Mavs Moneyball - Gameday: Dallas Mavericks vs. San Antonio SpursRick Carlisle approved.https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/50869/mmb-fav.png2016-12-01T10:00:04-06:00http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/rss/stream/135536012016-12-01T10:00:04-06:002016-12-01T10:00:04-06:00Finney-Smith providing value beyond his experience
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<figcaption>Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>The rookie from Florida locked up Kawhi Leonard for most of the night as he continues to learn his place in the league.</p> <p id="BUeLin">DALLAS – There was one play that stuck out in Dorian Finney-Smith’s head.</p>
<p id="xlLdRL">The rookie was tasked with guarding the Spurs’ All-NBA talent Kawhi Leonard and did a more than admirable job – except for one play. It was a post-up for Leonard late in the third quarter, with Finney-Smith playing behind.</p>
<p id="kIaGAh">Instead of denying the entry pass floorbound, Finney-Smith attempted to leap out in front and swipe the pass. He missed. With Finney-Smith out of position, Leonard got to the rim and scored one of his easiest baskets of the night.</p>
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<p id="GOetjC">“When I gambled in the second half, that got him going,” Finney-Smith said. “Little stuff like that, easy points get All-NBA players going. Next time, just try to be more disciplined.”</p>
<p id="LuzMCO">After that shot, Leonard awoke. Before the shot, he was 1-for-9 from the field. After, he canned two triples, finished with 21 points and led the Spurs to a 92-87 win to deny the Mavericks in that column yet again.</p>
<p id="FOAhA2">Overall, Leonard’s stat-line doesn’t look great. He was 5-of-16 from the field overall and midway through the third quarter was still scoring in single-digits. Leonard’s averaging 24.6 points on over 45 percent shooting from the field this season, but Finney-Smith made him seem mortal for most of Wednesday night.</p>
<p id="SoT8nL">“Just try to make every time he touches the ball, make it tough for him,” he said. “Try to change his rhythm, that’s what I tried to do.”</p>
<p id="YdCris">Finney-Smith did some of those things because of a few factors – for one, despite being a rookie, he’s looks nothing like one on the defensive end of the floor. He’s a four-year player from Florida, so perhaps the extra college time has him more seasoned on that end compared to his fellow rookies.</p>
<p id="iiORUR">Besides the smarts, there’s just his huge wingspan. At 6’8 with a 6’11 wingspan, Finney-Smith stayed on his feet most of the night against Leonard (except for that one play) and remained balanced and used his long reach to bother Leonard all night. </p>
<p id="Ue2Cea">“I’m trying to ride him off the screen, fight off the screens,” he said.</p>
<p id="uycx2Y">When Finney-Smith goes under a screen, his wingspan allows him to stay close to the ball-handler and recover quickly. He’s always an arms reach away because of his length and balance on defense. He helps smother pick and rolls like this one regularly.</p>
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<p id="5TGuia">There was no need for him to swat or bite on pump fakes when he was positioned so well and could use those go-go-gadget arms to hamper Leonard’s space.</p>
<p id="xyCNUX">“He’s doing a lot of good things,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after the game. “Defensively he’s advanced for a young player.”</p>
<p id="yO9rV8">Against Finney-Smith, Leonard was 2-for-5 from the floor and that doesn’t even tell the full story since Leonard passed out of a couple more possessions with Finney-Smith covering him and fouling just twice. The Mavs rode that defensive energy to a double-digit lead in the third quarter. It was one of the best efforts from a short-handed Dallas team all year. Hell for a couple minutes, you could see the vision of this team from people like me who thought they were a playoff contender over the summer.</p>
<p id="8SdDVM">Being younger, longer and more athletic makes the Mavs defense scary at times. Harrison Barnes and Finney-Smith are interchangeable at the forward spots and have developed a good defensive chemistry. Combined with Justin Anderson and there’s a lot of potential for the Mavs to wield a modern NBA defense.</p>
<p id="VTeCu9">“With HB at the four we can switch two through four and we try to use that as an advantage,” Finney-Smith said.</p>
