Key Highlights:
The main reason the Mavericks are down 0-2 isn’t their defense. Rather, it’s their offense. The Mavericks showed two little glimmers of hope in the fourth quarter that they could lean on in Game 3 in order to turn the series around. If what we saw at the end of Game 2 is exploitable and the Mavericks offense can come back to life, they still have a puncher’s chance of winning this series.
Heading into the 2024 NBA Finals, 458 teams have fallen behind 0-2 in a playoff series, and only 34 of those times (7.4%) has the team that has fallen behind that far gone on to emerge from their series victorious (per Land of Basketball). That statistic makes the 0-2 hole the Dallas Mavericks have fallen in pretty damaging, couple that with the fact that they are trailing to one of the best teams in NBA history (in terms of point differential), and that deficit seems downright insurmountable. But as any good sports fan knows, it isn’t over until the final whistle blows. And at the end of Game 2, the Mavericks flashed something that maybe, just maybe, could turn the series around.
What Went Wrong?
Through two games, the Mavericks’ defense hasn’t been the unit of fortification it was in the first three rounds, but it also hasn’t been terrible. With a defensive rating of 112.8, the Mavericks have held the Boston Celtics to nearly six points below their regular season offensive rating (118.7). What’s been missing is their offense. In the first two games, the Mavericks have an offensive rating of 100, which is 17 points below their regular season offensive rating (117.0).
As we talked about after Game 1, the Celtics have done a great job of taking away the pick-and-roll from the Mavericks. By putting Jayson Tatum on one of the Mavericks’ centers, the Celtics have been able to switch pick-and-rolls involving Luka Doncic (who has normally been guarded by Jaylen Brown or Jrue Holiday) and one of the Lob Goblins and derail one of the Mavericks pet plays. You see, switching pick-and-rolls neutralizes the threat of the roll and eliminates the Mavericks’ prolific lob game.
The Glimmer Of Hope
That brings us to the main premise of this article. The Mavericks love to run pick-and-roll (tied for fourth in the playoffs in pick-and-roll ball handler frequency, per NBA.com). Unfortunately (for them), the way the Celtics are defending the pick-and-roll has forced them to resort to inefficient isolation ball. With that said, in the few occasions that the Mavericks have been able to get a Doncic pick-and-roll with a center as his screener who is defended by a Boston big, the team has looked like their old selves.
A Sprinkle Of Creativity
The other big thing that caught my eye from the fourth quarter was this well-executed after timeout call from head coach Jason Kidd (one of the best play callers in the business). With Gafford and Lively on the bench, the Celtics went back to having their center guard Jones. The Mavericks countered this with a Spain pick-and-roll that resulted in an easy two points.
