Mavs Growing Pains: Pacers’ Myles Turner Takes Advantage of Dallas’ Frontcourt Inexperience

As good as Dallas Mavericks rookie center Dereck Lively II has been this season, he ran into a well-seasoned veteran in Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner in Sunday night’s loss.

Dalton Trigg | Feb 26, 2024

Mavs Growing Pains: Pacers’ Myles Turner Takes Advantage of Dallas’ Frontcourt Inexperience /

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The Dallas Mavericks hit the jackpot when they acquired Dereck Lively II with the No. 12 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. The 7-1 big man out of Duke has been a seamless fit at center next to superstar guards Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, as he’s averaging 8.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 73.4 percent through 39 games played.

As good as Lively has been, though, it’s inevitable that NBA newcomers will have their rookie learning experiences, and that’s what happened on Sunday night when he faced off against DFW native and Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner.

In just 30 minutes played, Turner feasted inside and on the perimeter en route to 33 points and eight rebounds on 10-15 shooting as the Pacers blew out the Mavs, 133-111, snapping their seven-game win streak. All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton ran several pick-and-rolls with Turner to perfection, putting Lively in a tough spot defensively.

As Lively gains experience, playing against floor-stretching bigs shouldn’t be an issue. The 20-year-old has all the physical tools and quickness to be able to guard on the perimeter as well as in the paint, but it just takes time to get to a point where a player can do that consistently against any opponent. And who knows? Based on what we saw from Lively in his pre-draft process, he might end up being able to space the floor from the perimeter like Turner at some point too.

Mavs' 7-Game Win-Streak Ends After Blowout Loss Against Pacers

Despite having a few defensive breakdowns – and really, they weren't so much "breakdowns" as they were "slightly late rotations" – Lively still managed to tally four points, three rebounds and four steals in 14 minutes against the Pacers while being a +9 on the night. He’ll have a chance to rebound and show more improvement on Tuesday, as the Mavs take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second game of a four-game road trip.

Published Feb 26, 2024

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.