Dallas Mavericks: Balance Key To Suns Victory, Rest of Season

Dallas Mavericks show off terrific balance in 111-95 road win over Phoenix Suns

“We don’t have that guy who we can give the ball to over and over to score.” Dirk Nowitzki said it best in the lockerroom, as he commented on the Dallas Mavericks balanced attack that saw eight Mavs score in double digits en route to a 111-95 road win over the Phoenix Suns.

Coach Rick Carlisle agreed with Dirk’s sentiment, noting that “this is how we’re going to have to play.” The Mavs leading scorer was Raymond Felton, who scored 18 on 7-of-14 from the field to go with his four rebounds and seven assists.

Wesley Matthews tallied nine points in his Mavs regular season debut, playing 26 minutes. Deron Williams chipped in with 12 points and seven assists and survived an injury scare in the middle of the third quarter. After having his ankle stepped on, Williams went down clutching his left knee. He remained on the court for a few minutes before being helped to the lockerroom.

He’d return later in the third with a sleeve on his knee and would re-enter the game (sans sleeve), despite the Mavs holding a 24-point lead. Williams coming back in showed what might be perceived as a bit of hubris, though coach Carlisle trusted Deron enough to know his own body.

Williams told me, “I wanted to see how it felt. It was a little sore, but I wanted to go back in.” When I asked him about the sleeve and his pain level, he noted he took it off because “I don’t want anything on me when I play.”

BIGS PLAYED HUGE

One thing the Mavs were worried about heading into the game was the potential for foul trouble amongst their frontcourt rotation. Zaza Pachulia and Dwight Powell performed admirably, scoring 22 points with 16 rebounds in 42 minutes. They were able to get to the front of the rim well and caused the Suns bigs to back off their aggressiveness due to foul trouble. Pachulia and Powell would combine to shoot 14 free-throws, making 10.

Perhaps even bigger than the offensive production was their defensive impact. They weren’t tossing shots into the crowd or doing anything that will make SportsCenter’s Top 10, but they completely stifled both Tyson Chandler and Alex Len all night long, rendering them useless.

Chandler and Len combined to take just five shots, scoring seven points to go with 14 rebounds in 30 minutes. The Suns were forced to go small, playing Jon Leuer in an attempt to spread out the floor. Leuer did score 14 points and gave the Suns a shot in the arm but by the time he was effective, it was too late.

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Not much was expected out of the Williams/Felton pairing in the backcourt, but they showed great chemistry and a savvy, veteran leadership that this Mavs team will lean on all year long.

They’d combine to score 30 points with six rebounds and 13 assists, shooting 12-for-22 from the field. In 53 minutes of action, they combined to turn the ball over just once. A hallmark of the Suns offense is creating turnovers that allow their speedy guards to take advantage in the open court — Dallas took that away from them.

Nowitzki started slowly, scoring just two points in the first half, but he got into a rhythm after the break, going 4-for-6 from the field to end with 11 points. Dirk acknowledged that the Mavs are playing under the radar this season, even mentioning that a certain website picked them to finish dead last in the Western Conference.

THE FUTURE IS _____

The optimistic view is that the Mavs played without arguably their best player in Chandler Parsons and still dominated on the road. The pessimistic view is that the Suns aren’t representative of the West’s playoff contenders and even though every win counts, one can’t get too excited about taking care of business against a poor squad.

A more reasonable takeaway is that while the Mavs did come away with a nice opening night victory, there are some serious red flags to deal with. Williams getting banged up (again) is cause for concern. Having no real go-to player is cause for concern. Having just one player go over 26 minutes isn’t a luxury the Mavs will have all season.

If one game taught us anything, it’s that the Mavs are very self-aware. They know they shouldn’t get too excited about one victory, and Mark Cuban said it best in the hall after the game, “well that didn’t go like we thought it would, huh?”

Next: NBA Power Rankings: Opening Week

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