Mavs' Luka Doncic Blames Disappointing Season on Defense: 'Anybody Can Score On Us'

Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic isn't concerned about his fit with Kyrie Irving, but he did call out the team's consistently poor defensive execution.

DALLAS —  The Dallas Mavericks' have an underachieving record of 9-16 since Kyrie Irving was traded over from the Brooklyn Nets before the deadline. Because of this, a lot of the focus from many media outlets has been placed on the fit between the two superstars.

At times, there have been failures for the Mavs in clutch time when a clear lack of chemistry was on display in a pivotal moment. And obviously, untimely injuries have played a role in this season's disappointment as well. However, the team's porous defensive execution has been the most consistent issue, including shortcomings from Luka Doncic.

“I don’t think offense is the problem," Doncic said after Tuesday's practice. "I’ve always said this. It’s our defensive end. I think anybody can score on us. Whoever it is, anybody can score on us."

The Mavs have produced expected results when Doncic and Irving have shared the floor. Despite holding a 4-11 record in those 15 games where the star duo played together, Dallas produced a 117.3 offensive rating, a 114.3 defensive rating in the 410 total minutes they were on the court. Between injuries, a lack of defensive execution, and clutch shortcomings, the list of factors that has contributed to the Mavs' failures in this stretch run of the season is long. 

The Mavs have played in 19 clutch games since Irving made his debut with the team on Feb. 8 in what was an encouraging win against the LA Clippers without Doncic. While Doncic and Irving have each been in and out of the lineup since that point, the team has gone 5-14 in those 19 clutch games with a -6.7 net rating.  

Before trading Dorian Finney-Smith in part of the deal to acquire Irving from the Nets, there was already a clear decline in the Mavs' defensive execution this season compared to their Western Conference Finals run. It has declined even further, as they have produced a 118.0 defensive rating (23rd) since the NBA All-Star break. 

It's not difficult to see why the Mavs have struggled to execute defensively this season. Finney-Smith was the best option the team had as far as an on-ball defender and low-man, and not replacing him exacerbated the already existing issues. Even in the 1,288 minutes that Finney-Smith played, the Mavs produced a 115.0 defensive rating. Doncic took some of the blame for this. 

“I've been playing basketball for three straight years — four weeks in between it was free," Doncic said. "Sometimes it's really hard for me to play really hard on both ends. But obviously, the defensive end I gotta be way better.” 

With offense, there has to be actual foundational talent to produce a high-level unit, whether it's a dynamic rim protector, a help defender that communicates and makes low-man rotations, or a tenacious on-ball stopper. Right now, the Mavs have none of those types of talents. 

The Mavs have even experimented with deploying super-small lineups with Dwight Powell or Maxi Kleber at the five spot with four guards around them. As one might expect, that didn't manufacture sufficient production against NBA personnel. The lack of continuity and on-ball defensive impact has been on display for Dallas, and the lack of interior presence has been a liability as well. 

It wasn't until the second half of a recent home loss against the Charlotte Hornets that the Mavs had become more aggressive with switching everything while deploying smaller lineup combinations. Irving explained how not switching was a major adjustment from his time with the Nets and being a rotation-based team requires the Mavs to make extra plays after running shooters off the line. 

"I think that was probably the biggest adjustment coming here for me was going from a primarily switching team where we kept everything above the perimeter," Irving said. "We kicked each other out in the post up if anybody felt like there was a mismatch. And coming here, we're a very rotation-based team, and that just takes some time to get used to, you know, the drives the closeouts, and just where everybody's going to be on the extra plays that need to be made." 

"I think we do an unbelievable job of making the extra plays for one another, but doing it over and over again is taxing mentally and physically," Irving explained further. "We're in every single game we play in, and offense is not our issue. It's literally defensive mentality and getting stops."

Even when the Mavs went big by deploying two of Powell, Kleber, and Christian Wood, that didn't do the trick either. Against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, the Mavs did deploy Wood and JaVale McGee together, which proved to complicate the Hawks' ability to attack the paint with more size. However, such a pairing would need to be matchup based since they aren't a group that can swarm around the half-court. 

"The paint was crowded when they were in the game and made the guards on the other team," Irving said of playing McGee and Wood together more against the Hawks. "Dejounte [Murray] and Trae [Young] think twice about going in a few times. I feel like we got some great contests and we were just playing good on-ball defense and our switching was pretty good in that final two frames..."

There are too many limitations the Mavs face with the personnel they have to deploy for the remainder of this season to overcome their defensive shortcomings. They are genuinely incapable of covering up underwhelming defensive options, which is a concern for a team that overtaxed Doncic with a heavy offensive burden earlier this season. 

With a limited outlook to move draft picks coupled with having many bad contracts, the Mavs have a difficult offseason ahead as far as upgrading the roster around Doncic. The list of the priorities even includes not losing Kyrie Irving for nothing in free agency as they did Jalen Brunson last summer. 

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