Dallas Mavs' Offense Needs to Rally Around Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving After L.A. Trip

The Mavs struggled to produce offensively during their two-game road trip in Los Angeles with matchups against the Lakers and Clippers. What needs to change?

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks came away from their two-game road trip in Los Angeles with a 1-1 record, with both the win over the Lakers and loss to the Clippers suggesting the need for some recalibration offensively. 

The Mavs managed to win against the Lakers despite scoring only 104 points, but they had lost a 20-point lead that was built entering the fourth quarter — trailing by two points in clutch time. Kyrie Irving had to step up and close it out, scoring the team's final seven points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer that proved to be the game-winner. Dallas' struggles in the fourth quarter of that game carried over into the loss against the Clippers, scoring a season-low 88 points. 

While Luka Doncic hurt his thumb, requiring a halftime X-ray during Saturday's loss, he averaged 30.0 points and 6.0 assists. His production was impressive from a volume standpoint, but he was uncharacteristically inefficient, shooting 41.5 percent from the floor and 20.0 percent from deep. The Lakers and Clippers often deployed aggressive coverages between various approaches like sending blitzes, early low-man rotations, late doubles, and tilting while having standout defensive talents to execute.

"You could tell that Tyronn Lue made some adjustments, and they're playing with a better play pace," Irving said. "We still have some more work to do, continuing to hammer in on doing the little things and covering for one another. It was a tough game tonight. So you have to give them credit for it — doing that on that end on the defensive end and staying physical with us."

To execute against a tough defense with a lot of wing talent and versatility like the Clippers when they're firing on all cylinders defensively, the Mavs cannot afford to operate in such a stagnant manner. They were effective in stifling Dallas' half-court actions and making Doncic or Irving work against a loaded defense while not being rewarded for trusting teammates to convert on open looks.

"Offensively, we just got a little stagnant. It kept us out on the perimeter pretty often," Irving said. "So, just look at where we can get better from that and just develop more chemistry as we see more familiar defenses like that."

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Doncic produced an impressive passing display against the Lakers without recording a single turnover. However, against the Clippers, he turned it over four times and felt he should have made the easy play to put his teammates in a position to attack a 4-on-3 situation out of the double team instead of trying to make the more challenging play.  

"I think we need to be a little bit better on that, and I have to make better reads, for sure," Doncic said. "Just make the easy play, and we can play 4-on-3 — that's what I always said [and] it's not on them, it's on me. I have to make the simple play."

Part of the challenge the Mavs encountered beginning with the fourth quarter of their win over the Lakers was a lack of production from their supporting cast. It wasn't until the 5:05 mark of the second quarter against the Clippers that a player other than Doncic or Irving even recorded a made field goal. 

During the two games in Los Angeles, non-Irving and non-Doncic players shot a combined 28-90 (31.1 percent) from the floor, 14-53 (26.4 percent) on 3-pointers, and 8-14 (57.1 percent) on free throws for the Mavs. 

Hardaway, the Mavs' most important complementary shooting threat this season, expressed the need for the supporting cast to hone in shotmaking, which did occur against the Lakers but was a struggle against the Clippers in the following game.

"No, I think for the most part, as you said, I think the shot-making definitely plays a part in getting some of the attention off of Luka and Kai, and that's on us role players to do so," Hardaway said after Monday's practice. "We did a little bit in L.A. against the Lakers, but we didn't do it against the Clippers."

None of Dallas' players outside of the two All-Star guards reached even 10 total made field goals between the two games in Los Angeles on the road trip. Hardaway had the most with seven while shooting 29.2 percent from the floor. Hardaway mentioned wanting to lead the Mavs' role players better to ensure everyone is doing what's needed to make it easier on Doncic and Irving.

"I just got to do a better job of leading our role players — outside of Kyrie [and] Luka — leading our guys to make sure we're doing our jobs and make sure that we make it easier for them," Hardaway said.

When the Mavs aren't receiving stable production from their complementary talents, it puts a lot of pressure on Irving to step up to be the one to alleviate pressure from Doncic. Irving had to pull off a lengthy scoring run — featuring scoring 10 of the team's points consecutively — to rally Dallas back from being down 24 points to cut the deficit to 13 in the fourth quarter. 

"All points count. That's the object of this game here. And the hardest thing to do in this league is score at a very high rate and especially do it," Irving said. "Back-to-back possessions, let alone one possession. I just tried to ease our pain tonight a little bit on that end, and shots were in and out."

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Irving, who averaged 27.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists on 50.0/46.7/100.0 shooting splits during the two-game road trip, stated that the effort to alleviate Doncic's pressure must come from more players than himself. The team's performance against the Clippers was flat, but valuable lessons can be learned from it as it reviews the game film and re-focuses ahead of a three-game homestand. 

"We took some tough ones, but alleviating the pressure can't just come from me," Irving said. "It's got to come from all the guys on the team. And again, we got our butts handed to us tonight, and we have to take this loss and continue to learn from it."

The Mavs have an opportunity to use homecourt advantage to get back on track offensively, beginning with a matchup against the Houston Rockets — the start of a three-game homestand.