Why the Mavs’ COMEBACK vs OKC Thunder Leaves the Dallas Mavericks With More Big Picture Questions

Why the Mavs’ COMEBACK vs OKC Thunder Leaves the Dallas Mavericks With More Big Picture Questions

On today’s show, the Dallas Mavericks mount a near comeback against the Oklahoma City Thunder and didn’t look that bad in the game except Cooper Flag did. So, what do we take from this? I’ll tell you. Today’s locked on Mavs. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on M. All these changes, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal. You are locked on your daily Mavericks podcast, part of the locked on podcast network. Champion, your team every day. I’m going to give you like back and welcome. You were locked on the Dallas Mavericks. Your team every day. My name is Nick Angstead, medium member covering the M for 10 years. Thanks for being in every making lock on Mavs the first listen for yourself every day. Appreciate you for checking out the show, listening every day to the bonus episodes and all that stuff. Lock on Sports Podcast Network is now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you for helping us get there. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time Talent Game Time app. Create an account, use the code lockdown NBA to get $20 off your first purchase. for joining me as always on a postgame the postgame prodigy from the great slightly biased YouTube channel. What you got for me slightly biased? The as the great Jay-Z once said, moral victories. Moral victories is for minor league coaches. You’re not taking a moral victory from this game. I would have if Coupe played good or like if the comeback was Coupe related. MS like the Wizard the Wizards loss was like that fourth quarter was fun from Coop. moral victory in the Wizards loss, but not one in an OKC comeback. We’ll talk about Cooper Flag’s struggles. We’ll talk about Anthony Davis, honestly, in his struggles late in this game. I was sitting courtside and I could tell you exactly how he was how he’s feeling during this. And we’ll talk about PJ Washington. We’ll talk about Jaden Hardy getting some minutes late. We’ll talk about some a lot of these things. And the Mavs lost to the OKC Thunder. The Mavs are 1 and three now on the season. It was 94 to 101, but the Mavericks at one point were down by 21 in this game. And it looked hopeless, right? Like Mavericks fans were turning this game off. They’re like, I’m done. I don’t want to I don’t want to watch this. I don’t want to listen to this anymore. I’m just over with this. Because the beginning of the season has been pretty rough for the Mavericks. And even the game they won against the the the Raptors, they up 129 points. And it was not one of those where you feel, all right, I’m feeling super great after this win. I I feel like the Mavs have figured out some stuff. They fixed some things and boom, here we go. This game, first half was not bad. Like I was feeling pretty good. I was I was ready to go into this game against the Thunder, a team that has a really good defense. And yes, they’re missing Caruso. They’re missing Jaylen Williams. They’re missing a couple guys. So are the Mavericks. Mavericks miss Lively in this game. Obviously, Kyrie’s still out. A couple of point guards still out. But going into this game, I was like, “Oh, this is going to be one of those games where if the Mavs don’t start Dangel Russell or even if they do, they may not be able to dribble against this team. they’re just going to struggle to get the ball into any of their sets or into any kind of thing at all if they they face some of the ball pressure that the Thunder can still put on with Dort and, you know, and uh and Kin Wallace and even SGA and some of their other guys. And they they did pretty good. They handled it pretty well in this game. They only shot 33% from the field in in the first half and were only down by six going into halftime. Anthony Davis had 15 points and seven boards. He was playing some bully ball down low. He was getting some things going. Uh, and I was impressed with the Mavs going into that. Then the third quarter happened and you go, “All right, here it goes. Here’s the th here come the Here come the Thunder. Their defense mounted up. The Mavericks really struggled to make anything really happen at all.” And uh, and then OKC was scored 39 points in that quarter. Really went on a run. And then in the fourth quarter, the Thunder hit like 90 points with like a 1025 left in the quarter. And it took them until like very late in the game to hit 93. It was one of those where you go, “Oh man, what what is happening?” Hold on. The the Thunder haven’t scored since when? It was just this long extended drought. And I’ll give the Mavs defense some credit. I thought they were hustling. I thought they were getting some stuff done. SGA didn’t get any shots to go. He was 0 for five in the fourth quarter. They only had five shots go at all. Chad and Isaiah Hardin hit three of them. They were just in the paint. So, the Mavs make this comeback and like I I look at this comeback and I’m really not even sure what I’m supposed to take from it because it was mounted by Jaden Hardy doing some things, D’Angel Russell doing some things. You had Max Christie hitting some shots. Maybe