Mavericks overtime loss to Lakers highlights important miscues

Defensive breakdowns

In both of the Mavs losses, there were too many plays where observers were left scratching their heads as to why the Mavs did what they did. I understand that this is a young team that is still growing, but some things are a little too common sense to be overlooked or brushed under the rug.

The worst thing the Mavs keep doing is not making the moves to force the ball out of the other team’s star player’s hands. When Dallas played Portland, CJ McCollum scored 35 and Damian Lillard dropped 28. Last night against the Lakers, LeBron had 39 and AD had 31. I realize these guys are stars and are going to get theirs, but the Mavs should still at least be making a conscious effort to make other players beat them.

Aside from that, the Mavs need to be better in the final minutes. This one was much more blatant against the Lakers, but there were issues against the Blazers too. On LeBron’s final drive and kick that sent the game to overtime, Dallas failed to foul with a three-point lead. That is basketball 101 at this point in the league and was absolutely something they needed to do that they didn’t.

In the postgame press conference with Rick Carlisle, he addressed that fact and said that the plan was to foul but it wasn’t executed.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Maxi Kleber came over to help the slashing LeBron in that same play. Kleber left his man to try and slow down LeBron’s attack at the rim, despite it being a three-point game with no time left on the clock. If Maxi doesn’t leave his man, he is in perfect position to stop Green from getting a clean look.

Little things like this may not seem important, but the common sense of it all is really the big issue here.

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