Mavericks' fatal flaw sealed by Luka Doncic trade ends nightmare season

Will Miller

Dallas Mavericks, Jason Kidd / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The Dallas Mavericks' season came to an end on Friday night, as the Mavericks dropped their second play-in game on the road to the Memphis Grizzlies by a score of 120-106. The Mavericks fought hard in the second half, but they looked lackadaisical coming out of the gates from a playmaking and shot creation perspective, as the Grizzlies gained all the momentum early because of Dallas turnovers.

There was a quiet optimism that the Mavericks could pull this one out heading into Friday night, as Ja Morant was questionable heading into the contest because of an ankle injury sustained in Memphis' first play-in game, but Morant looked great in the contest, and his dribble penetration destroyed Dallas all evening long. Anthony Davis stepped up for 40 points in this game, which was a Mavericks career-high for him, but Dallas' role players struggled to make shots from outside and Dallas' offense looked extremely clunk throughout points in this game, not to mention that Davis was hobbled with some sort of injury to close this game.

Yes, the Grizzlies had a good shooting game in this contest, but Dallas has built the principle of their team on defense, per GM Nico Harrison, so it was extremely unfortunate to see Dallas fall short of the playoffs in large part due to their lack of perimeter defense in this game. Things obviously could've looked vastly different at this point in the season for the Mavericks, but because of making the Luka Doncic trade in early February, the Mavericks have incurred the sad reality of being eliminated from playoff contention after just having made the Finals last season.

Mavericks' lack of shot creation hindered them from making playoffs

The biggest crutch preventing Dallas from making this game interesting was clearly their lack of shot creation. The Mavericks recently instilled trust in Brandon Williams by signing him to a multi-year deal ahead of the playoffs, and while Williams was able to push the pace of play and gave Dallas a true playmaker in the half-court when he was in the game, he simply didn't provide enough in this contest for the Mavericks to win granted he finished 1-5 from beyond the arc.

Williams has improved his outside shot vastly this season and was truly the only playmaker for the Mavericks against a more stringent Memphis defense, so clearly him having an off shooting night isn't close to the sole reason as to why Dallas fell short of making the playoffs. The main reason Dallas isn't a higher seed right now or couldn't make it out of the play-in is clearly because of making the Doncic trade in early February.

Doncic is a top-three player in the NBA when fully healthy, and he's a basketball savant on the offensive end, yet Harrison relinquished the opportunity for Doncic to try and help the Mavericks try and reach the Finals for the second year in a row by stupidly trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers. Kyrie Irving tore his ACL on March 3, and even though that was a one-off incident, the chance of injury prevention would've been drastically reduced had Irving not had to shovel an egregious workload and gotten to see Doncic return alongside him in the backcourt earlier this winter.

Harrison made an ill-advised decision, and now Mavericks fans are suffering in the worst of ways after some fans were clinging on to the feeble hope of Dallas getting to play the West's first-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round after Dallas won their first play-in game versus the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night. The Grizzlies are far and away a more complete team compared to the Kings, especially with Morant healthy, and they showed it on Friday night in the fashion they dominated Dallas on both ends.

The Mavericks struggled throughout multiple junctures in this game to create offense in the half-court, and this would've never been the case with Doncic in the lineup, even if Irving still sustained his ACL injury. The Mavericks now head into an offseason with far more questions than answers compared to anytime in franchise history, but fear not as we will have you covered with everything pertaining to the Mavericks throughout this entire offseason.

Will Miller

Will Miller is a senior contributor and is in his second year with The Smoking Cuban. Will has been following the Dallas Mavericks for over a decade and is currently working on getting a Bachelors in Science in Sports Journalism from the University of North Texas, as he is also covering sports for the North Texas TV station. While Will is opening up his coverage to cover other sports for UNT, basketball and the Dallas Mavericks are his true passion and he hopes to continue writing and producing Mavericks related content as his career continues. Will has very solid in-game analysis and knowledge about the intricacies of the game, and has a very broad understanding about the NBA as a whole. Going forward Will is looking to be more expansive in his coverage of the Mavericks beyond writing as well. Outside of writing about the Mavericks, Will enjoys hanging with friends, going to the gym, and watching other sports and live events.