On Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks played the Detroit Pistons at the American Airlines Center as they continue their five game home stand. The Mavericks have been tumbling as of late by losing three of their last four games. This is a huge game that the Mavericks must win with the Lakers getting healthy in time for their matchup against the Mavericks. The Mavericks look to snap out of their funk and grab a key win to get closer to the sixth seed in the western conference standings.
On Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks played the Sacramento Kings in the second game of their five game home stand at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks started this game with a lack of energy as the Kings got out of the gates to grab a 67-50 halftime lead. The Mavericks tried to fix their sloppiness as they were all over the place in the game but couldn’t do it with the Kings grabbing a 121-107 win. This was simply a pathetic performance by the Mavericks on both ends of the court as they looked like they didn’t want to play this game. The Kings were ranked one of the worst defenses in the NBA but the Mavericks allowed them to do whatever they want to grab the win. This has to be up there with one of the worst performances of the season for the Mavericks. They looked like the Monstars stole their talents and refused to give it back to the Mavericks. Luka Doncic scored 37 points while Maxi Kleber scored 0 points as thats how bad it was going for the Mavericks. Only three Mavericks were able to score 10 points or more and those were Luka Doncic (37), Dorian Finney-Smith (22) and Jalen Brunson (20 off the bench). With the loss, the Mavericks record dropped to 30-26 on the season, as they now in trouble of grabbing the sixth seed in the western conference to avoid the “Play-In Tournament”. The Mavericks have been recently playing one of the worst basketball in the NBA. The Mavericks better find a way to snap out of their current funk as their upcoming schedule is going to get tougher with the Los Angeles Lakers coming to town with the impending return of their co-superstar, Anthony Davis.
The Detroit Pistons are coming into this game by going 4-6 in their last 10 games. They are recently coming off a close 109-105 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday to see their record improve to 18-40 on the season. The Pistons were coming into this season with hopes of trying to make playoffs but the season wasn’t going in their favor and that resulted in them focusing their attention to try to secure a good draft pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. The Pistons are currently the third-worst team in NBA as they are in good position of landing a top five draft pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. This team is led by Jerami Grant as they look to end their season on a good note. If their current trend continues, they will themselves in a good spot at potentially landing a top-five draft in hopes of trying to secure a young superstar in the upcoming NBA Draft.
Coming into this game, the Mavericks have never played the Detroit Pistons this season until now. The Mavericks previously won their regular season series last season 1-0 against the Pistons. Overall, the Pistons hold the all-time series with a record of 42-35.
The Mavericks started this game by having Tyrell Terry (personal reasons) still be ruled out as everyone else is available to play in the game. As a result, the Mavericks went with Doncic, Richardson, Powell, Finney-Smith and Porzingis as their starting five in this game. The Mavericks decided to shake their lineup up a little bit by removing Maxi Kleber from the starting five to hopefully generate some momentum to snap out of their current funk. The first points in the game would belong to Luka Doncic as he nailed a floating jump shot for the Mavericks to get this game underway. The Pistons wouldn’t get their first points until the 11:13 mark as Jerami Grant drilled a three pointer to grab their first lead in the game at 3-2. The Pistons were able to get out of the gates quickly as they were able to extend their lead to 8-2 after Jerami Grant drilled a three pointer to take a six point lead with 10:14 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were able to get their offense going as they were able to go on a 13-6 scoring run to take the lead right back at 15-14 with 7:57 left in the quarter after Luka Doncic drilled a three pointer to take a one point lead. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 6:39 left in the quarter as the Mavericks were trailing 21-18. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks couldn’t convert as they couldn’t get a bucket to go down that kept the score at 21-18. The Mavericks would have good looks on offense but the ball was simply not going through the hoop as the Pistons were able to capitalize on the Mavericks’ miscues on offense. The Pistons would extend their lead to 27-21 with 4:55 left in the quarter after Jerami Granted nailed the jump shot as he was being fouled but couldn’t convert on the “AND-ONE” free-throw. The Pistons were simply bullying the Mavericks as the they were able to dominate the paint to generate some easy points. The Mavericks were able to trim their deficit to four points after Josh Richardson knocked down a crazy jump shot as he was being fouled and but couldn’t convert on the “AND-ONE” free-throw which kept the score at 29-25 with 3:28 left in the quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Pistons were able to maintain control of the lead and take a 36-33 lead into the second quarter. The game leading scorer after one quarter of play would belong to Jerami Grant as he scored 15 points for the Pistons. The Mavericks were led by Luka Doncic as he scored 11 points. The Pistons came out the gates by “revving” their engines as they came in the game firing on all cylinders by getting good looks on offense and playing solid defense on the Mavericks. The Mavericks ended the first quarter by shooting 54% on 13-of-24 shooting from the field.
