Mavericks quietly crack the complex code to shut down Victor Wembanyama

The Dallas Mavericks completed their first regular season contest on Thursday evening, as they dealt with the San Antonio Spurs handily by a score of 120-109. Klay Thompson led the way for Dallas with 22 points on 6-10 shooting from outside, as the 34-year-old veteran shut out the doubters who were saying his fit in Dallas wouldn’t work through his flurries of movement shooting and solid perimeter defense.

While we obviously can’t overreact because of one game against a Spurs team that isn’t projected to finish above .500, seeing how well Dallas’ defense played with all the new additions in their lineup was extremely encouraging. 

The Mavericks did an excellent job at containing second-year big man Victor Wembanyama, as they put pressure on him from a physical perspective and tried to trap him when he breached too far into the interior. Overall, Wembanyama finished with 17 points on an underwhelming 5-18 shooting line from the field. 

Lively II vastly outplayed Wembanyama once again

While alternating defenders and physicality were big reasons for Wembanyama’s offensive struggles, Dallas’ own second-year big man in Dereck Lively II was one of the biggest reasons the Mavericks did so well against Wembanyama.

Lively II played stout interior defense against Wembanyama and held his own when sliding his feet on the perimeter against the French standout as well. Not only did Lively II play tremendously when matched up one-on-one with Wembanyama as a defender, but he frankly outplayed Wembanyama in general in this contest.

Even though Lively II came off the bench in this game, both he and Wembanyama played 28 minutes in this contest, and Lively II was wildly more efficient across the board compared to his second-year big man counterpart on the other side of the ball.

Lively II was a monster on the glass all evening, as he finished with 11 rebounds in the game, with four of them being offensive boards. Lively II did a great job on putback attempts and was really solid at sealing defenders on switches to punish them at the rim with his catch-and-finish ability.

Lively II ran the floor well in transition and displayed an advanced level of playmaking for a center when it came to passing out of the short roll or finding shooters off of broken plays when he got an offensive rebound.

When it was all set and done, Lively II finished with an All-Star caliber stat line of 15 points on 6-8 shooting, 11 rebounds, six assists, and two blocks.

Heading into this contest, almost any non-Mavs fan would’ve picked Lively II to be the worst performer out of the two second-year centers that were going head-to-head, and Lively II undoubtedly outplayed Wembanyama on opening night for the second year in a row.

Lively II and Wembanyama are projected to have many more battles throughout their careers, but Lively II winning some of the first few is emblematic of just how immense his potential is for this Mavericks team.

Stopping Wembanyama outright will likely prove to be a tough challenge going forward as he continues to tap deeper into his skillset, but Lively II did just as good of a job as one could hope for when it came to that task on defense and is proving that he is far more versatile on offense than the average fan thinks he is. Lively II has performed well against Wembanyama several times, and he is quietly great at slowing him down and guarding him fearlessly.

If Lively II’s performance on Thursday evening wasn’t enough to warrant consideration from head coach Jason Kidd to be the full-time starting center, it’s only a matter of time before he takes firm grasp of that position, as Lively II appears to be in store for a special second season.