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00:00 How's it going y'all?
00:02 It's Dalton Trigg, Editor-in-Chief, DallasBasketball.com.
00:05 The Dallas Mavericks lost their second game of the season on Wednesday night
00:11 against a tough defensive-minded Toronto Raptors team.
00:14 Final score ended up being 127 to 116.
00:18 The Toronto Raptors came into that game with the sixth worst offense in the NBA.
00:25 Certainly didn't look like it at American Airlines Center.
00:29 So they put up 127 points.
00:31 Pascal Siakam, who we have discussed as being a Mavs trade option going forward
00:37 because he's on an expiring contract and
00:39 could potentially leave the Raptors with nothing this next summer.
00:44 He had a season high 31 points shooting 15 of 25.
00:50 Luka Doncic did his thing with 31 points,
00:54 seven rebounds, eight assists, and even had four steals.
00:58 But Toronto's length on defense really gave him problems.
01:02 He only shot 11 of 26 from the field and two of ten from three.
01:08 And then Kyrie Irving, he shot a little bit better.
01:12 It wasn't too much better though, eight of 19 from the field.
01:15 And he finished with 22 points and five assists.
01:20 And then Derrick Jones Jr., he has been one of the major bright spots for
01:24 the Mavs in the early goings of this season with his high energy and
01:28 his highlight dunks and his perimeter defense.
01:32 He finished with 15 points and was a plus 11 in just 29 minutes as a starter.
01:39 Also had five rebounds and shot six of eight from the field.
01:42 Off the bench, Tim Hardaway Jr.
01:45 continued his sixth man of the year candidacy with 17 points off the bench.
01:52 Shot six of 11 overall, five of nine from three.
01:56 The biggest three takeaways from this game though, in my opinion,
02:01 aside from the obvious with Derrick Lively being out and
02:06 the Mavs getting killed on the boards and in the paint.
02:10 They lost the rebounding battle 50 to 38 and
02:13 the paint points battle 72 to 40, which is atrocious.
02:19 But that was to be expected with rookie big man starting center,
02:24 Derrick Lively being out with an illness on Wednesday.
02:27 But aside from that, the three biggest takeaways from this game were first and
02:33 foremost, like I said, Toronto's length, giving Luka issues.
02:37 They've been a bad matchup for Luka.
02:40 Since he came into the league, he's had a few games where he's gone off on them and
02:45 even had 31 points in his last one.
02:46 But the efficiency just isn't where you need it to be.
02:50 11 of 26, that's not gonna get it done on most nights.
02:55 So that's one thing I took away from it is the Raptors are just a bad matchup for
03:00 Luka.
03:01 Everybody on that team is rangy and big.
03:06 I mean, it's just a big roster.
03:07 So we knew they were good defensively.
03:10 We weren't expecting that Toronto team to put up 127 points.
03:14 But I guess when you're without your defensive anchor,
03:18 it should have probably been expected with this Mavs defense.
03:24 But that was first big takeaway.
03:25 Second big takeaway, Josh Green let the Mavs down, and
03:30 he has to be better going forward.
03:32 He's coming off a three year $41 million contract extension.
03:36 And he's not expected to be a star player, but
03:42 he's expected to be a consistent difference maker off the bench at the very least.
03:48 And he just didn't have it last night.
03:50 He didn't have a plan.
03:52 He only had three points, shot one of three from the field in 18 minutes.
03:56 And in those 18 minutes, he was a team worse, -21 in the box score plus minus.
04:03 Just can't happen, just can't happen.
04:06 Josh Green has got to be better for this Mavs team to reach its ceiling.
04:10 And that is not what they gave him that contract extension for
04:15 what he showed Wednesday night.
04:17 So he has to be better.
04:18 And the third thing is, it's time for
04:20 the Mavs to accept that Maxi Kleba isn't the player he used to be.
04:25 He's a homegrown talent.
04:29 He's a fan favorite, comes from the same part of the world as Dirk does,
04:35 Wurzburg, Germany, he's been a key piece to this Mavs roster for so long.
04:41 Been such a good role player, but it is just hard for
04:45 a guy to come back from a hamstring tear in his 30s.
04:49 And he just doesn't have it anymore.
04:52 And maybe that changes throughout the course of this season and
04:54 it proves me wrong.
04:55 But it's kinda like last season when we figured that Reggie Bullock was over
05:00 the hill, so to speak, with his NBA play.
05:03 And then they ended up trading him.
05:05 But last night, Kleba, 15 minutes, didn't have one field goal attempt.
05:09 There was one part where he actually had a wide open three from the top
05:17 of the key there and he just passed it off to Tim Hardaway Jr.
05:21 It ended up being a turnover.
05:23 Just not confident at all, only had four points and
05:26 they came from the free throw line.
05:28 He missed his other four free throw attempts and
05:31 he was a negative seven on the night.
05:32 So Kleba, not high on him.
05:36 The Mavs are gonna have to probably make a trade to address their
05:41 big man depth if they want to take the next step as far as being not
05:46 just a playoff contender, but potentially a title contender.
05:50 So that was it.
05:53 127 Raptors, 116 Mavs.
05:56 The Mavs will try to bounce back in their second in-season tournament game
06:00 that comes here on Friday when the Mavs take on the James Harden
06:06 Los Angeles Clippers at AAC before they go on a four game
06:11 road trip that starts in New Orleans on Sunday.
06:14 Thanks, y'all.