{"id":110003,"date":"2024-11-30T23:59:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T04:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=110003"},"modified":"2024-12-01T20:46:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T01:46:25","slug":"mavs-balanced-attack-luka-doncic-buy-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/30\/mavs-balanced-attack-luka-doncic-buy-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavs Love Balanced Attack But Need Star\u2019s Buy-In"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks have won three straight, putting them at 12-8 a quarter of the way through the 2024-25 season. Though they\u2019re just fifth in the Western Conference, it could\u2019ve gone much worse after superstar Luka Doncic<\/a> was ruled out with a wrist injury. Having Kyrie Irving<\/a> on board definitely helps, but there are a lot of talented teams in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Mavs, they\u2019re proving themselves to be one of those, and not just because of Doncic or Irving. Over the past two weeks, several players have stepped up, including PJ Washington<\/a> and Naji Marshall<\/a>. Their numbers since Doncic\u2019s injury speak to a more aggressive mindset, which Mavs head coach Jason Kidd would like them to \u201cto maintain\u201d when their face of the franchise returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need guys like P.J. and Naji to maintain this level of aggressiveness<\/a> when Luka comes back,\u201d Kidd says, per Dallas Hoop Journal\u2019s Grant Afseth. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about one or two players carrying the load\u2014it\u2019s about everyone knowing their role, being confident, and contributing. That\u2019s what makes us dangerous. \u2026 Everything we\u2019ve done without (Doncic) only makes us stronger when he\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irving agrees, saying that it \u201cgives our role players an opportunity to step up, take more shots, and learn in real time. When Luka comes back, we\u2019ll be stronger because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mavs Love Balanced Attack But Need Luka Doncic\u2019s Buy-In<\/h2>\n

During Doncic\u2019s absence, Washington has averaged 15.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game. He\u2019s also been scorching the nets, making 41.2 percent of his three-pointers. Marshall has averaged 18.3 points per game and knocked down 47.8 percent of his threes. Then there\u2019s Quentin Grimes<\/a>, who has averaged 15.0 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting from three.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t necessarily addition by subtraction, words that inspire images of Los Angeles Clippers wing Norman Powell<\/a>. Nonetheless, it isn\u2019t a coincidence that so many players have been able to produce at a higher level with Doncic out. The Mavs\u2019 offense isn\u2019t heliocentric but a lot revolves around their franchise star.<\/p>\n

When Doncic isn\u2019t on the floor, the void is so big that it gives more than one player the opportunity to step up. Furthermore, though he\u2019s rightly regarded as a premier playmaker, the five-time All-Star tends to be ball-dominant. So, with him out, Dallas\u2019 offense is more of an open plain. Any player could have it going, but aside from Irving, nobody is necessarily demanding touches.<\/p>\n

Keeping Their Momentum<\/h3>\n

If Kidd wants the Mavs\u2019 supporting cast to keep their momentum, Doncic has to be willing to play ball. Similar to Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young<\/a>, he should take a step back as a scorer to empower his teammates<\/a>. This has helped the Hawks have a more balanced attack and could do the same for the Mavs. Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic<\/a> came out the gates firing this season, but it\u2019s usually the approach he takes as well.<\/p>\n

Selfishly, Doncic could consider this a way of being healthier at the end of the season. To that point, Doncic was dinged up by the time Dallas reached the 2024 NBA Finals and it clearly affected his performance. Why go through that again if the he doesn\u2019t have to?<\/p>\n

From a more mature perspective though, basketball is a team game. It\u2019s not enough to just have players who can fill a role. Though that\u2019s key, maximizing the effectiveness of each player is even more crucial. If Doncic or Irving is being bottled up or they\u2019re just cold, having other players who they know they can count on will go a long way. Frankly, if that was the case during their Finals run, it might have gone smoother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks have won three straight, putting them at 12-8 a quarter of the way through the 2024-25 season. Though they\u2019re just fifth in the Western Conference, it could\u2019ve gone much worse after superstar Luka Doncic was ruled out with a wrist injury. Having Kyrie Irving on board definitely helps, but there are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":110102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1608,62],"tags":[218,406,1133,2288,4745,2111,3160],"class_list":["post-110003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mavericks","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-jason-kidd","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-luka-doncic","tag-naji-marshall","tag-nba-injuries","tag-pj-washington","tag-quentin-grimes"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}