we’ll take some stuff from him. Uh Anthony Davis playing the five is maybe the one thing I take from from this is that the Mavs are going to look better offensively with Anthony Davis at the five, but then they’re going to struggle in some other areas. And the big advantage the Mavs are supposed to have with rebounding. They struggled rebounding tonight. Defending the the rim, how many points in the paint to the Thunder finish with 68. They struggled in those areas and those are the ones the Mavs were supposed to be good at and they didn’t. Even though their offense was a little bit better in this game cuz Anthony Davis was at the five. It is almost like this Mavericks comeback to me represents the like really like the problem with with this Mavericks team that we’re going to struggle with all season is because they’re like an oxymoron of a team. Yeah, I mean I don’t I don’t really know what to take away either. I appreciate the comeback and the effort. Uh probably the come the big takeaways are like DL’s got to hover around this 30-minute mark 100%. Regardless of the shot he missed at the end. Ill advised definitely. But the offense just looks 10 times better when he’s on the court. He also hit a floater with a minute left. They’re not they’re not even in the game if if they’re not they’re not even in a position where he could miss that three if it weren’t for his efforts to help bring them back and captaining the ship offensively. Uh Christy looks great and is just flat out better than Klay Thompson is currently. Um so I I don’t know what you do with that information really. And yeah, I mean defensively I thought they were good tonight. Like I tweeted this in the first half that I thought this was that was probably one of the best halfs they played. Even the the fact they scored 42 points. I mean that’s obviously horrible. But they were getting pretty good looks from three that just were not hitting at all. And they started to hit those in the fourth quarter and that’s why they were able to make the comeback they did make. But I I I like the way they played. They didn’t turn the ball over. Uh defensively that was some of the better better defense you’ll see a team play on Shay Gilders Alexander. I mean that is one of the most unguardable players in the entire NBA. One of the most unguardable guards. the league has ever seen. I mean, just full stop. And they they did a really good job containing him. And Christie did a fantastic job on him, man. He did so well tonight. I’m so impressed with how Max Christie started the season. So, those are some positive takeaways. And, you know, you got you got a a reminder that Cooper Flag is an 18-year-old rookie. You got um you know, Clay’s still kind of early season, we know that this can happen with Clay. So, DLO wasn’t great from three as a team. You didn’t shoot well from three. Granted, the Thunder were terrible from three as well. So, uh, some positive takeaways. I feel like in some ways you can look at this and say, you know, if we play with that level of effort and execution defensively, we’ll win a good amount of games this year, but it has to be a consistent level of buyin. Uh, and you know what, if I go back and watch the first half, it’s like, you know what, if we generate these shots for some of our legit good shooters, not just like, oh, well, like, uh, Naji Marshall shot an open three, but like what does that really mean? Because his numbers aren’t. But if it’s like, yeah, we got that shot for Max Christie, we got that shot for Clay, we got that shot for DL. Um, which say whatever you want, but D’s been a good three-point shooter throughout his career. Yeah. Like that’s what happened in the first half. And I was like, well, those were good shots, you know. Um, so some things to take away there, but the reality is is they’re one and three. They first five games are at home and yeah, they’re staring down the barrel of potentially being one and four because they play the nightmare Pacers that uh literally own this team. Yeah. So, and the Pacers don’t want to start off 0 and4 themselves. That’s a big thing. I I think I heard Tony East on Pacers say they haven’t been 0 and4 in a start of a season since like the 80s. And so, that’s something that’s something they probably want to avoid. I think I’m I’m going to take something away from this game. The Mavs are trending in the right direction. I’ll just I’ll just say that. I think they’re they’re they’re trending in a way. You got to win against the the Raptors. You looked competitive at least against this this Thunder team. You’re trending in the right direction. It may be slow. It may not be the way that we had hoped and the way that we like thought, but at least they’re they’re they’re getting there. Like they’re getting some of their their their legs under them. That I think I think that’s what I take away. And and Max Christie Max Christie has been a revelation. He got the start. I thought for sure Klay was going to the bench when Max Christie would get a start, but they decided to not start D’Angelo Russell, which was interesting to me. I don’t think Kid cares who starts, and I think he just wanted to start Max on SGA. I think that’s really like the whole thing that he wanted to do with that. Yeah. I mean, the