The Mavericks find themselves on the wrong side of a wild night
The Mavericks lost to the Rockets Thursday night, 108-102. They got out hustled and outmanned in the post in the first quarter, and didn’t recover in time from the initial beatdown. A furious fourth quarter rally came up short, and the team is now 3-2 after five games.
Here are some notable numbers from the defeat.
3: Amount of Mavericks in foul trouble
With 5:33 left in the third quarter, Luka Doncic picked up his fourth foul. That promptly subbed him out, as Dereck Lively’s and Daniel Gafford’s fourth fouls did for them earlier in the quarter. The Mavericks were only down 13 points at the end of the first, and down 15 points as the first of the three, Gafford, picked up the foul that kept him out the rest of the third quarter. The Mavericks were barely treading water, and the floodgates opened right after, going down as many as 23. It could have been even worse, had it not been for the second stat on this list.
Now, the entirety of their struggles can’t be pointed to just one thing. However, the numbers don’t lie, and this game looked to turn for the worst as the Mavericks best player, starting center, and backup center had to all sit on the bench for an extended period of time. The only thing that stopped that from happening…
28: Points scored by Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving’s game was probably the only reason this game wasn’t immediately over. From that aforementioned 5:33 mark until 11:34 of the fourth, Kyrie kept the team afloat. He scored 13 points, going 3-of-3 from deep, shooting a pair from the stripe, and a really nice midrange jumper to beat the third quarter buzzer.
This was the spark the Mavericks needed, and made this a ball game again. In fact, his spurt was the start of a 41-18 stretch for the Mavericks, from the 5:33 mark to 1:08 left in the fourth, when Luka cashed in his final three of the game. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.
4-of-17: Mavericks 3 point shooting through third quarter
The Mavericks finished 10-of-30 from three point range, and it’s safe to say they made the most of their opportunities in the fourth quarter. That doesn’t change the fact that they shot abysmally before the fourth. It also doesn’t change the fact that all four of those makes before the fourth came from Kyrie, so the rest of the team combined to go 0-of-13 until the final quarter started.
I’m not one to get stuck in the past, but just maybe, the game may have ended differently had at least a few more threes fallen our way. Whether it’s chalked up to shooter’s touch or luck, or the type of threes taken that game, that proportion needs to rise. That’s especially true in a close game lost by six points.
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