Mavs SURVIVE Injury CHAOS—Anthony Davis Return? | Dwight Powell’s MVP Night | Cooper Flagg’s Bounce

Mavs SURVIVE Injury CHAOS—Anthony Davis Return? | Dwight Powell’s MVP Night | Cooper Flagg’s Bounce

On today’s show, sometimes the season is not all about winning and losing, but the Mavs did get a win, and I’ll tell you why. It was important for them on today’s Locked on Mavs. This is Cooper Flag, and you’re listening to Locked on Mavs. All these changes, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal. Still locked on your daily Dallas Mavericks podcast of the locked on podcast network your team every day. I’m going to get a city right back and welcome. You’re locked on the Dallas Mavericks your team every day. My name is Nick Angstead medium member coming to the M for 10 years. Thanks for reading every day or making lock on maps your first listen each and every day and making lock on podcast network the number one sports podcast network out there. Appreciate you for checking out the show. Joining me as always, the postgame prodigy for the great Sly Bias YouTube channel. What you got, Sly Bias? Uh, hilarious early season basketball game. That felt like a a mid-March game to me. It really did. It absolutely did. Today’s episode, we’re going to get into that weird that weird game. We’ll talk about Cooper Black. I thought he bounced back really well. I thought that that was uh they played him in a bunch of different positions, so we got some good stuff to talk about with him. We’ll talk about Brandon Williams obviously the day after his arrest Brandon Williams falling out here in the AAC and then Dwight Powell MVP chance just incredible theater incredible fan moment incredible moment for Dwight Powell and the Mavs and all that. But I want to start here slightly because sometimes games are not about who wins and who loses. It’s about who somebody else loses and who the team loses. And Anthony Davis was probable coming into this game with some kind of Achilles issue. And he starts the game saying, “Okay.” He plays, you’re like, “Okay.” And then he goes up for a shot. He comes down. He kind of lands a little awkwardly. He starts limping up the court. Then he takes himself out of the game. He sits down on the scorers table. And then they call a timeout. He leaves the game. They’re they’re, you know, he’s sitting there holding his achil. He’s holding his leg, holding the front of his leg, all that. And then he goes back to the locker room. He’s officially listed as questionable and then then they officially rule him out. He doesn’t come back for the second half and that’s that. Anthony Davis shows just shows me how much this se this season this Mavs team is a house of cards. Like if Anthony Davis goes out all of a sudden all the things we said about the Mavericks about how competitive they can be about how they could be a playoff team about how all these things it all depends on him and we’ve talked about him a lot. We’ve been hard on him the beginning of the season a lot, but a lot of things depend on him. And if he’s out for an extended period of time, that’s a big thing for the Dallas Mavericks. But Jason Kid said he wanted to come back in the game afterwards and so slightly maybe he’s going to be okay and maybe they avoided a a thing. AD does do the Luca boooo injuries that I used to talk about a lot where it would look like Luca’s season was over and then he would come back into the game or he would be back the next game or whatever. AD does have some of those like that. He was already dealing with an Achilles issue. So, I’m fine with them not risking it, especially against this Indiana team that they could have beat without him and ended up did beating without him. And so, I’m okay with them not risking it to come back, but it just to me showed how much of a house of cards this whole season is. And it didn’t help that Lively and Gaffer were both out, too. And that was a big deal. But Anthony Davis’s injury seems like they avoided a scare for now. Yeah, I mean, it’s it is we’re five games into the season and there was already like Dwight Pal closing minutes. So, um, Dwight Pal, Jaden Hardy in the first quarter. Yeah, but I mean like Dwight Pal closing minutes because all of your other bigs are injured. Like that’s where we’re already at. And that kind of throws a wrench unless you’re someone who’s just like, “Oh, I don’t care. I just want to tank the season and blow it up.” But that kind of throws a wrench in the we got to trade one of these guys thing cuz it’s like, well, Derek Lively now, guess what? I’m super concerned. Second game he’s missed in a row with a knee brain. Who knows what that means? Well, this team never gives us a timeline for any of this. This could be a multi-week thing. Like knee sprains are multi-week long injuries and it was a contusion and then it turned into a sprain. So, which was it? Did it become that? Did like That’s another thing that I’m just concerned about is we’re never told anything correct. It seems like everything either changes, timelines lengthen, or I mean I don’t know. It’s It’s insane. Yeah. I mean, this is somebody who’s like barely played in half of the games of his career in the regular season. So, I’m worried about Dive for sure. Um, and then also I’m Is Ga is this the most