The Dallas Mavericks got ran off the floor, literally, [against the Chicago Bulls 125-107](/dallas-mavericks-game-coverage/54589/mavericks-vs-bulls-recap-final-score-125-107-ryan-nembhard-cooper-flagg-coby-white) Saturday night in Chicago. Dallas drops their second straight game against a losing team, their first game since Anthony Davis [injured his hand](/mavericks-news/54568/report-anthony-davis-to-miss-months-with-ligament-damage-in-left-hand) in the loss against the Jazz on Thursday night.
This was a no-good, very-bad game for the Mavericks, who trailed for the entire game. It was a rare blowout loss for the Mavericks, losing by as much as 27 points in the fourth quarter. Rookie point guard Ryan Nembhard led Dallas with 16 points, while Bulls guard Coby White led all scorers with a game-high 22 points.
This game wasn’t very fun to watch, and was potentially a bad foreshadowing of things to come as the Mavericks attempt to push the season forward with Davis expected to miss at least the next month, maybe even more. Let’s just get to the numbers.
Chicago rammed the ball down Dallas’ throat the entire night. In a battle between two fast-based teams, it was the Bulls that looked like a blur in the open court, while the Mavericks were a step-slow and sluggish from opening tip. That 38-8 fastbreak point edge is the worst the Mavericks have lost the transition battle all season.
The Mavericks only had 14 turnovers, which isn’t bad, but nearly all of them were catastrophic, live-ball turnovers. The Bulls scored 17 points off those 14 turnovers, which was honestly a let off considering how many opportunities the Mavericks handed them. Even without the turnovers, the Bulls raced past the Mavericks at every opportunity. Dallas was very jumper heavy tonight, attempting 35 three pointers and 12 midrange jumpers. That left only 44 of the Mavericks 91 shots in the paint, and all those long misses fueled the Bulls’ transition attack.
The Maverick star rookie was coming off big-time performances against the Kings and the Jazz, and this felt like maybe Flagg’s worst game of his young career. He’s scored fewer than the 11 points he posted against the Bulls, but it was everything else and his disposition that felt off.
Flagg had 1 rebound, two assists, one block, and one steal. He had just as many turnovers (five) as he did all those categories combined, which shows how invisible Flagg was in this game. He looked a bit shell-shocked, and maybe hit just a piece of that rookie wall that was talked about prior to the last two games. There was never a point in the game where Flagg looked locked in or engaged, and that trickled down to the rest of the team.
Of course, Flagg is a 19-year-old rookie. He’s allowed to have bad games, especially with how hard he normally plays. This was just an off night, but hopefully it’s nothing more than that.
I’m being a bit glib with that headline, but the Mavericks all season have prided themselves on if nothing else, playing extremely hard. It hasn’t translated to wins, as Dallas entered the night still outside of the West’s play-in picture, but it’s at least made all these losses watchable and competitive — Dallas overwhelmingly leads the league in clutch games played, and despite all the adversity this group has faced this season, it never felt like the team was on the verge of giving up, even when they had plenty of reasons to do so.
For the first time in a long time, it felt like the Mavericks gave up. They were due for an effort like this, as I can’t imagine it’s easy to continually bring A-level effort after every disappointing loss. It’s commendable that we’ve gotten to Jan. 10 and this is the first time it’s felt like the Mavericks let go of the rope in a game they should have been in against a sub-par opponent.
But I can’t help but wonder. The loss to the Jazz on Thursday was as deflating as they come, with the Mavericks fighting like hell to claw their way back, only to fumble the game away at the end with Anthony Davis suffering another weeks, if not months, long injury. To add insult to that injury, Davis’ injury caused the Mavericks to punt on two crucial possessions in the final minutes of the game, with Davis playing one-armed and out of the play in pain while the Mavericks offense broke down, and then the Jazz scoring easily while Davis couldn’t do anything other than hold his hand in pain.
It’s only human nature to feel an immense let down after that. My main thought watching this game was “was that injury the last straw?” Dallas has been holding their season together as well as possible considering everything that’s happened, but maybe the Davis injury is the start of a real slide. Every Maverick looked dejected toward the end of that Jazz game, and the Davis injury and news that he’ll be out for a while might have hit the team especially hard. It reminded me of the first game the Mavericks played last season after the Luka Doncic trade, getting ran down by the Cavaliers while every player looked like they were at a funeral. To the Mavericks credit, they regained their competitive edge after that and fought to make the play-in — this Mavericks team has a similar opportunity, but it must be hard to have to continuously muster that energy again and again. Dallas’ margin for error is basically non-existent without Davis. Tonight looked like a team that knew their season was over. For the rest of us sickos still tuning in, we can only hope that’s not the case.
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