Mavs Film Room: Breaking Down Powell's Impressive Game vs. Rockets

Dwight Powell posted huge numbers in the Dallas Mavericks' win over the Houston Rockets. How did it happen? Our DallasBasketball.com Mavs Film Room breaks it down.

The Houston Rockets had no answers for Dwight Powell in the Dallas Mavericks' 113-100 win on Friday. Powell racked up 22 points (8-9 FG) and 10 rebounds all before halftime. He finished the game with a career-high-tying 26 points.

Among the Rockets' biggest problems was their inability to contain the two-man game of Powell and Luka Doncic, which involved many well-timed lob passes. Houston's defense often left two defenders engaged directly on that duo to fend for themselves, and that was a bold-but-ineffective strategy to stick with.

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Dwight Powell vs. Rockets

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Dwight Powell Posts Up

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Dwight Powell & Luka Doncic

“I think Luka does a great job of reading the defenses, and obviously being such a scoring threat, he forces them into some tough decision-making situations,” Powell said. “He’s done a great job all year and his whole career of taking advantage of those situations.

“And tonight they were leaning heavily on him and he found ways to find us — and me especially early on — and gave me some good looks to start the game.”

The Rockets' strategy to defend the Doncic-Powell dribble handoff certainly does not rank among the better approaches the Mavericks have faced this season. In fact, without being hyperbolic, it may have been the worst of the season.

With the Rockets' defense staying home on Josh Green in the dunker's spot, and also staying attacked to Reggie Bullock on the weak-side wing after setting the down-screen, Sengun was left to fend for himself with Doncic and Powell to account for. 

The Mavericks came back the next possession with another Doncic-Powell handoff. Once again, the on-ball defender was forced to go over and Sengun had to account for Doncic before trying to recover back to Powell. K.J. Martin staying home on the dunker's spot, combined with a terrible tag attempt from Jalen Green, allowed Powell to get another free run at the rim for a lob.

The Rockets' defense continued to allow Doncic and Powell to operate with little resistance when they ran a high ball-screen later in the half. Opposing defenses have recently tried using the strong-side wing defender to aggressively stunt in order to force an early pick up (in addition to having the low-man tag to prevent a clean lob). 

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Trey Burke vs. Rockets

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Spencer Dinwiddie vs. Rockets

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Luka Doncic vs. Rockets

Instead, Martin, who is responsible for the strong-side wing, stands and watches the two-man game without making a stunt attempt. Kevin Porter Jr. (low man) also watches the play develop without making a tag. Without throwing off Doncic's timing even in the slightest, the big defender once again in a position where he has to account for Doncic and Powell by himself. 

When Spencer Dinwiddie connected with Powell on a ball screen later in the first half, Sengun worked to recover back to Powell before he could get a free run at the rim again. Powell managed to finish through Sengun's contact for another and-one in the paint. 

Whether it was Sengun or the Rockets' small ball lineup, Powell did a lot of damage on the offensive glass. He grabbed six offensive rebounds in the first half alone with three directly resulting in putbacks for himself. Granted, one of those makes was the result of cleaning up his own miss.

“The focus is just to play hard and kind of bounce back from our last performance that wasn’t great,” Powell said. “I’m just trying to play hard every night and take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.”

There was even a post-up Powell had against a smaller defender on the block. With the defender only engaging using his hands, Powell took full advantage by working his way closer to the basket before taking the right-handed hook-shot. If he can handle those situations with poise, that could be helpful for the Mavericks against switching teams. 

The Mavericks will be facing a drastically different matchup on Sunday when they take on the Boston Celtics. For starters, they are much better on the boards than the short-handed Rockets.

The Celtics are a switch-heavy defense when they go small and aggressively stunts in traditional ball screen coverages to force early pick ups by the ball handler. It will be fascinating to see if the Mavericks lean more on their dribble handoffs as opposed to high ball screens.