3 Studs, 2 duds from Mavericks' 132-125 loss to Bucks

The Dallas Mavericks fell to the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night on the first night of a back-to-back. Dallas was coming off a blowout victory in Washington where they were able to ride the coattails of another red-hot shooting night, but that wasn’t expected to be the case last night against Milwaukee.

Dallas relied heavily upon the offensive production from Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and the Mavericks' second-half defense put them in an extremely difficult position to stop the stampede that was Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Mavericks fought hard against a very stout opponent, but the 9-4 Bucks weren’t even completely healthy as they were missing key players in Khris Middleton and Marjon Beauchamp.

3 Studs, 2 duds from Mavericks' 132-125 loss to Bucks

Kyrie Irving offered his thoughts on how Dallas can improve against some of the more elite teams in the league after the game last night, as they’ve struggled much heavier in their losses to Denver and Milwaukee virtually more so than any other games this year.

"What I learned from tonight and even in Denver is just that we still have to mature as a team and continue to find that consistency that we talk about daily. And that's just doing the little things and settling into our roles, and night-to-night, it could be different people finishing the game in different lineups. We just got to be prepared. Teams are going to throw their best at us. We saw that tonight against Milwaukee, you see that against other teams. But when you play against the top teams in the league, you can really use that measuring stick to propel yourself moving forward and gather all the mistakes and attack them and then move forward."

Kyrie Irving

Nonetheless, here are three studs, and two duds from Mavericks' 125-132 loss to the Bucks.

Honorable Mention: Tim Hardaway Jr.

Tim Hardaway Jr. continued to forward his case to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in the Mavericks loss to Milwaukee last night. Hardaway Jr. was the source of much of the Mavericks' offense, especially in the first half where his shooting bailed the Mavericks out of some particularly rough droughts.

Hardaway Jr. finished with 17 points and canned four out of 10 shots from beyond the arc, as he cooled off a little bit in the fourth quarter. Hardaway Jr. is showing great consistency in Dallas which is encouraging, as his once-bad games in Dallas are turning into average games for him. Hardaway Jr. had a few rough defensive possessions last night, but barring that he played pretty well. If Hardaway Jr. continues to play this well, the Mavericks will find it much harder to part ways with him in a trade.

5. Stud - Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic did an incredible job of getting to his spots last night, as he served the Milwaukee Bucks 35 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists on 15-26 shooting efficiency from the field.

Doncic did a great job of taking advantage of the Bucks playing drop coverage, as he was torching the likes of Pat Connaughton, Andre Jackson Jr., and Malik Beasley when they guarded him one-on-one. Doncic was extremely savvy in his approach last night as he did a great job of operating within the in-between area so Bucks center Brook Lopez couldn't use his elite shot-blocking ability on him.

When Doncic and Kyrie Irving get favorable one-on-one matchups, the Mavericks have to do their best to capitalize defensively because more likely than not offense won't be an issue in those instances. Unfortunately, Dallas wasn't able to do that last night as they conceded 17 made 3-pointers. Doncic was objectively a part of the Mavericks' perimeter defense woes last night, but other than that he did everything he needed and more for the Mavericks to win last night.

Doncic got to the rim and mid-range area with ease and did a great job of finding the open man when Milwaukee showed some late doubles. It was nice to see Doncic play more of a balanced game, as he's been settling for a lot of three-pointers recently.

His increased 3-point attempts have been warranted, but teams have been hedging and recovering hard on ball screens as a means to try and take Doncic's signature step-back away more recently, so it was great to see him make the proper adjustments last night.

If Doncic continues to push the pace of play like he did last night and has throughout other junctures this season, the Mavericks will be extremely tough to beat when their role players are dialed in.

4. Dud - Josh Green

After a promising 2022-23 season, Josh Green has looked pretty dull offensively early on for Dallas to start the season. Green shot just three field goals last night in just a smidge under 20 minutes.

It’s hard to diagnose exactly what is leading to Green’s struggles on offense, but general confidence might be part of the issue. Green has attempted just 10 field goals over the past three games, and his willingness to take advantage of offensive opportunities seems to fluctuate on a game-by-game basis.

Green had a few opportunities to try and showcase his dribble-drive ability in one-on-one scenarios as well as in fast-break situations last night, but the newly extended 23-year-old guard played pretty reserved offensively.

Green also had another so-so-defensive game, as he continued to show some good intensity on-ball, but also showed an equal amount of errors on defense where he was lackadaisical off-ball or was too reactive when defending head-up.

Green finished the game with a -27 on the night, and despite single-game plus/minus not necessarily being the optimal stat to tell the whole story of how well a player fared, it was pretty emblematic of how Green impacted the game in his 19 minutes and 44 seconds last night. Green is going to need to return to form soon, as he’s only had four games where he has scored more than seven points through 13 contests for Dallas.

Mavericks fans haven’t been keen on Green’s performance to start the season, and have already been piling up receipts after Green was poised for a potential breakout season.

Green still has plenty of time to turn things around in Dallas, but at this current rate, Dallas may opt to play Dante Exum more in Green’s role as he’s shown much more dynamism on offense. If Green’s role in Dallas becomes diminished then the Mavericks could very well look to trade him en route to bolstering their depth elsewhere, so we’ll continue to closely monitor how Green continues to play.

