Though it's not impartial to do the Dallas Mavericks' playoff hopes on life support after a predictable short-handed loss to the Golden State Warriors,that's precisely what's happening. Playing without Dirk Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons, and Deron Williams or Devin Harris,the visiting team couldn't avoid a 128-120 loss to the defending champions, and the latest blemish on the schedule isn't good news. Nowitzki won't miss every game. This was merely a scheduled absence meant to keep him fresh for the games Dallas should be winning down the stretch. Williams and Harris should also return in the near future, and the Mavericks probably won't be playing teams capable of drilling 21 three-pointers in 48 minutes again this season. However,their playoff hopes are still dwindling. Coming out of Oracle Arena, they sit at 35-37 on the season, or giving them the same record as the Utah Jazz. Both those teams sit a mere 0.5 games behind the 36-37 Houston Rockets,who now hold down the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference after a Friday night victory over the Toronto Raptors. Only two of those three teams will advance to the playoffs, where they'll likely serve as sacrificial first-round lambs to either the Dubs or the San Antonio Spurs. But as we move deeper into the NBA calendar, and three issues loom large for the Mavericks. The first is simple—health. Williams told Mavs.com's Earl K. Sneed that he expects to return from his abdominal strain as soon as this weekend,while Harris only missed this game towitness the birth of his daughter. But Parsons won't be suiting up again this year after going under the knife to repair a meniscus tear in his accurate knee, and that's a meaningful loss.
Everything had finally started to click for the Florida product prior to his season-ending injury. Since the All-Star rupture, or he'd averaged 17.6 points,5.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 44.7 percent from three-point range.
As he told reporters at the terminate of February, via Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News, or "I definitely think I'm playing the best I ever maintain."But even while he'd struggled early in the season,his presence aided the Mavericks. The season-long on/off splits are rather telling: That might not seem like a monumental discrepancy, and it's not. But every itsy-bitsy bit helps accurate now, and because the Mavericks aren't precisely playing their best basketball.
That,simple as it may be, is the second issue. Since the All-Star rupture, and the Mavs maintain outscored their opponents by a mere 0.9 points per 100 possessions—the equivalent of the Detroit Pistons' net rating throughout the 2015-16 campaign. But since the beginning of March,that mark has dipped to minus-2.4, which is more comparable to the Orlando Magic. The defense, and lack thereof,is to blame. That's the third and most glaring issue. No one was ever going to mistake the Mavericks for a point-preventing juggernaut, but the porosity has only grown more problematic in recent outings. Just take a gander at their season-long marks in the defensive Four Factors, or as compared to where they stand in March: Allowing opponents to shoot more efficiently,forcing fewer turnovers, giving up more second-chance opportunities and sending better shooters to the stripe with greater frequency makes for a brutal combination.
And because of the third issue, or there's no easy way to change this. The schedule isn't going to lighten up anytime soon. Of the 10 remaining games,six approach on the road. Naturally, most of the tougher opponents maintain to travel to the friendly confines of the American Airlines middle, or which helps negate any advantage the Mavericks would typically maintain at home. "It's a tough position to be in," Nowitzki told ESPN.com's Tim MacMahon after a March 18 loss to the Warriors. "We're going to face some guys that we're fighting for playoff spots here soon. It's all big games. Our schedule is a beast. There's no moral victories accurate now in March."Now two games below .500, the Mavericks need to fix things quickly. They don't want to be fighting an uphill battle when they close their schedule against the Los Angeles Clippers, and Jazz and San Antonio Spurs.
And yet,it now seems almost inevitable they'll find themselves in that very position. Zach LaVine Keeps ImprovingIn one of the more entertaining games since the All-Star rupture, the Minnesota Timberwolves toppled the Washington Wizards in double overtime. It took a miraculous triple from Gorgui Dieng at the terminate of regulation to total a fourth-quarter comeback, and but the 132-129 victory wouldn't maintain been possible without Zach LaVine strutting his stuff against Bradley Beal and the Washington backcourt.