like serious mild to low ankle sprain that we’ve ever seen? At least for Gaffford and for Lively. They both had shoes on during during shoot around today. They’re both doubtful. I think they probably could have played like one of them could have played. I think Gaff could have played if if it was if it really came down to it. But it he has been out over five weeks now. So I have to say this is a month-long twoe ankle injury. Yeah, it was supposed to be out three to four weeks and now this is over five weeks that he’s been out. So I thought it was two to three. I remember three to four. I remember two to two to four maybe it was. Okay, cuz I remember looking at four weeks and being four weeks was exactly was the start of the season. Yeah. So that’s true. I think you might be right. But here we are. And you know what? They avoided that injury scare with AD. And so I’m going to I’m just going to hold on to it and say, “All right, well, maybe they they avoided that and let’s let’s hold on to the good the good things, the good feelings, because the rest of this is going to be good feelings because the Mavericks had nothing. It seemed like it the Mavericks offense has been struggling. The the size that was supposed to be the Mav’s big strength was all gone with AD out of the game with Lively with Gaffford out as well. They started to play Cooper Flag at the five. They played PJ at the five. They obviously threw Dwight in there. And I I guess I’ll start with Dwight Pal because man, Dwight Pal 18.6 six boards, couple of blocks at the rim. His hustle immediately jumped off him, jumped off the the charts to me where you just saw him get in there. It was nice to see a center jump again. It was nice to see Dwight get in there and uh grab some, you know, some loose balls and do things like that. He was a game changer in in this one. It was wild to see Dwight Pal make such a big impact against this Pacers team. And I will say that the Pacers were super injured, too. More injured than the Mavericks probably in this one. It was basically Pascal Seakum, Aaron Nith, Ben Shepard, and nobody else. Honestly, I I would argue that well with with AD out then then yeah, the Mavs are the Mavs. I was I was thinking the same thing, but then I was looking I was like, well, the Mavs are missing like almost they’re they’re two best players for sure now. For sure. And now your two other centers like they’re also dealing with a ton of injuries. So, I want to say this real quick about AD like I hope it’s nothing serious. I hope he’s back soon. And I hope he avoided major injury. He didn’t ask to come here. He didn’t make the trade himself. I’ve seen some some tweets and stuff. Like it’s a human being, man. Like I I know I know frustrations are high and everything, but like I would say tone down a little tiny bit. Some of the stuff I see is just a little ridiculous. But anyways, uh yeah, Dwight Pal, it’s a carryover from the from the preseason because he looked really good in the pre he did like it was like wow, Dwight Pal looks like great physically like this is some of the best he’s looked from just like an athletic standpoint in years. He his was an Achilles forever or was it or is it an ACL? Because Achilles Achilles it was probably it’s probably the springiest I’ve seen since his Achilles injury. Yeah. And I mean he gave some fantastic minutes tonight. Like uh single game plus minus can be really wonky. Like flag was a minus seven tonight which was the worst on the team. Like that there’s no that doesn’t pass the eye test whatsoever. But Dwight Pal being a plus 12 does absolutely passed the eye test. I mean he he was great. Uh just gives him a bit of a different He’s just such a smart player. Like he’s in the right spot at the right times. He’s a fantastic role man. Uh like roll guy roll to the pick and roll roll guy. Yeah. uh and just makes good passes off of those short rolls. Just a good decision maker, you know. Uh him being a fantastic pick and roll guy like predated Luca. Like obviously Luca got a lot out of him, a ton out of him. But this is who Dwight Pal’s always been. So good to see. Obviously hopefully these bigs come back so you don’t need this from Dwight every night. Again, this was a very depleted Pacers team, but um I mean Dwight Pal getting MVP chance at the free throw line. Like c can we just iso out this for a minute? Sometimes sports are just fun. Sometimes you just got to go to an arena and have a fun moment like that where you’re chanting MVP for the 15th man on the on the roster who comes out and has a great game who’s been with the franchise longer than literally everybody in the organization. Like not literally but almost everybody in the organization. The owner, the GM, the coach, all the players of the team and everybody. He’s been here longer. He’s been here since he Dwight Bal predates me covering this team. He started he was traded in 2013. I started covering the team in 2015. Dwight Pal predates so many of us that have been covering or around this team. Maybe some of you fans. There may be a fan listening. There have been fans that have come up that are younger than Dwight Pal’s career with the Dallas Mavericks. That may be you at this point. And it sometimes is just fun to have an MVP moment where just anything in sports