starting stuff for Kid’s always been weird. And it’s never fully mattered cuz it’s it is interesting to me how no matter what you can watch the first half of the starting lineup and be like okay this starting lineup is not working for whatever reason doesn’t matter which team Luca’s on it flags on it Anthony is on it Kyrie’s playing not playing I don’t know what’s going on with these starting lineups but there’s one thing guaranteed they will start the second half too except the one last year that was awesome and then they then they blew it up with injuries and all that that starting lineup was Yeah, true. But uh no, I mean, yeah, it’s it always matters more with kid with who’s closing games. But yeah, it’s interesting to go with Christy. It does show their commitment to if not flag at the one more so just like we’re going to experiment what it’s like to not even need a point guard. Yeah. In this with this group and I mean DLO has made it clear and obvious so far through the first four games of the year that they need a point guard like an actual one. They absolutely do. You’ve got to have that ball movement. I think that’s why they had D Russell and Jaden Hardy still in the game late when they were mounting this comeback. Coming up, let’s talk about Anthony Davis. Let’s talk about Cooper Flag. Let’s talk about his struggles, what that means for us. Are we cons how concerned are we about Cooper Flag? I’m not that concerned. I’ll tell you why. Coming up. Today’s episode of Lockdown Maths brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, FanDuel has a deal for you. If you’re a new customer, you can get $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So go check that out at FanDuel. You can do all kinds of stuff with the NBA. Right now the NBA rookie of the year odds are out. Cooper flag struggled in a game. He’s now minus 105 to win rookie of the year. His odds are they maybe go down, but I think they already kind of went down. I think he was minus 200 yesterday when I talked about it. VJ Edgecom plus 135. So if you’re looking at odds like all right, I want to put money down for Cooper Flag to win rookie of the year, maybe this is the time to do it. Dylan Harper plus 2,000. Trey Johnson plus 2,000. Conibble plus 2500. Ace Bailey plus 4,000. That’s that has gone down. So maybe that’s the one you look at if you think Ace Bailey can turn it around here. All kinds of stuff you can do on FanDuel. But if you’re really confident in something and you’re a new customer, put down that $5. You can win $300 in bonus bets to use across the app on anything. So go check that out at FanDuel. FanDuel, the official betting partner of the NBA. We’re also brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code, it’s locked on NBA. You can use it on anything. I use it. I’ve used it to go to WNBA games all the time. Dallas Wings, see my girl page. I’ve also used it for comedy, concerts, theater, all kinds of stuff like that. You can use it. Game time comes in clutch. The app that gives fans the advantage. It’s the ultimate hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets and more. Easy and stress-free. I love the views from your seat. I love that I know exactly what I’m going to pay at checkout. Right from the start, which is awesome. They also have these like zone deals. They show you exactly when like a ticket is really, really good priced at that point. Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA to get $20 off your first purchase. L O C E D O NA is the code for $20 off. Swipe tap ticket. Go. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out on Lock. Being part of the show, part of the raccoon squad. That’s what we call our listeners listening every day. Had several fans shout raccoon Squad at me, which I just I just love because if anybody else is listening in in the surrounding area, you have no idea what that means. And maybe some of you don’t even know what that means, which I think is very funny, too. Um, but awesome to see people here at the arena. Awesome to for the Mavericks. I I’m enjoying these first four home games because I get to see a lot of you guys. But let’s talk about the Mavs loss to the Thunder. Let’s talk about Cooper Flag because early in the game, within the first like two or three possessions, there was a moment on defense and he comes up under the basket. He starts holding his shoulder. His arm is like dead arm hanging beneath him. He’s holding his shoulder and then he’s running down the court and then he comes back down the court and I notice his sleeve is ripped. There’s a hole in there hole in his sleeve and there’s just like a piece of his shirt just like hanging down, his undershirt like hanging down and then he comes back and then it’s fully ripped the next couple times down the court. And I think he struggled with some of the physicality that the Thunder can can present to him and to to anybody really, but he had like a heating pad on his shoulder for basically every single time he went to the bench. So, he’s obviously dealing with something and dealing with some kind of uh like I wouldn’t say fully injury, but like a like some kind of stress in that shoulder. And so, that’s definitely something to watch out for. But, he really struggled in this game