Stats Rundown: 3 Numbers From The Mavericks Loss To The Hawks

The Dallas Mavericks got blown out again, this time a 135-120 loss to the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday night in Dallas.

CJ McCollum led the Hawks with 24 points, while Jalen Johnson almost had a triple double with 17 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists. Daniel Gafford came off the bench to lead Dallas in scoring with 23 points.

There wasn’t a lot of defense in this one, as the Mavericks continue to get closer to the end of another losing season. New Orleans and Memphis won tonight, so great game for the tanking standings.

Let’s just get to the numbers.

72: Hawks points in the paint

After giving up 68 paint points to the lowly Pelicans on Monday night, Dallas followed that up by allowing an egregious 72 paint points to the Hawks. Dallas can’t guard a wet paper bag right now.

The Maverick started the small-ball lineup again, and it was just a sieve from opening tip. PJ Washington is a decent rim protector for a wing, but as the sole backline defender, it’s just not enough. Combine that with 5’11 Ryan Nembhard playing a lot, and the Mavericks have little-to-none in regards to defensive resistance.

Not much else to say about this. Dallas just doesn’t have enough good defenders combined with the fact that the team doesn’t really have anything else left to play for. Not a great combination.

4: Combined steals, blocks for Cooper Flagg

Cooper Flagg didn’t have a good offensive game, but he at least made a handful of splashy defensive plays. Flagg finished with two steals and two blocks.

The Mavericks didn’t have a lot of defensive moments in this one (see the above stat), but Flagg at least had a few off-ball havoc generating plays. It was fun!

2-for-10: Combined 3 point shooting for Cooper Flagg, PJ Washington, Naji Marshall

Dallas is starting small and getting Ryan Nembhard into the lineup to help juice an anemic offense and take some pressure off of Cooper Flagg. However there’s one problem small-ball doesn’t really solve: three of the Mavericks best players can’t really shoot.

Washington was at least 2-of-6 from three, but Flagg and Marshall were a combined 0-for-4. If Dallas wants to keep Marshall and Washington around for the foreseeable future to play with Flagg, they either have to improve as shooters or coach Jason Kidd has to split up their minutes. It’s really hard to play three shooters the defense don’t respect on the floor at the same time, and that will only ratchet up when/if Kidd returns to play a center full time again.