Dallas Mavs Brace for Tough Back-to-Back vs. OKC Thunder: ‘We Have Our Hands Full’
Although the Dallas Mavericks were without superstar Luka Doncic and Sixth Man of the Year candidate Tim Hardaway Jr. on Friday night, the expectation was that they’d still find a way to get a win over a depleted Memphis Grizzlies squad with Kyrie Irving leading the way.
Things did not go that way at all, as Irving tweaked his foot in the first quarter, leading to an off scoring night where he finished with just 10 points on 3-15 shooting in the Mavs’ 108-94 loss to Memphis. Now, Dallas faces an extremely tall task of taking on a good and young team in the Oklahoma City Thunder on a second night of a back-to-back on Saturday.
"To get on to Oklahoma City, I've just got to figure out what it looks like for us,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said. “Fifty-five points out of the lineup can put you in harm's way. [The] next man up didn't quite work tonight but we're going to learn from that. This is a young group out there.
Kyrie Irving is swarmed by the Memphis Grizzlies’ defense with Luka Doncic being out.
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
“I give credit to Memphis. They played hard. No excuse. We just felt like the ball, we couldn't grab the rebound, we couldn't come up with loose balls. Our energy was flat. I don't know what other excuses I can give you. I will watch this and then I've got to figure out if this is the group that's playing tomorrow. I won't know until tomorrow what's happening."
Dallas is in fourth place in the Western Conference at 11-7, and OKC is third at 12-6, so the winner of Saturday’s game will have sole possession of third place due to owning the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Thunder have lost two of their last three games coming into American Airlines Center, but they have a 6-2 road record and a +8.5 point differential, which is the best margin in the West and second-best in the entire league behind only the Boston Celtics.
“They're a good team, they’re showing it night in and night out,” said Irving, who may or may not be suiting up on Saturday after playing 36 minutes against the Grizzlies while tweaking his foot.
“Their record is what it is, but they’re going to be a team that's going to be reckoned with in the Western Conference. [I’m] just looking forward to seeing them up close, not only Chet [Holmgren] but also SGA [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander). A few of those guys played in the summertime in the FIBA world games. They’re in great shape, they’ve got a great camaraderie around them, they play defense really hard. Offensively, you can tell they’re a juggernaut, so we’ll have our hands full tomorrow.”
If the Mavs are able to somehow pull this one off, especially if Luka Doncic is still out for personal reasons — he became a ‘girl dad’ on Friday — it would certainly be their best win of the young season.
