NBA: Mavs spoil Leonard’s comeback

The Dallas Mavericks (8-20) have made Kawhi Leonard miss the comeback. In the Texas duel, Dallas won against San Antonio Spurs (19-9)95:89. The hosts turned up late in the third quarter and finally managed to take the lead.

Everything at the American Airlines Center looked back on Kawhi Leonard’s comeback and the returnee began promisingly. His first three jumpers all went through the trap, but then there was not much left for the claw. His litters became shorter, his strength was still noticeably lacking. In the middle of the third quarter, he had to quit. In 16 minutes there were 13 solid points (6/12 FG) and 6 rebounds for Leonard.

In general, the Spurs lacked a little bit of accuracy, which is why the visitors were always trailing behind in the first half. At the break, however, they were on again because after a good first quarter, Dallas didn’t achieve much after a good first quarter. After the break, the Mavs only hit one of their first ten throws, allowing the Spurs to take control.

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J.J. Barea (16,6 Assists and Dwight Powell (12,12 Rebounds) turned up with the Second Unit and let the game tilt again. This gave the team evidently self-confidence and the litters fell again. The Spurs didn’t recover from it, also because LaMarcus Aldridge (23,13 Rebounds) didn’t make it. Apart from him and Leonard, only Rudy Gay (21) scored double-digit points.

In the Mavs, on the other hand, five players made it. Harrison Barnes was top scorer with 17 points, Yogi Ferrell and Wesley Matthews controlled in the absence of Rookie Dennis Smith Jr. 16 counters each. Dirk Nowitzki didn’t have a good evening. For the 39-year-old, 6 points (1-8 FG), 2 rebounds and 2 assists were recorded. Maxi Kleber was also barely on the offensive (5 points, 2-5 FG, 4 rebounds), but was still the best defender of the Mavs against Aldridge.

In the last meeting of both teams it was mainly LMA and Pau Gasol who took the Mavs apart under the baskets. This time Dallas did a much better job in the first half and held up well against it. Especially the postups of Aldridge were passionately defended. The big guy wasn’t often in a good position. Glue, Salah Mejri and Powell did a good job. After the break, Aldridge then had better times, but in the fourth quarter he was not able to make it as he had hoped. So he sank only nine of 23 throws from the field.

The game was extremely fluid, which was mainly due to the few free throws. Both the Mavs and the Spurs defended themselves very disciplined, but also hard. Nevertheless, in the first round only 10 fouls were whistled. This was obviously good news for the game, even though both teams did not hit well.

Dallas got off to a strong start, but also lost ground. In the first twelve minutes, the hosts scored over 50 percent of the throws, and then brick by brick. After 30 points in the first quarter, only 37 points followed in the next two sections. This was not so much due to ball losses as to the poor throwing yield (16/47 FG).

All the more astonishing is the explosion of the Mavs in the final section. Dallas suddenly got the litters they wanted. When it went right, the threesome fell again. Ferrell and Matthews sunk important triples, allowing Dallas to breathe in the crunchtime. The Spurs, on the other hand, did not come up with much offensively. They only hit 27 percent of their litters in the last 12 minutes.

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J.J. Barea. It didn’t look good around the Mavs in the middle of the third quarter. Barea breathed life back into the team with two threesomes at a time and finally created good throws for his fellow players. Powell in particular benefited from this development. These two were mainly responsible for Dallas not falling apart and turning the game around.

Pau Gasol. Remained completely invisible in his good 22 minutes. The center grabbed 9 rebounds, but didn’t play a role in the offense, so Dallas Nowitzki was able to hide in the Iberian defensive. Only two throws (no hits) were just too few. The other two oldies, Tony Parker (6) and Manu Ginobili (5) also had problems.

The key to Dallas’ success? The Pick’ n’ Roll of Barea and Powell. San Antonio defended the whole game excellently, but against this combo coach Gregg Popovich and his men were at a loss. If Powell hadn’t picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter, Rick Carlisle would have milked this formation for longer. Thus, Dallas played in the late fourth quarter with Kleber in the center position. The man from Wuerzburg was more than brave.