can happen. It’s the reason why you play the games. go out there, you roll the ball out so you can have some fun, see what happens and some maybe a Dwight Pal goes off for 18 in a game like and that’s incredible. And if I’m the Pacers, I’m devastated about this loss right now. You think so? If I’m the Pacers, they got they got their pick. They’ll be all right. But I’m about to say I’m in clearcut tank mode at this point. But uh I I mean it’s it sound it it seems like the most fun the fans have had since the trade, which is sad to say, but the Cougar flag dunk over Mamo Keselli in the Raptors game was the most fun I’ve heard, but this was this was this is like the most silly fun for sure. Yeah, this was more of the most like, man, whatever. We’re here enjoying it. Like that was more of a tensionbreaking like, oh, we’re finally going to win a game. This was more just like a, you know, yeah, we paid money to come here. Let’s enjoy our experience to the most. Oh man. So, Dwight Val, shout out to him. Shout out to Anthony Davis. Hopefully avoiding the inj the big injury scare, but we’ll see in the coming days. The Mavs now have two days off and they travel to Mexico City for a Saturday late game. That’s like a 900 p.m. start. So, uh slightly get a nap in before on Saturday. I won’t be here. Oh, you’re out. Yeah. Going to touch grass, believe it or not. Mexican grass. No, I wish. That’d be cool. I thought about going, too. So, but anyway, we’ll have a show of a postgame show for you there and we’ll see what Anthony Davis’s status is for that game. I doubt he plays, but we’ll see what happens. So, coming up, let’s talk about Cooper Flag. The Mavs used him in different ways tonight. He showed some other stuff tonight. And there’s one thing about his game that I’m excited about. We’ll talk about that more coming up. Today’s episode of Lock Time Apps brought to you by our friends over at Pelaton. Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness in different ways. 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So, let yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Pelaton crossraining tread plus today at oneplaton.com. It’s the word one o nepelaton.com. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out with this unlocked mass, being part of the show, part of the raccoon squad. That’s what we call our listeners. listening every day. Shout out to everybody that I saw today that gave me a fist bump and said, “Raccoon Squad.” Still hilarious thing to say to somebody in person. And uh if you are come to a Mavericks game at any point, come to section 103. I’m hanging out here and we’ll uh we’ll chat it up. And no, Slightly is not in the building, but someone did come up to me today and say, you know, I know Slightly is not here tonight, but I feel like he is here tonight in spirit. He’s here. I’m always there lurking in the shadows. I I imagine you walking the catwalk just like pacing back and forth just like up there in the rafters like walking the catwalk just making sure it never leaks in in in this building again. That would be hilarious. I want to talk about Cooper. I want to talk about Cooper Flag because I always want to talk about Cooper Flag. But that might be We’re probably only a month or two away from that being the only thing to talk about. 15 points, 10 rebounds, another double double, four assists. He had a block. He only had two turnovers. Six of 11 from the field. hit all three of his free throws, played 35 minutes, was in the closing lineup and all that, made some good decisions obviously. And you know what I was most excited about? I thought he played some really good defense on Pascal Seakkum. And like that’s the part of his game where if you want to go so far as to say Nico’s vision, Nico’s vision, he wants these two-way guys. He wants guys that can defend on one end and can make plays on the other end. And I think we saw Cooper Flag show some of that potential tonight. Yeah, I mean this was in my opinion from start to finish and still some, you know, rocky moments. 18 years old start to finish. One of the best or the best Cooper flag game we’ve gotten and it was the best and I think he’s been good defensively every game he’s played really but this was the best defensive game. But I think this was where you saw the like, okay, there’s the all defense, there’s the hey, in a world where uh Victor Wyama doesn’t exist, is there like a DPI upside here? Cuz uh I mean he guarded two Dpi, the second best defensive player. They might have to do that. They might have to make that an award. But uh yeah, I mean it it was uh you know, we saw the the rim protection, the weak side rim protection, the the times where they were small and he was the low man protecting the rim. Uh guarding Pascal Seakum, a really difficult guy to guard and a difficult guy to guard without fouling. He did a great job uh did a great job rotating out the shooters. um guarded. I mean, you know, no Hallebertton obviously, no Matherin, no Nim Hard, so they’re without their like guard creators, but did a good job when he did get switched out on the guards. Had a really nice block on a Mac McClung driver. He recovered like Yeah, it’s that defensive upside you see. Uh where he’s just all over the court. He feels like he’s it almost feels