Mavs' Josh Green Demands Urgency Amid 3-Game Slide: 'No Other Option Now'
SAN ANTONIO — It has been about as inopportune of a time for a losing streak for the Dallas Mavericks as imaginable after making an all-in trade midseason for a superstar. They have lost three consecutive games and are 3-7 in their previous 10 outings. After Tuesday night's NBA action, the Mavs rank ninth in the loaded Western Conference standings.
The latest of the Mavs' shortcomings was a second consecutive loss to the Grizzlies in part of a home-and-home series. Without their three top scorers — Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving or Christian Wood available to play — the team lost while scoring the second-lowest scoring total (88) in a single-game this season.
Josh Green, who has scored over 20 points in each of his previous two outings, demands urgency from himself and his Mavs teammates to respond to the team's recent struggles. On Monday, he finished with 23 points, five rebounds, and seven assists while shooting 10-15 from the floor and 3-6 from 3-point range in his 27 minutes on the floor.
“We’ve got to win. It’s no other option now," Green said after Monday's 104-88 loss to the Grizzlies. "We all need to have the mindset that we're trying to win every single game from here on out. We're playing against teams like the Lakers coming up and even the Spurs, where the young guys are trying to beat us.
"So, at the end of the day, whatever's on all of our minds, it's no more than that we need to win for the rest of the season and continue to win. Right now, the Western Conference is completely wide open and we need to make sure that we're winning games.”
The Mavs had put together a respectable first half against the Grizzlies on Monday, even leading 50-49 at halftime. Memphis cranked up the defensive execution and contained Dallas to just 38 total points after halftime while nearly outscoring that total alone in the third quarter with 36.
"Yeah, first off, we came out with a lot of energy and ready to play. [We were] making very unselfish plays. In the second half, we came out slow, and a big part of that was me," Green said. "I came out slow, and I should have come with more energy.
"At the end of the day, it's an energy thing. I think we came out in the second half very slow, and we need to work on that going forward. But, it's one of those things: energy. Energy wins games.”
The Mavs clearly missed having the superstar impact of Doncic and Irving to carry them in the second half of Monday's loss, and in their recent outings amid a growing losing streak. Doncic hasn't been healthy since the NBA All-Star Break, but his presence is always instrumental, and he's already been ruled out for Wednesday's matchup against the San Antonio Spurs. Irving remains questionable to play with right foot soreness.
“It's a lot different. When two of the best players are not on the court, you definitely feel that," Green said of not having Doncic or Irving against the Grizzlies. "But, it's up to us and we shouldn't have to rely on them. We should be coming out there and giving them the energy to show that we have their back. When they're back out there, they can trust us and that we can do stuff.
"For us, it's not about whether they play or whether they don't play. At the end of the day, we have one thing in mind and that's to win the game. Obviously, the game plan changes without having them. But, whether they're in there or whether they're out, from a player standpoint, we're looking at just winning. So obviously stuff changes, but we still have one outcome.”
The stakes are high for the Mavs to turn things around immediately, regardless of who is available to play. The slide in the standings could continue and prove especially costly based on their upcoming matchups if failure continues to set in and translate in the loss column.
The Spurs may be 18-50 on the season, but they have won four of their previous seven games. They have some firepower in Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan, and Devin Vassell that could pose really issues for the Mavs as they continue to deploy small wing personnel without an interior presence to help overcompensate.
With the Los Angeles Lakers' recent surge despite LeBron James remaining sidelined — winning nine of their last 13 games — the Mavs actually trail them in the Western Conference standings now. Both teams face off on Friday in what will prove to be a pivotal matchup for seeding purposes.
During a time when the Mavs received a comment saying that 'nobody's dying' from coach Jason Kidd in response to potentially missing the playoffs, Green's leadership in post-game comments remains refreshing. A bounce-back performance is needed
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