The second quarter would begin by having Luka Doncic nail a two pointer for the Mavericks to get this quarter underway. The Pistons wouldn’t get their first points until the 11:15 mark as Tyler Cook nailed a “put-back” shot to extend their lead to 38-35. The Pistons were able to extend their lead to five points after Isaiah Stewart knocked down a jump shot to extend their lead to 40-35 with 10:52 left in the quarter. The Mavericks were trying to generate some rhythm on offense and they were able to get some as JJ Redick knocked down a three pointer to trim their deficit to two points at 40-38 with 9:56 left in the quarter. The Pistons offense were on a “full battery” as their offense was working by getting some good shots with their offensive possessions. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 8:37 left in the quarter as the Mavericks were trailing 42-38. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks opened the quarter by just making two of their first six attempts while the Pistons started the quarter by making two of their first five attempts taken thus far. The Pistons were controlling the game by preventing the Mavericks from overtaking the lead. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Maxi Kleber but couldn’t convert as he missed a driving layup that kept the score at 42-38 with 8:22 left in the quarter. The Mavericks simply couldn’t generate anything on their offense as it appeared there was a “lid” on the rim just blocking the shots. The Mavericks, again, trimmed their deficit to three points after Kristaps Porzingis knocked down a jump shot to come within 45-42 of the Pistons with 7:17 left in the quarter. The game would find its way to be tied after JJ Redick knocked down a three pointer to tie the game at 47-47 that forced the Pistons to call a timeout with 5:55 left in the quarter. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks started to generate some good quality shots on offense as they were able to generate a 9-2 run to get the game to be tied. Again, the Mavericks were slow out of the gate that forced them to play behind for the majority part of the game thus far. Coming out of the timeout, the Pistons turned to Josh Jackson but couldn’t convert as he missed a three pointer that kept the score tied at 47-47 with 5:42 left in the quarter. The Pistons were able to take a one point lead after Saddiq Bey knocked down three free-throws as a result of being fouled to take a 52-51 lead with 4:08 left in the quarter. The Mavericks answered by going on a 7-4 run to take the lead right back after Jalen Brunson knocked down the “AND-ONE” free-throw to take a 58-56 lead with 3:01 left in the quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Mavericks were able to maintain control of the lead and take a 67-58 lead into halftime. The game leading scorer after two quarters of play would belong to Jalen Brunson as he scored 18 points off the bench for the Mavericks. The Pistons were led by Jerami Grant as he scored 15 points. The Mavericks finally played a good quarter during this current funk they’re dealing with and they badly needed it to generate some confidence and energy in the game. They do so by playing good basketball in the late minutes of the quarter. At the end of the first half, the Mavericks were shooting 56.3% on 27-of-48 shooting from the field. The Mavericks were able to out-score the Pistons 34-22 in the quarter to build some momentum in the game and give confidence on their shooting.
Coming out of the half, the Pistons were able to get on the board first in the third quarter by having Jerami Grant nail a free-throw to come within 67-58 of the Mavericks. Dorian Finney-Smith was able to score the first points in the quarter for the Mavericks as he nailed a three pointer with 11:22 left in the quarter to extend their lead to 70-59. The Mavericks decided to play the “free-throw game” as they were getting to the free-throw line to generate some points with Luka Doncic doing just that with 10:51 left in the quarter, in which he knocked down two free-throws to extend their lead to eleven points at 72-61. The Mavericks started to look like the Mavericks we’ve been accustomed to seeing as they were playing hard with tremendous amount of energy on both ends of the court. Rick Carlisle would call a timeout with 8:55 left in the quarter as he saw the Pistons trimming the Mavericks lead to 74-67. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks opened the quarter quarter by making just two of their first six attempts as it was their free-throws that was keeping them in control of the game, while the Pistons started the quarter by making two of their first four attempts taken thus far. Coming out of the timeout, the Mavericks turned to Kristaps Porzingis on a offensive rebound but couldn’t convert as Dwight Powell committed an offensive foul thus keep the score at 74-67 with 8:30 left in the quarter. If the Pistons could simply prevent the Mavericks from going to the free-throw line then we probably would be talking about a different game as that’s been the difference in the game thus far. With time running out on the shot-clock, the Mavericks turned to Luka Doncic as he drilled a long step-back three pointer from the logo to extend their lead to 78-69 with 7:33 left in the quarter. The Pistons were able to remain in the game by having Saddiq Bey knock down a three pointer to trim their deficit to eight points at 80-72 with 7:00 minutes left in the quarter. The Mavericks better not play with too much confidence in which the Pistons catch up to them and take control of the game because the Pistons could generate a quick run at any given moment. Right on cue, as the Pistons used a quick run to trim their deficit to six points after Hamidou Diallo knocked down two free-throws to come within 84-78 with 5:15 left in the quarter. The game started to get a little bit interesting as the Pistons were able to cut their deficit to four points after Wayne Ellington knocked down a three pointer to come within 88-84 of the Mavericks with 4:13 left in the quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Mavericks were able to maintain control of the lead and take a 100-90 lead into the fourth quarter. The game leading scorer after three quarters of play would belong to Luka Doncic as he scored 23 points for the Mavericks. The Pistons were led by Cory Joseph as he scored 20 points. The Pistons were dominating the first half of the quarter but it wasn’t enough to grab control of the game as the Mavericks used a late quarter run to keep the momentum on their side. Through three quarters of play, the Mavericks were shooting 51.4% on 37-of-72 shooting from the field. The Mavericks have one 12:00 minute quarter left to finally snap out of their funk and gain some ground of the sixth seed in the western conference standings. They will need to continue to play good defense and keep their conference on their shooting on offense in order to escape with a win.