like he’s like a free safety or or like a Luke Keequley type where he’s he’s just kind of in the middle of the field and he can get anywhere at any given moment and effective play. Like that’s what it feels like watching him. We couldn’t do the cross racial. We had to do we had to do another Fred Border. I don’t know. I’m not into football much. Brian Dawkins. I’m not I’m not a football guy. So, uh like Luke’s only was the one name you pulled. Well, cuz it’s I feel like it’s a comparison cuz he was like a coverage guy, right? He was always moving around for sure. that one year of Jaylen Smith. Absolutely. And I I don’t think it was a coincidence. It was because he was playing four and five a lot in this game. Right. We’ve talked about him playing out of position. One of the things he’s been playing out of position as as a defender. He’s been defending all these ones and defending all these guards and running around chasing guys around. And that’s I think that’s good for him to get reps and and learn how to do, but he’s better as like a rim protector say like roaming around kind of guy. And I thought that’s what we saw from him. They did send a lot of help to Seakum. Like there was some times when like Max Christie or Naji would like run over and help help him, but there was some times where he just stood up there and defended like just straight up had some really good defense on uh on Seakkum. And I I just thought that like I I I was really impressed with 426 left in the game. Mavs are up by like 12 at that point. He had a really good moment where he had a good D on Seakum where he was not doubled. It was just like it was just him standing him up and PJ got the rebound outleted to Max Christie and had the finish and then that’s what actually put him up uh 12 at that point. But I was impressed by his defense and then the rebounding and you want him rebounding because you want him to push the ball in transition. It’s it’s kind of the same like with Luca or Westbrook or any one of these these guys were like, “All right, we want you getting the rebound because we want you to push the ball up the floor.” Yeah, exactly. Um and and I’ve just watched him I watch him go up for rebounds and stuff. I just man I think this guy’s going to be so good. There’s been so much talk about his game and stuff, but I like it’s so important to emphasize this and people say it’s you’re using it as an excuse. It’s not. It’s such important context, man. Like I I was watching Look, VJ Edgecom has been incredible. I’ve loved watching him play. I’m not saying this as a slide at all, but I was just thinking about this yesterday watching their game. Uh VJ’s 20 right now, and that’s a that’s young. Like that’s young for a rookie, 20 years old. Couple be in the third his third year of his career when he’s 20 towards the end of his rookie contract. Yeah, like that’s that’s just insane to me how young this guy is. And again, I didn’t mean that as like VJ’s incredible. Like he’s been awesome this year and he’s going to be an incredible player. Like I wasn’t mean. I’m just trying to emphasize how young this guy is. Uh and I mean, there’s times where he looks like an 18-year-old and he like physically, right, where it’s just like I’m I’m watching him rebound. I’m just thinking, man, when this guy puts on muscle and weight, he’s going to be a force down there. Like he’s going to be cuz T that’s kind of you compare to Tatum all the time. Tatum’s turned into a incredibly good rebounder. like not just for his position and stuff, but just in general. And I I can see that type of uh you know, kind of similar to PJ, too. Like PJ’s filled out and become a big human being. And he’s a very good rebounder. So, yeah, that’s that’s definitely something. He’s already good at high pointing the ball and going after going after the ball and getting it. He’s such a quick leaper. People have talked about that. He goes from just the up on the ground to his high point so fast and that helps him out rebounding wise. But yeah, I mean, uh really good game from him. He’s not he’s not like skinny skinny like he’s not coming in like Chad, you know, or some some of these others. But yeah, I I keep thinking that every time I see him and every time I see him like in traffic or anytime I see him with like, you know, going up to grab a rebound with multiple guys down there, you just see how much like, okay, as soon as he adds strength, it’s going to be completely different. He’s going to be able to do so many more things on the court when he’s able to do that. Or even just like the PJ, we’ve been raving about how PJ just bumps guys in transition and can just go up and finish real strong. Well, you got to have a lot of muscle to do that, right? Michael Jordan needed to add a bunch of muscle in order to to get to that point in his career. And so, that’s something I’m definitely looking forward to with Cooper Flag. I just thought it was a really good game from him overall. And like you said, maybe one of his best games that he that he’s played so far. Definitely the most impactful on winning for sure. And I I just I think it’s important to point out like coming into this, we we said this, he he’s probably not a guy he might have a few games here and there as rookie year where there’s high scoring