No one in the organization will admit to it, but the Dallas Mavericks would prefer losses over wins right now. They would also prefer for their players to continue to play hard down the stretch.
Most Dallas Mavericks fans’ hope is that they play their young players meaningful minutes where they can continue to gain valuable experience, but then on a last-second shot, lose the game in dramatic fashion. As long as they execute their offense and show strong defensive rotations, they’ll take the loss every single night.
The San Antonio Spurs came into town Friday night with every intention of doing Dallas a solid by having a starting lineup of Patty Mills, Jonathon Simmons, Dewayne Dedmon, Davis Bertans and Kyle Anderson.
Head coach Rick Carlisle knows better than anyone to never assume a win, even if it’s a meaningless regular season game in April. I think most Mavs fans were hoping to chalk this one up as an automatic loss, but Gregg Popovich wasn’t having any of that either when he decided to roll out only eight players the entire night.
The Mavs ended up losing 102-89 in a game where Dirk Nowitzki only saw 16 minutes. Harrison Barnes and Nerlens Noel logged in 17 minutes and 14 minutes, respectively.
With the exception of these two, the Mavs owe it to themselves and their fans to play their bench players so they can better evaluate what moves they need to make going forward.
Here’s a quick recap of last night’s box score for the young players that played the majority of the second half.
| Starters | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yogi Ferrell | 29:32 | 4 | 13 | .308 | 1 | 6 | .167 | 1.000 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 11 |
| Dorian Finney-Smith | 29:44 | 2 | 9 | .222 | 0 | 3 | .000 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Dwight Powell | 25:15 | 5 | 9 | .556 | 2 | 6 | .333 | .000 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
| Nicolas Brussino | 23:45 | 3 | 8 | .375 | 1 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| A.J. Hammons | 21:19 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | ||
| Jarrod Uthoff | 19:50 | 2 | 9 | .222 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/8/2017.
No one really stands out in this list. You can point out that Yogi Ferrell didn’t have his typical solid all-around game and Nicolas Brussino didn’t shoot the ball quite as confidently as we’ve seen before.
Dwight Powell‘s stat line looks strong, but his plus/minus wasn’t very good (-11). Jarrod Uthoff had a couple of nice blocks and he made a nice move going to the basket for a dunk near the end.
Again, nothing spectacular and I’m definitely not trying to sell you on Jarrod Uthoff. What’s important moving forward is that they got the loss while allowing their bench players to play some meaningful NBA minutes.
Per Earl K. Sneed (Dallas Mavericks Insider) in regards to how the young players performed in the second half, Dirk had this to say after the game.
"“We had a tough time getting stuff going at the offensive end. It was some good shots that just didn’t go in. It didn’t really look like they had a great rhythm after we played in the first half, and that’s tough sometimes to get into the game at halftime against a team that’s been playing. But they fought.”"
However, there was one bright spot of the night that didn’t involve Mavs players (well it sort of did). Dirk Nowitzki fan Courtney Novak, swished home a halfcourt shot to win a brand new high-definition 65″ TV. Some of the players decided to partake in the celebration with her, including the man on her shirt.
https://twitter.com/dallasmavs/status/850537096553132032
Hopefully, the Mavericks continue to lose games like these. With their lackluster drafting skills, their front office will need every single bit of help moving forward.
Next: 10 Matchups We Want To See In The 2017 NBA Playoffs
More importantly, I hope NBA fans continue to win prizes like these. That new television set sounds pretty sweet.