<p id="F4UNl7">Despite the switches sometimes leaving LaMarcus Aldridge on one of Barnes or Finney-Smith, both those players are so long and athletic, they were still able to force misses. Aldridge finished 2-of-9 from the floor with five points and didn’t have nearly the room he’d like to have at his pet mid-range spots on the floor with help from Andrew Bogut.</p>
<p id="nFUpJV">There are still trouble spots defensively – the league-worst three-point defense continues to serve up wide-open looks every night, despite the switching ability Finney-Smith, Barnes and Anderson provide. These are still young players, after all, and good three-point defense is a result of trusting your teammates and making the right rotation. There are growing pains still to sort through.</p>
<p id="rTguHK">At least the younger players seem to have level-heads about it. Mark Cuban recently talked about not wanting to tank and keep trying to win games to provide an example for the younger players and to keep the Mavs winning culture in place. You could see that in the Mavs locker room after the game – Finney-Smith said having great vets around keeps him focused and Devin Harris said that’s a constant thing him and the other veterans are doing during one of the toughest stretches in Mavs history.</p>
<p id="F0KQKw">To give you an idea of where these younger guys mindsets are, Finney-Smith didn’t even expect to get talked to after the game. He lamented his “donut” – going 0-for-3 from the field and zero points in a game decided by five.</p>
<p id="JHcWG4">I told him he played good defense though and was a plus-nine on the night.</p>
<p id="z6Y7gc">“Doesn’t matter without the win,” he replied.</p>
https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2016/12/1/13804230/finney-smith-providing-value-beyond-his-experienceJosh Bowe2016-11-30T22:39:09-06:002016-11-30T22:39:09-06:003 things we learned as Mavs fall to the Spurs, 87-94
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<figcaption>Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Wes Matthews did everything he could, but Mavericks come up short.</p> <p id="h7Rsoz"><s>Okay, this is strange. Since the 2012-2013 season, the Mavericks have gone 2-15 in regular season games against the Spurs. After tonight’s win, make that 3-15. Who’s laughing now, San Antonio? Dallas is now on a two-game winning streak (!!!) and DO NOT HAVE THE WORST RECORD IN THE NBA ANYMORE!</s></p>
<p id="15VhHG">That right there is why you don’t start writing a recap at the end of the third quarter. The Mavericks lose another. This game seemed so wrapped up when they had a 13-point lead in the third quarter. LaMarcus Aldridge looked like a normal human being, and Kawhi Leonard wasn’t THAT impressive most of the game. But no. The Mavericks found a way to lose.</p>
<p id="NHKOXn">Wesley Matthews and Harrison Barnes made back-to-back-to-back threes to get things going in the first quarter. They would go the next 5:37 being outscored 2-14. Just another seemingly-routine first quarter for the Mavericks. </p>
<p id="G7nGtR">The first 5:47 in the second quarter, the Mavericks would go 1-for-7 with two turnovers. They just weren’t hitting their shots. The offense looked stagnant. It was a lot of Barnes bringing the ball up, Bogut sets a screen at the top of the arc, pass to Matthews, pass to Bogut, pass to Barnes, repeat. So when they had 23 points with 5:35 left to play in the half, I wasn’t surprised. Fortunately, they were playing strong defense, holding San Antonio to a ten-point lead for most of the quarter.</p>
<p id="tHJO78">And then...</p>
<p id="85MZLC">Wesley Matthews and Harrison Barnes punched their timesheet and went to work, scoring 10 of the Mavericks’ final 16 points to end the quarter. That burst is what spurred (ha) a big second half.</p>
<p id="7tLojq">The first 8:50 of the third quarter, the Mavericks won the battle, scoring 19-6; which led to them having a 13-point lead. Fast-forward to the final quarter and you’ll see Patty Mills ruin your life. Mills had 13 of his 23 points in the final quarter, hitting dagger, after dagger, after dagger.</p>
<p id="VVPVUI"><strong>Matthews and Barnes continue to do work</strong></p>
<p id="FlQM14">At the end of the first half, Matthews and Barnes combined for 25 of Dallas’ 40 points. The story stayed the same for the rest of the game. They finished with 43 of Dallas’ 87 points, continually hitting big shots again and again. Wes went 5-for-11 from deep. Of his last eight games, he’s shooting 48.2% from three. Keep letting it fly, Wes. No one else is.</p>
<p id="97Gw4D"><strong>Jonathan Gibson played the most important part of the game</strong></p>
