Dallas Basketball

Dennis Smith Jr. Dagger: Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving Can't Push Sinking Mavs Past Hornets

The Dallas Mavericks' struggles continued on Friday night, as they lost to a lottery-locked Charlotte Hornets team that was playing its second night of a back-to-back. Dennis Smith Jr. made his former team regret not picking him up last summer.

Dalton Trigg

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Cancun on three! One... two... three... Cancun!

That might not be what the Dallas Mavericks were actually saying or thinking before Friday night's game against the lottery-locked Charlotte Hornets, but they could've fooled us with the lack of effort they put forth in what ultimately ended in a 117-109 loss.

As has been the case all season for the Mavs, it was too little, too late when the game clock expired. Dallas made a big push in the fourth quarter, but falling down by 21 points in the third quarter proved too much to overcome. The sinking Mavs are now two games under .500 with a 36-38 and have, for the moment, fallen out of the play-in tournament range.

Former Mavericks guard Dennis Smith Jr., who told DallasBasketball.com last summer that he welcomed a Dallas reunion, nailed the dagger 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left to give the Hornets an insurmountable lead. He finished with 13 points, five rebounds and nine assists in 30 minutes as a starter. He was also a team-best +12 on the night. 

"That felt great," Smith said when asked about his big shot. "That felt great. As soon as I hit it, I looked over at the bench and said, 'Hold that.'"

Perhaps the Mavs are having some regrets with their personnel decisions from last offseason.

Luka Doncic led the way for Dallas, scoring 34 points to go with 10 rebounds and eight assists, but he also had five turnovers and shot just 2-9 from deep. Kyrie Irving pitched in 18 points on just 6-16 shooting overall, including 1-8 from deep.

P.J. Washington and Gordon Hayward were too much for the Mavs to handle, as they poured in 28 and 25 points respectively. The Hornets had seven players score in double figures, including all five starters.

The Mavs' defense had some decent moments late on Friday, but it wasn't enough to make up for the team shooting 9-36 from deep. Dallas, believe it or not, actually won the rebounding battle, 45-43, and also won the points-in-the-paint battle as well, 56-50.

In one of the more odd Mavericks stats of the season, they're now 1-8 in games where Tim Hardaway Jr. doesn't play.

Next up, the Mavs will take on the Hornets yet again, but this time it will be on the road in Charlotte. Although Dallas still technically has a chance to make something of this season, the vibes say this thing may very well be close to being over.

Hopefully, the Mavs haven't already made their summer vacation plans, but they sure are playing as if that's the case. We'll see if they can bounce back in Charlotte on Sunday.

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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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