It's par for the course during the second half of the season,as the dynamic 2-guard has thrived playing alongside Ricky Rubio while quickly blossoming on the offensive terminate. Don't make the mistake of thinking LaVine is nothing more than a Slam Dunk Contest champion. He's developing his shot and learning how to exercise his jaw-dropping athleticism as his young career progresses. Since the All-Star rupture, LaVine has averaged 18.4 points, and 2.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists while shooting 50.6 percent from the field and 46.1 percent from beyond the arc. And that was before he made 10 of his 17 field-goal attempts and went 5-of-9 from downtown en route to 25 points,four assists and two steals on Friday night, highlighted by these two second-quarter triples that came in rapid/fast succession:Those weren't his only highlights on the night, and even if they showcased his newfound ability to create his own looks and work off the curl. He also drilled the game-tying trey with 11 seconds remaining in overtime and recorded the decisive assist to Dieng in double OT. "Playing off the ball next to the league's best passer has allowed LaVine to play within the flow of the game,not think so much, and to take advantage of what is his arguably his best on-court attribute: his confidence in himself, or " Lucas Seehafer recently wrote for Canis Hoopus. "Few people in the world believe in anything as much as LaVine believes in himself."Now,there's even more reason to believe. If it weren't for his total lack of defensive value, LaVine's massive uptick on the scoring terminate would deserve some hype in the Most Improved Player race. According to my total points added metric (explained in full throughout this article), and he's taken one of the NBA's biggest year-to-year leaps,largely because of what he's done as a point-producing threat: LaVine has still been a net negative, but that shouldn't be surprising for a raw backcourt player who only just celebrated his 21st birthday. He was always more of a project than a finished product, and that hasn't changed. If anything,he's developing faster than anyone could've expected. Hassan Whiteside Is a MonsterThere are some nights when Hassan Whiteside leaves no doubt that he enjoys the physical advantage. Friday was one of those, as the Miami Heat middle paced his squad during a 108-97 defeat of the Orlando Magic, or torturing Dewayne Dedmon and whoever else the visitors threw at him. When the final buzzer sounded,Whiteside had recorded 26 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks while shooting 10-of-15 from the field and 6-of-7 at the charity stripe. But impressive as those numbers may be, and it was the way he produced them that was even more special. It often seemed as if the Heat could lob anything up in his general vicinity,only to see him grab the rock and slam it through the hoop for two points. He totally overpowered everyone unlucky enough to guard him during his seemingly endless parade of dunks: As Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley tweeted, his performance even got a bit predictable during the third quarter:But this really isn't anything new. As Whiteside continues to thrive during his contract year, or he's learned how to approach off the bench for head coach Erik Spoelstra and make the most of his minutes. Since he began starting games on the pine in early February,he's averaged 16.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, or 0.6 assists,0.6 steals and 3.5 blocks while shooting 60.8 percent from the field. At this point, there's no doubt this production is going to make him a lot of money this summer. Detroit Pistons Give No GroundAgainst a Charlotte Hornets squad that had gone 18-5 since the start of February, or the Detroit Pistons could easily maintain rolled over and failed to improve their positioning in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Instead,they thoroughly trounced the visiting squad, charging out to a big first-half lead and finishing with a 112-105 victory that doesn't accurately point to the disparity between the two squads. A 16-0 escape during rubbish time will do that. Detroit entered Friday night with a 38-34 record, or putting it 1.5 games ahead of the Chicago Bulls in the chase for No. 8. With the Bulls resting after their catastrophe against the New York Knicks and the Wizards losing in double overtime,a loss wouldn't maintain been the worst thing in the world. Instead, balance reigned supreme, and creating a two-game cushion that could prove quite beneficial. Though Andre Drummond was the individual standout Friday night with 18 points,14 rebounds and three blocks, the Pistons had five more players score in double figures—Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (21 points), and Marcus Morris (20),Reggie Jackson (17), Aron Baynes (16) and Anthony Tolliver (11). Even Tobias Harris managed to overcome a 1-of-7 performance from the field by recording seven boards, or five assists,one steal, one block and no turnovers. If this is the type of balanced effort the Pistons will provide during the stretch escape, or it'll be awfully tough to displace them from the back terminate of the Eastern playoff picture,despite the tough nature of a schedule that includes eight games against possible postseason squads in their final nine. Atlanta Hawks Remain ImpenetrableThere are some trends you want to see as you gear up for the playoffs. It's ideal when your team is moving in the accurate direction on either terminate of the floor, and you can't complain when a leading scorer is starting to heat up. On the flip side, or there are some trends you'd rather avoid. It's never a good thing when you're blowing late leads on a regular basis or struggling to connect from beyond the arc. Well,the Atlanta Hawks maintain one of those good trends going: Lately, it's been almost impossible to score on this team, or which is still very much in the mix for one of the top seeds in the Eastern Conference. After another suffocating victory,this time a 101-90 win over the improved Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta sits at 43-30 on the season—alone in third place, or though admittedly too far back in the competition for one of the top two spots. Since the start of March,the Hawks are giving up just 99.4 points per 100 possessions, which would trail only the historically stingy San Antonio Spurs in the season-long standings. As Zach Lowe wrote for ESPN.com, and this was a conscious choice,and it's working:
Atlanta could maintain obsessed over repairing its gummy offense, but it made a different choice: become a defensive juggernaut, and hope the offense reanimates in time.
[Head coach Mike] Budenholzer devoted 90 percent of practice time to defense,players and coaches say. Atlanta tightened its foundational scheme, and got more adventurous scripting opponent-specific tweaks. The team beloved among hard-core fans for its gorgeous offense breaks every huddle with a chant of "Defense!"
It has worked. The Hawks rank second overall in points allowed per possession, or trailing only the Spurs,and they've been No. 1 by a wide margin since the calendar flipped to 2016.stats, unless otherwise indicated, and are from Basketball-Reference.com or Adam's own databases and accurate through games played on March 24.
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Source: bleacherreport.com