The Dallas Mavericks Are Struggling To Close Games

The Dallas Mavericks can’t close games. Saturday night, Dallas saw a 16-point lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder with 5:41 to play in the fourth quarter evaporate before their eyes. The Mavericks lost in overtime, 117-111

A similar scenario has played out this season in Dallas’s three losses. They build a lead, take their foot off the gas and find a way to cough up games. If the Mavericks cannot develop a closing instinct soon, they will continue to squander away opportunities.

“You just look at [how] we got great opportunities, but we’re just missing shots,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said after the Thunder loss. “We’re not playing any defense, and that’s a big part of our problem. No matter who is closing the game, if you don’t get stops or if you just let the ball drive, and if you don’t protect the paint, it’s hard in this league.”

Kidd went with a lineup of Luka Doncic, Spencer Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock, Dorian Finney-Smith and Christian Wood for the final 3:42 of the fourth quarter. Coming into the game, Wood, who Kidd is determined to keep in a Sixth Man role, had only played eight minutes with this group.

Despite a small sample size, in those eight minutes, the lineup had an offensive rating of 138.9 and a defensive rating of 100. Those numbers didn’t translate against Oklahoma City as the Thunder closed the final minutes of the fourth quarter on a 17-2. Kidd wasn’t impressed with the outcome.

“We didn’t go with Timmy [Hardaway Jr.] tonight. We left C-Wood out there with that group, and it didn’t go well on either end, and that’s something we got to be better at. I think we worry about offense, but we took command of that game, and with six minutes left, it started to go the other way. We just didn’t finish.”

The lineup that closed the game has now played 12 minutes together this season and has an offensive rating of 103.8 and a defensive rating of 134.8. Kidd quickly pointed out that playing Wood in the losing lineup didn’t work, but Wood wasn’t the only problem for Dallas.

Despite stuffing the box score with his second consecutive triple-double, notching 31 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, Luka Doncic played poorly. After turning in some quality defensive performances this season, Doncic appeared checked out on that side of the ball.

However, he still had an opportunity to win the game in regulation but missed the 17-foot fadeaway jumper. He finished the night, fouling out in overtime, with a plus-minus of minus-25. He was on the floor for the entire Thunder run to tie the game in the fourth and take the lead in overtime.

“It’s on me,” Doncic said. “I didn’t lead the team. I didn’t make shots. That game’s on me. I didn’t do what [was] needed to do to win.”

Losing close games this early is becoming a disturbing trend. The Thunder aren’t pushovers, having beaten the Los Angeles Clippers twice a week, but they aren’t contenders. Neither are the New Orleans Pelicans when Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones. Still, the undermanned Pelicans similarly knocked off the Mavericks.

Even the loss to open the season against the Phoenix Suns was terrible. While the Suns look primed to return to the postseason, the Mavericks led for 41 minutes and choked up a 22-point lead.

If there is one late-game success Dallas can look to, it’s their 129-125 overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets. While the Mavericks shouldn’t have let the game get to overtime, they were able to assert themselves in the extra frame and find a way to win.

The season is still young, and it’s clear that Kidd is still tinkering with the lineups, working from his script to see what does and doesn’t work. But sooner rather than later, he will have to put together a product on the floor that can build and hold leads rather than consistently throw them away.

“When you look at early in the season, we have had leads in the fourth, and we give them away,” Kidd said. “It’s something we got to look at. We look at a different lineup closing the game; it just didn’t go well.”