About last night... Scrimmage vs Pacers

Yesterday afternoon's scrimmage was... weird. It showed the highs of a run and gun, free flowing, watch Luka go to work offense and then the lows that I had forgotten about over this hiatus. Lazy defending, bad shot selection, relying on a foul call. Ultimately these things cost the Mavs the game. Not to mention KP missing his COVID test (what???)  Here are my key Takeaways from yesterday's loss. 

Defense 

After the game, Rick Carlisle had this to say about the Mavs defensive effort; "We know we can score, but we have to have the same type of emphasis getting better defensively." He is completely correct. Talented teams in this format don't put up duds very often. If you allow their scorers to get easy buckets, your lead is never safe, no matter how well you shoot. This is what happened with Indy, they just kept coming back at the Mavericks after every bucket. They waited for the Mavs to take the foot off the gas and get cold, and never gave that lead back.

Conditioning

This might be a reason the defensive effort looked so half hearted. This scrimmage had extended quarter minutes, not like the 10 minute ones they played against LA, making it the most they've played since that Nuggets game in Feb. There were some points when Luka looked gassed, but continued to put his head down and get into the paint for an easy layup or to draw a foul. He did, however, blow some easy finishes. I would bet that was a sign of the team's overall NBA game ready conditioning 

Scorers 

A bright spot from the loss was the realization of how deep we can be scoring wise. Luka passes look incredible, and gets so many people involved. When he is on (which he almost always is) we are hard to beat. With Luka and KP on, we are a great team. With Luka KP THJ on, we are a championship contender. With Luka KP THJ and Seth on... who is going to outscore that!? Add Maxi into that mix with his 3 ball (shot looks smoother than ever) and we are a filthy bunch. That's why we have a historically great offensive rating. But it all comes back to the defense. That 2011 championship team had the #8 offensive rating and the #7 defensive rating in the league. A very balanced team that proved itself come playoff time. This team has the #1 offensive rating (ofcourse) but the #17 defensive rating. Putting us in the bottom half of the league in defense. We've seen what works, even though the NBA has changed so much in 9 years. Which would you rather have? 

All in all, a good showing from the Mavs early. Incredible scoring and passing. We saw glimpses what they can be offensively. Defense needs to get back into gear. Hopefully with the addition of MKG & KP in the next scrimmage, we will see a little bit more effort and effectiveness. Justin Jackson looked quick and confident, Delon Wright was still meh, JJ looks like he needs very limited minutes even though he went on a run at the end. Trey Burke and MKG should be able to play next game against the 76rs.