Mavs Must Make These 3 Adjustments to Bounce Back vs. Warriors

The Golden State Warriors are a great basketball team, but the Dallas Mavericks pretty much shot themselves in the foot in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

The Dallas Mavericks weren’t able to overcome their second-round hangover in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the championship-tested Golden State Warriors.

Despite not playing well, Dallas kept its deficit to single digits by halftime, but Golden State blew the game wide open in the second half en route to a 112-87 win to remain undefeated at home this postseason.

As the Mavs shift their focus to Game 2, there are some simple adjustments that can be made in order for them to steal home-court advantage. Here’s three of the biggest ones:

Harry How/Getty Images

Harry How/Getty Images

Harry How/Getty Images

Mavs — Especially Luka Doncic — Must Improve Focus

Whether the main issue was the Mavs still recovering from their tiring seven-game series against the Suns, perhaps having some fatigue from being on the road for nearly a full week now, or simply having trouble adjusting to the Warriors’ different style of play, Dallas didn’t come into Game 1 as prepared as expected.

More specifically, Luka Doncic’s body language wasn’t the best throughout the night, even when he scored 18 points in the first half. He had a handful of careless turnovers and spent too much time arguing with officials over no-calls instead of getting back on defense, which ended up being detrimental for Dallas in transition.

Doncic must regain that killer focus he had in Games 6 and 7 against Phoenix in order to bounce back from what was his worst performance of these playoffs — 20 points on just 6-18 shooting and a total of two points in the entire second half.

“We've got to play better. That's it,” said Doncic. “We've got to play tougher. … Just like the Phoenix series. After Game 1, we've got to learn from there. Game 2 was the same as Game 1, so we've got to learn from that, and we've got to come out and play harder and play better.”

Mavs’ Defensive Matchups Need Shakeup

Overall, the Mavs must be much better defensively in Game 2 than they were in Game 1. Before the game, we wrote about how the Warriors would present a different challenge for the Mavs since they use more off-ball movement than the Suns. Sure enough, Dallas had a hard time adjusting to that change in style, as its reaction time just far too slow.

Dallas started out with Doncic guarding Andrew Wiggins, who ended up scoring 15 of his 19 points in the first half alone. There were also a handful of times where Jalen Brunson was put on Draymond Green, who is the least likely Warrior to shoot the ball while he’s on the floor.

Unless Doncic can come out with more conviction on defense in Game 2, it might be wise to switch him onto Green going forward.

Simply Put, Make Your Open 3s

This one really isn’t an adjustment to make, because the Mavs got a handful of great looks from deep in Game 1 and just couldn’t convert. But it’s still something that needs to happen in order for the Mavs to head back to Dallas with a 1-1 series split.

Dallas was dreadful from 3-point range, finishing 11-48 (22.9%). According to NBA.com, the Mavs shot 28 wide-open (defender 6ft+ away) and 16 open (4-6ft) 3s vs. the Warriors in Game 1.

So going off of that, 44 of the Mavs’ 48 attempts from deep were either open or wide open, even though the Warriors did a better job contesting in the second half. Those looks should continue to be there throughout this series. The Mavs just simply have to make more of them… and if for some reason they can’t, they’ll need to make a more concerted effort to drive to the basket.

“I think the whole team, we didn't shoot the ball great. We were 22% from three. I think we have got to attack the paint more,” said Doncic.

“It's one game. That's what the playoffs is about. If you lose by one or lose by 40, it's a loss. We've just got to get ready for Game 2 now.“