Dallas Basketball

‘Dairy Queen’ in Atlanta: Cuban Trashes Refs After Controversial Mavs Fold

The Dallas Mavericks built a big lead early, but couldn't contain Trae Young in the fourth quarter, as they dropped a close one in Atlanta while missing Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis.

Dalton Trigg

‘Dairy Queen’ in Atlanta: Cuban Trashes Refs After Controversial Mavs Fold
‘Dairy Queen’ in Atlanta: Cuban Trashes Refs After Controversial Mavs Fold /

Coming off a blowout win over the Orlando Magic the night before, the Dallas Mavericks (34-23), missing both Luka Doncic (ankle) and Kristaps Porzingis (knee), couldn't hold off Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks (17-41), losing 111-107 on the second night of a back-to-back.

And in the opinion of Mavs owner, they couldn’t hold off the refs, either.

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“This is a training issue,” Cuban said following the bizarre ending. “This is a management issue. Is it as bad as back in Dairy Queen? It literally could be worse (than that).”

Dallas held a 16-point lead midway through the second quarter and a nine-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but clutch woes came back to haunt them, yet again, like they have so many times before this season. Young led the Hawks down the stretch, scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter alone and finishing with 25 points, 10 assists and six rebounds. Despite Young's late heroics, his running mate John Collins had an even bigger impact on this one, as he poured in 35 points and 17 rebounds on 13-of-18 shooting.

It didn't take long for the already-shorthanded Mavs to have their depth thinned even more, as Jalen Brunson took a nasty fall of off a hit from Dewayne Dedmon on the first play of the game (which wasn't reviewed for a potential flagrant foul, oddly enough), sprained his shoulder, and didn't return. Brunson lit up the Hawks with 27 points in their previous meeting in Dallas.

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Tim Hardaway Jr. and Seth Curry accounted for over half of the Mavs total points in this game. Hardaway Jr. dropped 33 points on his former team, shooting 11-of-22 overall and 6-of-14 from deep, while also dishing out five assists and grabbing four rebounds. Curry scored 22 points -- on 8-of-17 overall and 4-of-9 from three -- to go along with six rebounds and five assists.

After the Mavs went up by 16 points in the second quarter, Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce decided to go with a zone defense, which appeared to rattle Dallas and eventually led to them relinquishing the lead. If that sounds familiar to you, it's because that's exactly what Nick Nurse did in Toronto earlier this season -- with very similar results -- when his fell behind by 30 points to the Mavs.

Although the Mavs themselves have to take responsibility for letting this one get away, there was some drama towards the end of the game that had Cuban irate with the officials, as mentioned earlier. With eight seconds to go in the game, the officials called Dorian Finney-Smith for a goaltend on a Trae Young layup. Since the officials blew the whistle on the goaltend, play should have been stopped at that point. 

After review, the officials overturned the call, giving Finney-Smith the block on Young, but then also gave John Collins the put-back layup ... again, when play technically was stopped after the initial goaltend was called. 

If anything, you'd think a jump ball would've been called in this kind of situation, but it is what it is, and Dallas now moves on ... well, after Cuban finishes blowing off a little steam, that is.

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Cuban’s “DQ” remark is a 20-year flashback to the early days of his ownership, when he bitingly said the NBA head of officiating “couldn’t manage a Dairy Queen.”

UPDATE ..

With the loss, the Mavs were once again, for the fifth time this season, unable to push their record to 13 games over .500. Dallas will now look to get back on track during Monday night's home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves (16-38). Due to a fractured wrist, the Wolves will be without their superstar big man Karl-Anthony Towns in Dallas next week.

And the Mavs? They'll have to get over the feeling that they were opposed by more than just the other five guys in Atlanta.

"Refs have bad games,'' an irate Cuban tweeted. "Crews have bad games. But this isn't a single game issue. This is the same shit that has been going on for 20 years: Hire former refs who think they know how to hire , train and manage. Realize two years later they can't. Repeat.''

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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