3. Stud - Grant Williams

When the Dallas Mavericks pulled off a sign-and-trade for Grant Williams over the summer, they knew his Eastern Conference Playoff experience would come in handy at some point. Williams had arguably the best game of his career versus the Bucks when he scored 27 points and made seven 3-pointers in the Celtics' game seven victory in the 2022 Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Williams continued to have the Bucks number as a member of the Dallas Mavericks last night as well, as he accumulated 14 points and seven rebounds on five of 10 shooting from the field. Williams was the primary defense on Giannis Antetokounmpo, as he has notoriously been a pretty stout defender against him.

Williams did a good job of using his strength against Antetokounmpo to force him in to some tough attempts and passes when he was operating inside the parameters of the three-point line, but Williams still fell victim to Antetokounmpo plenty of times as he just didn’t have the athleticism to keep up with the “Greek Freak” on the perimeter at times.

Mavericks rookie center Dereck Lively II was matched up with Antetokounmpo plenty of times and bared the same result, as Antetokounmpo finished with 40 points on 18 of 26 shooting efficiency from the field. However, the referees were noticeably inconsistent with some fouls that were called against Dallas and subsequently not called for them on the other end, so they didn’t make things any easier for Williams in regard to defending Antetokounmpo.

Williams still missed some key shots late in the game, but he’s making all the right plays on offense and is starting to establish himself as a decent rebounding presence as of late. He’s showing a little more versatility on offense than expected and will need to continue to be a pillar of consistency in Dallas, as he’s arguably been the most important role player on the team because of his 3-and-D ability.

2. Dud - Derrick Jones Jr.

Arguably the most surprising success story to start the season in Dallas has been that of Derrick Jones Jr. After Jones Jr. signed a minimum contract with Dallas in August, most expected him to have a fringe role off the bench even though there was some underlying noise that he could potentially be a starter.

Jones Jr. has defied all expectations, as he’s benefiting from the spacing provided in the starting lineup from Doncic and Irving en route to possibly the best offensive season of his career. Jones Jr. unfortunately struggled immensely on offense last night though, as he looked unconfident when attacking closeouts and couldn’t see the ball fall through the rim whatsoever.

He posted a 0-8 shooting performance from the field in 19 minutes, but luckily it seemed as if Jones Jr. simply just had a really off game coming off of two days rest. Jones Jr. still clashed the glass really hard as he finished with eight rebounds, and he did a pretty good job at defending Damian Lillard at the point-of-attack when he was matched up with him.

Lillard didn’t get it going too heavily until the fourth quarter, and Jones Jr. didn’t play in the Mavericks closing lineup as head coach Jason Kidd elected to stick with Tim Hardaway Jr. instead because of how he was shooting the ball throughout the game. Jones Jr. did an excellent job at navigating through screens to stay with Lillard when he was in, but when switched onto Giannis Antetokounmpo he suffered the same fate as most other Mavericks defenders last night.

Jones Jr. has proved to be a valuable piece because of his rebounding and defense. His effort has been there on there on the defensive end even in a few games where Jones Jr. had some duds on offense. Jones Jr. has showcased a new level of versatility in Dallas, so we’ll continue to see how far it goes even if there may be some inevitable growing pains offensively sometimes.

1. Stud - Kyrie Irving

After scoring 39 points, with 33 of them coming in the second half, Kyrie Irving chose to speak candidly about his defensive mistakes late in the game against Pat Connaughton and how that adversely affected the Mavericks.

"Connaughton hit a big three in the corner on me in the fourth quarter, and I don't want to put the blame all on me, but I have to take accountability for just my mistakes that I made on the defensive end. To put us in a better position all-around team game defensively. You just have to be better."

Kyrie Irving

Irving’s performance on the court last night was impressive enough, but even more impressive is how much of a selfless and accountable teammate he is proving to be in Dallas. The Mavericks have sorely needed someone of Irving’s pedigree to be a leader, especially as Doncic is just starting to become a vocal leader in Dallas. It gets even better since Irving is finally starting to catch stride this season.

Irving did an excellent job of taking advantage of the Bucks’ drop coverage with Brook Lopez in the middle just as Doncic did last night, as he continually snaked pick-and-rolls and maneuvered delicately through the defense via off-ball screens to make himself available for layups and mid-range jump shots.

Irving did a great job of playmaking once again last night as well and continues to show the dynamism that can be provided offensively when the Mavericks use him and Doncic in direct screening actions between each other.

As Irving referenced, he did have a few times where he got caught ball-watching and couldn’t make a good enough close-out on the likes of Connaughton or Malik Beasley, but Irving played solid defense as per usual last night barring when he wasn’t extremely out-sized on a bad switch.

Irving has been playing extremely well in all facets of the game, but when he’s cooking like he did last night it makes the Mavericks extremely tough to beat. Unfortunately, Irving got off to a pretty rough start and still only made three out of 10 shots from downtown despite how well he was getting to the rim last night.

Irving will need to work on getting out to better starts undoubtedly, as it puts the Mavericks in a precarious position against elite teams when only one of Doncic or Irving is hitting, but Irving certainly did more than enough to mend his first-half woes last night and wasn’t the primary reason Dallas fell whatsoever.

Irving and the Mavericks take on the Sacramento Kings tonight on the second night of a back-to-back, so stay tuned as we’ll have you covered with post-game coverage.