outputs, but he’s not coming into the to the league as a guy like that. It’s going to be stuff like this, the Swiss Army knife type of player who can defend multiple different positions, block a shot rotating down, grab a rebound, get up the floor, find an open shooter, or go right to the basket. So, we saw that a bunch tonight and that was the encouraging, you know, that’s the encouraging stuff. Absolutely encouraged by it. And I was also encouraged by Brandon Williams. What I saw from him coming up, how did Brandon Williams like play so well in this game? Like just completely uh blow our expectations. Talk about that more. Austin Reeves Austin Reeves game winner. Did he How many did he finish with? I don’t know, but he literally just hit a bunch of meter. Oh my god. That that that team insane. And we’ll talk about Brandon Williams coming up. Today’s episode of Lockdown Maps brought to you by our friends over at Ripling. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. SAS promised to make work easier, but now the average company’s buried with hundreds of apps, so many different things to slow down your teams, and they simply just like don’t work together. That’s not SAS. That’s sad. S A software as a disservice. Clever. That’s why you need Ripling. Ripling is a unified platform for global HR, payroll, IT, and finance all in one place. They’ve helped millions of businesses replace a mess of disconnected tools with one system to give leaders clarity, speed, and control. It’s seriously simple to use. It gives companies one source of truth for their people, data, and everything that they touch. It’s all in one thing. You’d rather have it all in one thing than try and like sign into a bunch of different things. I know with the different things that I the different platforms I I work on and all this, you’re signing into all kinds of different things all the time. All the two-factor authentication, I get it. You wanted to be secure, but man, be great to just log into one thing. Whether you want to run your entire HR, IT, and finance operations as one or just fill the gaps in your software stack, Ripink can help you do it. So, right now, you get six months free when you go to rippling.com/lockdownba. That’s rippling. Rip pbl.com/lockdown NBA. rippling.com for six months free. Also brought to you by Robin Hood. Robin Hood, your ambition just met its match. With Robin Hood, you play for the win. Not just on game day, every day. Locking in every opening, beating your PR, beating it again, channeling that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. 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Then it was guaranteed and you’re like, “Okay, here we go.” But Brandon Williams and this and then yesterday, right, he gets arrested at the airport. Uh, and I was like, “Is he even going to play today?” And then he was listed as questionable for personal reasons. He shows up at at a shootound and then they say he’s available for the game tonight. Like what a whirlwind 24 hours Brandon Williams must have had personally. He issues like an he issues an apology, takes full responsibility for everything standing there. Uh, he had he had weed in in his bag going through the airport. Uh, he was Everybody’s asking like why he was at the airport. He had personal reasons. He was dealing with the death in the family. So, I’m sure he was like traveling to go do that. That’s why he was out for personal reasons a couple a couple the last couple of games. And so then Brandon Williams in this game like the Mavs need guard help in any way they can possibly get. So he goes out 20 points, seven boards, two assists, and hits nine of 14 shots. I was just impressed by the way he can just get into areas on the court that the Mavericks just have not been able to get into this season. Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, couldn’t care less about the weed thing at all. Don’t care. People are asking me about it. Don’t care. Like, that’s just my opinion. No, it just it to me it just adds to the drama of today of today. Yeah. Yeah. Like I I don’t care. The lawsuit thing, I don’t I don’t know enough really. I’m not the lawsuit for the between the Mavs and the Stars, which to me is just it seems like if I’m just reading tea leaves is just a a way for the Mavs to either take over the AAC or for them to get out of the AAC contract a little earlier so they can build their arena, but we’ll see. And the Stars want to move as well. And I think that should be kind of some important context from what I understand, right? So, I don’t think that I think it’s two billion dollar organizations that are trying to find any maneuverability under the I don’t the stars billion dollar organizations. That’s what I was I was like are the stars billion. I don’t know the value of hockey teams. But anyways, uh yeah, Brandon Williams. Yeah. Uh yeah, he I mean this he was so fun to watch. He was like genuinely probably the only bright spot on the Mavs team last year just from a person personnel standpoint. And he’s just so quick. The Mavs don’t really have DLO’s not even like this really. DO is more crafty and um you know not shy. I would say that’s DLO’s number one trait currently. But Bewell is legitimately quick and gets downhill and puts pressure on the rim