Mavericks’ loss to Suns was joyful rivalry clash and another concerning defeat
By Tim Cato
Mar 5, 2023
excerpt:
1. This is why we watch the NBA.
The Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns’ most recent rematch — with Phoenix winning 130-126 on the Sunday afternoon showdown — whirred seamlessly between emotional peaks: spectacular amazement, stomach-clinching dramatics, petty temperaments. The game’s superstar quartet each had 30 points or more; the lead bounced back and forth throughout the 48 minutes; the final possessions featured a made game-winner and a missed game-tying attempt. It called back to last postseason’s bitter seven-game series and broke new ground with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant’s first meeting as rivals since leaving the Brooklyn Nets last month.
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It effectively ended with Luka Doncic interpreting Devin Booker’s complaints to the officials as fighting words, causing the kerfuffle between the two that led to them squaring up face-to-face. Doncic was smiling and Booker looked barely able to contain his own. It was competitive tension, but it almost seemed like the two players knew they should act out, knew their history created last spring and obliged to the inevitable verbal sparring this game had destined for them. “Next time, just don’t wait till there’s three seconds left to talk,'” Doncic said afterward.
It’s easy to anticipate the talking points that will spew from Booker’s maybe-innocuous-maybe-intentional prodding and Doncic taking the bait. But, come on, this is fun. It’s what basketball fans say they want from the entertainment product we consume: Two teams that dislike each other, two players enjoying the other’s failures, a rivalry amplified beyond the shot-for-shot brilliance that would be a joy to watch by itself. The only thing better than watching several of the most talented sportsmen duke it out is to receive another postgame sparring match of words like it’s an espresso-based digestif after a delightful four-course dinner.
Phoenix won this round, and the Mavericks can’t change that. Doncic poked fun at his missed layup with six seconds remaining, saying a friend had just texted him, “Even I would have made that.” But it’s not lost on these teams that the potential playoff meeting between them would be juiced with dramatics far beyond the brutal strategic battle that would be required for either team to gain an advantage. And if we’re not rooting for that to happen, then what’s the point of watching basketball?
2. This might not be why you watch the Mavericks, however. There’s a postscript to the competitive and at times encouraging defeat, one in which the Mavericks fell into Play-In Tournament range and put them in danger of not even splitting their six-game homestand pending Tuesday’s results against the Utah Jazz. It should be said again that the team’s record, 33-32, remains the worst at this point of the season since Doncic’s first season.
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It’s hard to parse what midseason trades really mean. On one hand, this was only the seventh game Doncic has played with Irving and 10th since the trade. If we were 10 games into the season, it would be easier to brush aside results-based analysis for process-orientated positives. Instead, there has to be some acknowledgment that the Mavericks lost again, the team’s sixth in eight games.
The optimistic view of Sunday’s result: Doncic admitted that he’s struggling with a thigh injury that has hindered his ability to rise for shots. He shot only 8-of-23 from the field, an unusually inefficient performance from him. It didn’t affect his game-tying attempt, he said, one which he just missed. Maxi Kleber wasn’t available, and the Mavericks still coerced Phoenix into many of the shots they want them to take. The Mavs took more 3s and more free throws and only had one more turnover. They baited the Suns into trying to play through Deandre Ayton’s mismatches in the post, ones that didn’t work, something that they achieved with startling success last postseason.
But Phoenix is a team that lives on midrange looks, and the Suns converted 21 of the 37 attempts they took from that range. Dallas also failed to rotate effectively on several fourth-quarter double-teams sent at Durant and Booker, conceding open 3s that the Suns’ role players, mostly Ish Wainright, converted.
The reasons for optimism don’t change the fact that the team is now on the outside looking into top-six-seeded safety, with the Minnesota Timberwolves replacing them in the sixth spot.
3. It’s worth talking about Doncic’s ability to draw fouls on a day where, slightly inhibited, he clearly sought out contact more often than usual and shot 17-of-19 from the foul line.
I’ve often focused on Doncic’s athleticism, which should be defined differently than the typical parameters we use to frame physical superiority. He’s a quick-twitch athlete not in his first step but in his instant recognition of advantages, able to divert his kinetic movements into defenders once he’s caught them off balance or duped them into the air. Doncic knows this, and he knows when he’s goaded an opponent into an unfortunate position while they’re defending him. It’s probably why he’s so quick to get frustrated when those fouls aren’t called, but they often are: He doesn’t have the league’s second-most attempted free throws for no reason.
continues at theathletic.com |
