Assigning grades after a rough day in The Bay
The Dallas Mavericks traveled to The Bay Area to take on Golden State in a very forgettable match on Sunday afternoon. They started the game off with their worst offensive output in a quarter all season, scoring only 17 points in the game’s opening 12 minutes. Eventually, the Mavs lost by about 25; they looked fully dead-in-the-water all game. Dallas is, however, still without all three of their prime big men, Davis, Lively and Gafford, all of whom are expected to be out another couple of weeks as they rehabilitate from injuries. Defensively, those losses proved crucial as the Mavs couldn’t do much to slow down Golden State and the newest iteration of their “big 3”, now highlighted with Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler.
The next stop on Dallas’s road trip will be Los Angeles, where I hear Nico Harrison is being handed the key to the city for all his humanitarian work there of late. Hopefully the Mavs offer a better showing than the miserable one they offered up to the world on Sunday. Let’s take a quick look at how the guys performed, then quickly move on.
Kyrie Irving: C
17 Points/ 7-19 FG/ 1-6 3PT/ 6 Rebounds/ 4 Assists (32 Minutes)
Kyrie certainly had his work cut out for him today, playing against the new Golden States big 3 and providing – as usual, of late – the primary offensive motor. Dallas got behind very early on and Kai’s shot just wasn’t falling. He finished with decent numbers, but you have to wonder if this would have been a different game, energy-wise, if his 3’s had been connecting at a higher clip than 1-6. Maybe if the franchise hadn’t traded away his hermano, he’d be getting more open looks…
P.J. Washington: B
17 Points/ 7-11 FG/ 3-4 3PT/ 4 Rebounds/ 3 Assists (28 Minutes)
With all the aforementioned injuries to their bigs, Dallas has frequently opted to play small-ball, and P.J. has often found himself under the basket. Washington played hard today, but everything is a little more difficult, defensively, when you don’t have a quality rim protector to funnel plays into.
Klay Thompson: C
11 Points/ 3-8FG/ 3-7 3PT/ 2 Rebounds/ 2 Assists (25 Minutes)
The good news for Thompson is he still has fans in Golden State. Unfortunately his tenure in Dallas will likely be overshadowed by the issuing in of a new dark ages for the Mavericks, but he’s done fairly well for himself in his professional career. He can still catch-and-shoot like very few can, when he’s having a good game. Maybe if the franchise hadn’t traded away the player that helped lure Thompson to Dallas in the first place, he’d be getting more open looks…
Naji Marshall: C-
9 Points/ 3-8FG/ 1-4 3PT/ 5 Rebounds/ 2 Assists (21 Minutes)
Marshall didn’t have a great game. He’s obviously more than capable of providing efficient play on both sides of the ball, as he’s shown often this season, but today wasn’t his day. It’s never easy when you’re tasked with defending the type of offensive players the Warriors are currently fielding in their lineup.
Blah, I’m done. This game sucked.
Nico was in attendance, though. He gets an A+ for his work being a no-good, lousy rat-BA$$$$D.
Nico Harrison: A+
No-good, lousy rat-ba$$$$d (round the clock)
Kidding, he failed.