and they just don’t have another guy like that right now. So yeah, he he played some really good minutes tonight. And let’s not forget, I mean, he missed all of training camp pretty much with an injury. So, um, I don’t know how much those early season DMPS and low minutes was him just not being in the rotation or more of a byproduct of them trying to ramp him up a little bit. So, uh, you know, it’s funny the Dwight Pal in this. I saw some people were saying I’ve seen this where it’s like, oh, the Mavs are supposed to have such great depth and Brandon Williams and Dwight Pal are playing in game five and it’s like that is the depth. like that is like they have like seven guys out like how many players how many rotation players are ad Kyrie Lively Gaffford Exom in their two probably like like rotation we’ve joked about this on here was like my pal is probably like the best fourth I mean has to be the best fourth center in the league like I don’t know I don’t know the list of them but he’s got to be up there towards the very top uh and Brandon Williams is just a really nice guard teams have a fourth center that’s like having a fourth quarterback or like a third quarterback yeah I don’t know I I mean the I’m trying to Take the Pacers. The Pacers. Joff Isaiah Jackson. Yeah. Depending on what you want to classify like Obie Toppin as who’s hurt right now, but uh that’s not a five. By the way, stars I’ve seen I’m seeing anywhere between one and 1.9 billion. So, billion dollar. All right. Well, there you go. There you go. I was saying there feels like a couple billion dollar organizations maneuver. But anyways, yeah, B will great and hopefully we see some more minutes from them. I mean, here’s this trend, right? Here’s the shred we’ve been talking about. Brandon Williams, they win his minutes tonight. Uh, not a surprise, they won the game, but they also won the D’Angelo Russell minutes. And going into this game, this isn’t updated yet. They have a plus 15 net rating when DLO plays. Yeah, like plus 15. To me, he just represents a point guard, you know, like when a point guard plays, they are they are better. They he was plus five tonight. Bivo was plus three. Like if you plus 15, it’s small, super small sample, but their net rating when DO’s off the floor and really he’s up until be well recently has been like the only point guard to get minutes like the traditional point guard you would say. Uh their net rating with how do is minus 26 like horrible. It’s not good. So and and I don’t think it’s a coincidence like I’m just looking at these onoff numbers. It’s such small sample doesn’t matter but their defensive rating with DLO off is 124. That’s horrible. You see it every game like every game to start. We’ve been talking about these starts like that. What did the maps start in this one? They started down 14 to 21. Well, I’ve got I’ve got another culprit for that. I’ve got another culprit. Does he have his own labu? He’s got his own laboo and his own and his own shoes. Klay started the game step back three bad shot dribbling turnover and looked at his hands afterwards to try and figure out what was going on and then got blocked at the rim. like just play after play where you’re just like those are three like bad decisions. And it’s so strange to watch a like a guy that is so smart and so accomplished in the game have moments like that where you’re just like you’re trying to put the team on your like are you trying to put the team on your back right now? Like you’re playing but playing completely outside of himself to do that and now he’s not even making three. like it’s it’s this weird tough situation to be in because you want him to play to find his rhythm and to hit these shots and so far this season he’s not hitting his shots at all. And I mean we’re kind of at that point in Klay’s career. It sucks. It is what it is. He’s getting up there in age. He’s had a couple of devastating catastrophic lower body injuries. Like he doesn’t defend like he used to. So if he’s not hitting shots, I don’t know what he does. And then to to compound those things, like Christiey’s been fantastic, man. So good. Max Christiey’s been great. And it’s been like what I was kind of hoping to see from Max Christie. That that stretch we saw after the trade where he was like this kind of had the ball in his hands a bunch and was self-creating. That was cool. That’s cool if he could tap into that from time to time. But this version where it’s like he defends his you know what off and is knocking out throws. He went one of four tonight, but he’s also just making smart passes on drives and attacking closeouts. He’s just been a really good role guy. Like I don’t know how I don’t know how much more you can afford these super slow starts to games. How many minutes you think Klay played in the second half? Started the second half, right? So I see he played 22 minutes total. I’m going to guess six. Seven. Wait, did you say six? Seven. Did you say se Did you say seven? Six. Seven. Did you say six or seven? I said six and then you said seven, but there was a pause in between there. I want to make that clear. Three minutes 30 seconds in the fourth quarter. Wait, can I go back to this stat? Cuz this is crazy to me. Sure. And play T’s been bad. I mean, it is what it is. It’s It’s