Dallas Mavericks Steer Washington Wizards To A 98-75 Loss
I used to be a huge Mavs fan so I had to watch this game twice. That and I lost my first set of notes. This was another bad loss that me questioning the team spirit, the staff, AND the executives. I like Ted as an owner so he was spared.
Statistics:
Wizards: Beal: 18p, 3r, 3a, 2stl; Wall: 1p, 3r, 5a; Meeks: 7p, 1r; Oubre: 7p, 5r, 1a, 2stl.
Mavericks: Barnes: 20p, 10r, 1stl; Smith jr.: 17p, 3r, 6a, 2stl; Matthews: 14p, 3r, 1a, 2stl; Ferrell: 14p, 5r, 2a, 2stl.
Notables:
Yikes, what a blowout. If I wasn’t a 20 year Dirk fan there is no way I would have watched this game twice. I used to watch the Mavs from 1998-2004 when the duo was Dirk and Steve Nash. I was soo salty, saltier than a salt lick, when they traded Nash that I refused to watch the Mavs for years. When I finally tuned back in Vince Carter was playing for them. I changed the channel and hadn’t watched again until last night.
The Mavs led early but the Wizards were able to tie it up close to the end of the 1st. Most of the highlights belonged to the Mavs and their team play shows that you can still play with a dominant big. Mahinmi and Oubre looked good.
Yogi Ferrell for the Mavs looks really good. High energy, good attitude and he plays well off of Dirk. He was signed in February 2017 after showing out on a 10 day contract. Their rookie Dennis Smith jr. looked great. Smith jr. had a really nice 360 dunk. Matthews looked good also. Collingsworth had a few nice plays. The Mavs were leading 40-28 in the 2nd quarter. The Wizards looked downtrodden at this point and the commentator was indicating that perhaps the Wizards had hit the ‘wall’. My thought was, it’s only January, this is going to get ugly fast. By this time Brooks had acquired another technical and I wondered how demoralizing was this game going to get. The score was 52-37.
After the 3rd the Wizards lessened the lead to 55-44. My notes are asking myself whether they need a player whisperer, sage burning, or chakra alignment. That’s about the end of the Wizards highlights for the 3rd. I felt bad because I always try to look at the positive and don’t like to be overly critical. Especially of the players as they really only control so much.
By the 4th the Mavs led 71-54. Smith and Meeks came in and made some nice 3s. Otherwise it was ALL Mavs. Dirk had a nice dagger, Barnes by this point had 18 points and 8 rebounds. Our players looked unmotivated, not always meshing well, and sometimes uninterested. That being said, some of those reactions are natural when you’re down more than 20 in the 4th. The Wizards lost 98-75.
Next Up: A game already played! Wizards against OKC Thunder this past Thursday, January 25th.
