Timberwolves 116 Mavericks 108: Game 6 Review

The old joke was that the team name was the Allas Mavericks but because they had no D. During the Don Nelson era of Mavericks basketball the team was frequently a high-scoring squad who won games on offense but struggled at the other end of the court. Avery Johnson began to change things when he became coach and the defensive change culminated in  the winning of the 2011 championship by playing at times shutdown defense on Lebron James and a potent Miami squad.

That Mavericks defense unfortunately is a thing of the past as Dallas struggles again to stop one of the NBA's better offenses falling 116-108 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Mavs had no answer for Kevin Love who dominated the game from the start at finished with a spectacular 32 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists. The Mavs also couldn't keep Kevin Martin in check, who also finished with 32. Minnesota dominated on the offensive glass, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds that led to numerous second chance points.
The Mavericks 108 points and 49% shooting should have been enough to win but it wasn't. Dallas' strongest offensive performance came from Jose Calderon who had 21 points and 6-8 on threes. Monta Ellis had 23 points but shot only 9-24 from the floor. Dirk was pretty quiet as he finished with only 14 points, attempting only 11 shots from the field.
The Mavericks were able to keep it close throughout and even lead by one at halftime, by their dominance in the battle of the benches. They outscored Minnesota's second unit 36-14 and got strong games from Jae Crowder, DeJuan Blair and Gal Mekel. Unfortunately the Mavs starters were dominated by the Wolves starters, which besides the standout showings from Love and Martin, also included strong outings from  Corey Brewer and Nikola Pekovic who scored 17 and 15 respectively.
It is now on to Milwaukee tomorrow night as the Mavs will still look for their first road win of the season. They should be able to defeat a mediocre Bucks team but they will have to show better on the defensive end. We know the defensive personnel isn't great. Besides Shawn Marion there aren't a lot of stoppers on the roster. If the defense is to improve as it must, it will have to be a group effort. The Mavs need 5 guys out on the court committed to getting stops, so far through 6 games the stops have been few and far away.

Team Leaders
Points: Ellis, 23
Rebounds: Blair, 9
Assists: Calderon, 7
Player of the Game: Calderon

Quote of Note: ''We couldn't get a stop. But it wasn't just the last three or four minutes, it was kind of the full fourth quarter we were just trading baskets with them. We couldn't get two in a row or three in a row.'' Jose Calderon

Next Up: The Mavericks (3-3) finish off their three game road trip in Milwaukee as they look for that elusive road win against the 2-2 Bucks at 7:30.