five games and he’s a notoriously slow starter to be fair. Also true. Some shooters are. So, I want to talk about the Okay, onoff numbers this early in the season mean nothing. advanced stats early this early in the season mean nothing. This means something though. Uh Danzel Russell when he’s off the floor, the Mavs have a 124 defensive rating. When DLo’s off when DLo’s on, not a good defensive player really. They have a 99 defensive rating which is very good. Why is that? They’re making baskets. Exactly. They’re making baskets. We’re I feel like we’re back to what was it three years ago where Jason Kid would be like a good What’s the best thing you guys can do on to help anything on defense? Like well to make shots and to our offense is going to help our defense. It’s like, okay, well, yeah, especially too when you’re not a great three-point shooting team. Like, some of your three-point shots are legit turnovers. Just or a good transition defense team. That’s the thing they’ve been getting killed on. I was looking at Synergy. It’s the one thing that they’re terrible at in uh like is transition defense. It’s the one area of the game where they’re just really struggling right now. And so, if you don’t want transition points, you either make buckets or you miss so that it’s not as bad. So, there’s not live rebounds like like live rebound turnovers. Well, I was I was looking at their their transition defense stuff on cleaning the glass. I don’t know if those numbers are different, but yeah, their transition defense hasn’t been good. It’s because of their turnovers. They’ve actually been one of the best live rebound transition teams, which doesn’t which doesn’t pass the eye test much for me, but no. Um, it is interesting though. That is interesting. Yeah, this this game brought a lot of things, right? So, it was it was wild to see all the different facets of the game. I loved the D’Angel Russell, Max Christie, Naji, Flag, and PJ lineup. There’s that that lineup just did something to me. Like that as a small ball look that you could just go to gave you pretty much everything you want in a small ball lineup like this. These are the lineups when people in the past have been like, “Well, why don’t they play a small ball lineup?” It’s like, you can’t play it unless you have two big oversized wings like that that can defend and can rebound. And both Flag and and PJ can do those things. Naji can handle it, too. Everybody on the court can handle it. There’s just so many different facets of that. I I loved that lineup. I thought that that was great. They used that a little bit. Yeah, that’s that’s a great point cuz we did used to have those conversations where it was like you small ball doesn’t mean just throw small guys on the floor. It means put all the point guards out there. Yes, it means you have like versatile players who can guard up and do a bunch of different things. And yeah, that is Flag and PJ. That’s a really fun That’s like a fun combination cuz I think Coupe could be a four defensively right now, which is kind of saying a lot cuz you usually you’d want that guy to be a little bit more mus muscly, but PJ is more than capable of being a small ball five in certain matchups obviously. And I thought we would never see it because they have three centers that all demand like 20 plus minutes. Yeah. Between between 35 and 20 minutes and then they’re all then they’re all hurt. Hey, if Lively’s out on Saturday, I’m ringing the alarm bells. I’m just going to say that. Man, you’d think Mexico, you think they’d want to show out in Mexico. I’m assuming Gaffford’s probably back or else this is the craziest ankle sprain I’ve ever Thanks for hanging out with us on Locked on Mavs, being part of the show, listening every day. Go check out the QR code, the links in the descriptions, the links in the description for different ways to follow the uh the show as we lag out as we lag out of this stream. Go check out Slightly Bias’s great stream happen all the time on his YouTube channel. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mass. Peace out. Boom. I hope this saves cuz I didn’t record it.

The Dallas Mavericks secured a hard-fought win against the Indiana Pacers in a thrilling NBA matchup, overcoming injuries and adversity while showcasing the depth of their roster. Cooper Flagg posted a double-double and played outstanding defense, while Dwight Powell received MVP chants as the shorthanded Mavs stepped up in the absence of key players like Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively II, and Daniel Gafford.

Nick Angstadt and Slightly Biased break down how the Dallas Mavericks battled through injuries, analyze standout performances from Cooper Flagg, Dwight Powell, PJ Washington, and D’Angelo Russell, and discuss the impact of Jason Kidd’s lineup choices. The episode covers key moments involving Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, and insight into the front office with Nico Harrison, Mark Cuban, and Patrick Dumont. Tune in for analysis on the latest challenges the Mavs face and what this means for their NBA season ahead.

0:00 Mavs Win & AD Injury Scare
5:36 Dwight Powell’s MVP Night
11:39 Cooper Flag Defensive Upside
21:27 Brandon Williams’ Impact

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