<p id="9xAsPm">Even with all of the point guards back on the court, Dallas still was left with depending on Jonathan Gibson to close the game. With Deron Williams and Devin Harris on a minute-restriction, and a late injury to Seth Curry, Carlisle had no other option than to turn to Gibson in the final four minutes. I’ve never played in an NBA game, but I can imagine it’d be tough to sit for 44 minutes and then be thrown into the game and asked to manage the court as your team fights back for a win.</p>
<p id="SiSjjh">Oh, and defend an incredibly hot Patty Mills. Yeah, not gonna happen. Gibson did make a three with 1:19 left in the game to bring Dallas within three. But it wasn’t enough. Clearly.</p>
<p id="jGN6dt"><strong>Nothing is guaranteed</strong></p>
<p id="xAnnds">Maybe I’m just infuriated that I had most of this recap finished before the game was finished. I had written all of it as if the Mavericks were going to win. They had a 13-point lead in the third quarter against what looked like a malnourished San Antonio Spurs team. The Spurs were resting Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, LaMarcus Aldridge wasn’t doing any basketball-related things, and Kawhi Leonard was off his game (DFS-curse). Everything was gucci in Dallas. Nope. The Spurs just don’t get run off the court by the team with the worst record in the NBA. Not gonna happen. Just watching the lead dwindle from 13, to 10, to 8, to 3, to a tie, and then losing by 7... it’s sad. Just when you thought Dallas could get a win - nay, an upset over an inner-state rival - it’s taken right from under your nose.</p>
https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2016/11/30/13802876/3-things-we-learned-as-mavericks-fall-to-the-spurs-87-94marksoup922016-11-30T00:00:02-06:002016-11-30T00:00:02-06:003 steps to beating the San Antonio Spurs
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<figcaption>Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>You heard it here first!</p> <p id="HIPYHJ">The San Antonio Spurs -- like clockwork — sit atop the Central Division, and historically, the Dallas Mavericks have been just a step behind. This season, however, they are practically a mirror for each other, with the Spurs claiming as many losses as their one time rival Mavs have wins.</p>
<p id="TyJhiT">San Antonio defeated Dallas last Monday, making it six straight against Big D (including a series sweep last season), and giving Gregg Popovich his 1100th victory. It was an honor so humbling for the coaching legend that after the game Popovich referred to his players as pathetic and then stormed off.</p>
<p id="HSgqI6">With several key players who were missing from that Monday matchup set to return for the Spurs, and Dirk still sidelined for the Mavs, does Dallas have any hope of pulling out the upset win? Here’s how they might do it:</p>
<h4 id="RUGvVb"><strong>Guard the 3 point line</strong></h4>
<p id="1bphjI">Remember that thing Cleveland did two games ago? Well, the only team in the league who shoots the long ball better than the Cavs is -- surprise, surprise — San Antonio. They don’t take nearly as many per game as Cleveland, but if Dallas can’t rotate quickly, the AAC will go down in flames until the only thing left is the cackling of professionally terrible telecaster Sean Elliot, floating just above the scorched, dry air.</p>
<h4><strong>Slow the pace</strong></h4>
<p>This really should be the key to every Dallas game at this point. They simply don’t have the kind of offensive weaponry to outgun teams. Not happening. What they have is a bunch of tough, scrappy, hard-nosed, cliche-inducing dudes who can grind it out in an ugly, 71-68 type game. Think Ivy League basketball score and you’re in the neighborhood.</p>
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<strong>Ride the hot hand of Wes Matthews...but not </strong><em><strong>too</strong></em><strong> much</strong>
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<p id="uAG7Yu">It’s been lost in all the games Dallas has...well, lost, but Wes Matthews has suddenly started shooting the ball well again. He’s over 43 percent from downtown in the month of November, and the last seven games he’s been especially hot, after enduring what had to have been the worst stretch of shot-missing in his career, professional or otherwise. Still, as happy as I am to see him hint at turning things around, I know what will happen if he starts getting featured as the first option on offense. Let Wes shoot...when he’s open.</p>
<h4 id="NCD1xS">How to watch</h4>
<p id="s1fk9S">Tipoff is at 8:30 Eastern time, 7:30 Central time, on Fox Sports Southwest or League Pass.</p>
https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/game-coverage/2016/11/30/13787462/san-antonio-spurs-dallas-mavericks-game-preview-time-channelIan_Miller