Klay Thompson is epically failing at one thing the Mavericks need most from him

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Denver Nuggets by a score of 123-120 in the NBA Emirates Cup Group C competition, as Dallas improves to 2-1 in the group stage of the in-season tournament. This was a resounding victory for the Mavericks, as Dallas has suffered in late-game scenarios recently. This game was in Dallas’ balance throughout most of the contest, until the Nuggets slowly came back throughout the second half. 

The Mavericks lost the lead for the first time in the game at the 5:34 mark of the fourth quarter on a Peyton Watson 3-pointer. Denver then built a five-point lead in the waning minutes of the game, but P.J. Washington scored nine points in the last 2:41 of the game and Dereck Lively II had two consecutive clutch blocks to help carry this one home for Dallas.

It’d be a disservice not to bring up Naji Marshall’s performance as well. The 26-year-old forward scored a career-high 26 points on an insanely efficient 11-15 from the field, as his in-between game and finishing ability was on full display against a lackluster rim protection team in the Nuggets.

The role players won this game for the Mavericks, and given the gravity of this contest with this being an in-season tournament game as well as a game that Luka Doncic missed due to injury, head coach Jason Kidd rightfully coined this game a "character game" in his post-game presser.

Klay Thompson needs to shoot the ball better, plain and simple

While this was a gutsy performance by Dallas’ role players, they needed more from their stars in this game, particularly in the case of Klay Thompson. Thompson went completely scoreless in this game and shot 0-8 from the field, as he was hard-pressed to see anything go in the basket all night.

Whether it was mid-range jump shots, or shots from beyond the arc, Thompson seemed like he could never fully get his legs underneath him on his shots. Thompson has definitely posted some duds recently, but he’s also quietly had some very prolific 3-point shooting games for the Mavericks as well.

It doesn’t seem like Dallas has fully cracked the code in terms of maximizing Thompson’s offensive potential on this team, as he’s had less plays drawn up from him recently despite Kidd attempting to get him more involved in the offense a little over a week ago.

Thompson’s struggles on offense are very concerning, as he’s been relatively poor as a finisher all season and hasn’t shot his mid-range shots at near as efficient of a clip as Mavericks fans would expect.

It seems Thompson’s struggles could stem from a culmination of Dallas’ coaching staff struggling to get Thompson more involved in the offense, lineups fluctuating due to injuries, and Thompson just flat out shooting poorly inside the arc, but Thompson has to be better offensively regardless of these factors.

Thompson did have four assists in this contest and played pretty solid on defense, but the Mavericks can’t expect to beat teams like the Nuggets when they are fully healthy if Thompson can’t find his rhythm on offense.

With Doncic obviously out of the lineup, perhaps Thompson’s lack of shot attempts in this game can be explained by the fact that Dallas found it tough to create a ton of 3-pointers in this game overall, as the lack of playmaking in the lineup led to only 27 3-point attempts on the evening. 

Couple that with Dallas’ game plan likely being curated to attack Denver’s weak frontline with Aaron Gordon out, and it’s understandable why Thompson may have not gotten a ton of looks in this game.

This obviously hasn’t been an individual occurrence though, and Thompson seems like he can’t put two good games together offensively as of recently, which could come back to bite the Mavericks in this Doncic-less stretch unless he starts to shoot better as a whole.