The fourth quarter would begin by having Willie Cauley-Stein nail a free-throw for the Mavericks to get this quarter underway. The Mavericks were able to extend their lead to fifteen points after Tim Hardaway Jr knocked down a three pointer to extend their lead 105-90 with 10:08 left in the game. The Pistons weren’t able to get their first points in the quarter until the 9:51 mark by having Cory Joseph nail a layup to come within 105-92 of the Mavericks. The Pistons would call a timeout with 9:37 left in the game as they saw time was running out to generate some momentum to take the lead away from the Mavericks. Prior to this timeout, the Mavericks opened the quarter by making two of their first four attempts while the Pistons had trouble starting their engines as they only made one of their first three attempts taken thus far. The Mavericks were able to generate a 7-2 run to start the quarter to be able to keep control of the lead. Coming out of the timeout, the Pistons turned to Jerami Grant but couldn’t convert as he missed a three pointer that kept the score at 107-92 with 9:15 left in the game. The Mavericks started to runaway with the game after Luka Doncic knocked down a “tip-in” shot to take a 109-92 with 8:30 left in the game. The Pistons were losing time to generate something as the game started to be put to bed by the Mavericks. The Pistons were collapsing as they couldn’t get anything to go down as they were on a long scoring drought until Jerami Grant knocked down a jump shot to come within 110-96 of the Mavericks with 6:34 left in the game. The Pistons came storming back as they were able to cut their deficit to eight points after Cory Joseph knocked down two free-throws to come within 112-104 of the Mavericks with 3:26 left in the game. The Mavericks needed to put this game away to give their starters some much needed rest with a back-to-back game looming. The Pistons were able to trim their deficit to nine points after Josh Jackson nailed the “AND-ONE” free-throw to come within 121-112 of the Mavericks with 1:15 left in the game. The game-sealing bucket would come down to Willie Cauley-Stein as he knocked down a huge shot while being fouled and was able to convert on the “AND-ONE” free-throw to extend their lead to 124-112 with 53.3 seconds left in the game.
This team looked like they were going to allow the Pistons to dominate them on all cylinders as the Mavericks couldn’t generate some rhythm on offense. The Mavericks finally had a good quarter during this funk they’re currently in as they finished the second quarter strong by taking a 67-58 lead at halftime. The Mavericks simply have no room for error as they need to do something to generate a win and snap out of their funk because they need wins in order to grab the sixth seed in the western conference to avoid playing in the “Play-In Tournament.”
In the end, it was the Dallas Mavericks defeating the Detroit Pistons 127-117. The Mavericks record would improve to 31-26 on the season as they snapped their two game losing streak. Luka Doncic finished the game with 30 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists in the huge win. The Pistons were led by Jerami Grant as he finished with 26 points and 2 rebounds. The Mavericks also got production from Jalen Brunson as he finished with 20 points and 5 assists off the bench. This was a much needed win for the Mavericks as they are now within 1 game from the Portland Trail Blazers of the crucial sixth seed in the western conference to avoid playing in the “Play-In Tournament”. The Mavericks finally grabbed their first win of their five game home stand.
The Mavericks will still remain at home as the Los Angeles Lakers comes to town to play a two game “mini” series at the American Airlines Center, starting on Thursday as the Mavericks yet again play another back-to-back.