The Dallas Mavericks fell to the Utah Jazz 116-104 on Wednesday night.
Despite coming into this year with a ton of hype, the Mavericks now sit at 8-10 on the season and wouldn’t make the playoffs if they started today.
Following his squad’s most recent loss, Mavericks star Luka Doncic expressed a lot of frustration with the current state of affairs.
“I don’t know what to say,” he admitted. “There’s a lot of things wrong right now. We’ve got to pick it up and be way better than this.”
Dallas has now lost three straight games and six out of the last eight. The precise cause of the team’s issues is a bit of a mystery.
She’s just saying what the rest of us are thinking. https://t.co/xpvbOl02tG
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 28, 2021
Doncic is seemingly doing his part. He is averaging 27.4 points on a career-high 46.4 percent shooting, 9.4 rebounds, and a career-best 9.7 assists per game. Although he has been atrocious from beyond the arc (a career worse 28.5 percent), he had been doing his best to keep the team afloat. Coming into the season extremely fat hasn’t really slowed him down at all.
So what is the larger problem impacting the Mavs? Rebounding is a big part of it. Against Utah the team got outrebounded 50-36. That, coupled with poor defense, has allowed opposing teams like the Jazz to get off to hot first half starts.
An NFL player demanded that his GF bow to him. When she didn’t, he snapped. https://t.co/13JEh4tS5q
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 27, 2021
Over the last three outings, the Mavericks have allowed their opponents to score 70, 70 and 69 points by the end of the second quarter.
Obviously injuries have played a part in Dallas’ slow start, but injuries effect all teams. That’s not an excuse – particularly when your squad features the preseason favorite to win the NBA’s MVP award.
One way or another, something will need to give. Either the Mavericks have to get on the same page and start stringing together some wins, or the front office will need to make some serious changes to the composition of the roster.
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