What is going on with the Mavericks?

The Dallas Mavericks got worked for the second straight night, falling to the Wizards in Washington 113-105. Washington was without both Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis and it didn’t matter because they played hard and attacked the Mavericks relentlessly and Dallas ended up looking rudderless.

After the game, Josh Bowe and I got together to talk about the loss and this is one of the more frustrating shows we’ve done since probably November of last season. The Mavericks did not show up outside of Spencer Dinwiddie and this team doesn’t seem to have any answers unless Luka Doncic is outstanding.

Offensively the team looked really good for about six minutes, then shooters stopping taking and making shots, Luka Doncic looked lethargic, and it simply never got better. This has been a big week for Christian Wood superfans because what he brings is very important to a Dallas team that lacks spark. They must figure something out, because it’s been inconsistent to bad since the Memphis game.

Defensively it’s a whole other story. There is no connectivity to any of these five man units and they cannot stop teams from getting into the lane and getting up easy baskets. Threes are going to fall for teams, that’s part of basketball, but the lack of paint defense from anyone is alarming and there’s no clear solution.

There’s a lot of ranting in this show, with both Josh and I very unhappy at the failure to build a better team around Luka Doncic. We’ve both bought into what Dallas wanted to do, but they simply haven’t been very good and there aren’t any answers coming past a return of a healthy Wood eventually.

All of this and way more on this frustrated episode of Mavs Moneyball After Dark.

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