounds / 2 Assists / 1 Block (32 Minutes)
Kessler Edwards took advantage of his minutes once again on Sunday, connecting on two of his three first-half 3-point attempts on his way to 10 points on the afternoon. He stole the ball from Kevin Durant to start a break that ended with a driving score from Naji Marshall that pulled the Mavs to within 58-52 with less than a minute remaining in the first half.
Edwards got his shit swatted by Nick Richards on his first attempt of the second half. He responded with a nice clean dunk on a find from Brandon Williams the next time down. He went to the locker room late in the third after Powell careened into him as the two went after the same loose ball along the baseline.
Spencer Dinwiddie: C-
4 Points / 1 Rebounds / 2 Assists (29 Minutes)
Dinwiddie wasn’t the ball-stopping albatross on Sunday that he has been at times this year. He made two of his first three shots from the field in the first half, but clanked a pair of free throws in his only trip to the line as well. He air-balled a whimper of a baseline jumper late in the third in a move that looked like Dinwiddie was just going through the motions at this point.
Brandon Williams: A-
13 Points / 5 Rebounds / 5 Assists / 3 Steals (24 Minutes)
Williams picked up right where he left off, scoring seven in the first quarter against the Suns after tallying a team-high 31 points in Friday’s loss to the Grizzlies. He also grabbed two steals in the first. Though he wasn’t as electric on Sunday as he was on Friday, he was solid as one of the Mavs’ primary ball-handling options.
Then, in the fourth quarter, the Mavs’ public relations team let us all know that somewhere along the way, Williams started experiencing some hamstring tightness and that he would not return to the game.
Dwight Powell: D-
2 Points / 3 Rebounds / 1 Block (6 Minutes)
Powell had played about five minutes before he collided with Edwards as the two teammates went for a loose ball along the baseline late in the third. If you want to translate the replay optimistically, you could say Powell was so focused on getting to the ball that he never saw Edwards going for the same play. Or, if you knew any better, you could say the dude is clumsy and prone to these kinds of moments. Edwards returned to the game after the collision, but Powell did not.
Caleb Martin: C-
3 Points / 1 Rebounds / 2 Assists / 1 Steal (18 Minutes)
Martin got shook out of his shoes after being caught out of defensive position on a Grayson Allen 3-pointer early in the second quarter. Then he totally redeemed himself (for a moment) with an and-1 drive barreling down the lane midway through the second that brought Dallas back to within 47-41. He had two embarrassing misses from beyond the arc in the second half. In the third quarter he was open but forgot his legs underneath him to barely draw iron, and in the fourth, the Phoenix defense left him completely alone, and he whiffed on one from the left wing after having time to pitch a tent, reset, and pitch another before letting it fly.