slightly. He finished with uh he played 31 minutes, but two points, two rebounds, two steals, no turnovers though, but no assists. Uh one of nine from the field and just he was making some I thought he was making the right plays in the first half and then in the second half, I don’t think he was aggressive at all. It’s like it it like it almost got in his head. The physicality from OKC plus him missing shots I think got in his head and we did not see like an aggressive Cooper flag trying to make things happen for this team even though they really needed some stuff to happen. Yeah. I mean it it looked like he got had a stinger or something which is what I’m hoping it is. Uh really early in the game he had the like you said the heating pad and wrap throughout most of the game. So that’s important context to add here. But yeah I mean uh I do agree. I think in the first half he he had zero assists in this game, but uh that a lot of that was a byproduct of the Mavs shooting so horribly from three. But yeah, I agree with you that you know there just wasn’t the aggressiveness that you know I was kind of hoping and this is a you know it’s really tough first four games your first ones against Victor Wyama who looks like he’s the best player in the world already and uh or by far and away the best defensive player in the world at the very least for sure. Um, Vic, uh, Victor Amidyama. And then game four is the best defense in the league, even with Caruso and JDub being out. They still have so many great defenders on the roster. So, uh, kind of a tough, you know, welcome to the NBA, but was kind of hoping we’d see some of that aggressiveness and assertiveness carry over. And, yeah, just really wasn’t a lot of that, a lot of kind of what we’ve seen in the Spurs game and stuff, just picking up the dribble just a little bit too early. And uh you know that that’s something that will just probably come over time with him, especially over the course of the season that I’m looking for like a consistent week-long stretch where it’s like uh-oh, Coup’s been averaging, you know, 20 24 a game over the last week or so and he’s getting to the rim. Like this could be it. This could be the moment for him where it just really clicks on cuz you see it there. He’s got the athleticism. He’s got the tenacity. He even has the skill and his shot looks clean even though the numbers aren’t great on it right now. like uh these things will these things will iron themselves out for sure. But yeah, early on, I mean, what did we say all season about this team being good? There was the big thing that we talked about was like, well, if Coop’s a top 50, top 75 player in the league, like that that changes a lot of things for the team. And so far, he hasn’t been that, but it’s been four games for an 18-year-old. Like, when we say top 50, top 75, we’re talking like by January. So, he’s reaching his stride big time. But, uh, the slow start could hurt them, though. Yeah, I I’ve been arguing that if the Mavs being good like requires a foundation of Cooper Flag making a lot of things happen for you, that’s going to be a tough start. And it has been and I think Cooper Flag will will eventually figure it out. I we’ve seen enough flashes to me it’s like all right, the flashes, the size, the ability, the ability to do multiple things at multiple positions and multiple ways and all that. He played the five a little bit tonight which I thought was was interesting when they took Anthony Davis out. They’ve been trying him all over the court. He’s basically played every position for the for the Mavericks so far, if you want to put it that way. But he is the youngest player in the NBA. And I I’m going to try not to use this excuse often, but I thought he was going to be more impactful early on, but he is the youngest player in the NBA. And maybe that there is something to that where it’s not an excuse. That’s the literal truth. That’s true. That is the excuse. But maybe it’s going to take a little bit longer for him to reach the the level of Cooper Flag. And also, this team is very disjointed. For him to come in as like a guy that is a a do-it-all guy to join a disjointed team like this and with these vets and all right, what where’s my place in this system? Okay, we we need things to happen right now. Like, we’re desperate. We’re like, we’re walking around in the desert trying to find water on offense sometimes right now. And then all of a sudden, all right, I I got to assert myself as an 18-year-old against Klay Thompson who has four championships, Anthony Davis, who is like a top 75 player of all time, right? like all these vets and there I think we’re seeing right now in these first four games there are times when being the youngest player in the NBA and playing with all these vets is going to be a little bit difficult until he figures out where his role is and what his what his role should be on this team and I think the vets will help him do that. We’ve seen Anthony Davis be already helpful to flag and like all right hey you’ve got a mismatch go attack that you give the ball back to me I’m going to give it right back to you because I want you to go attack this. We’ve seen that a couple times both in preseason and in the regular season already, but he we haven’t seen the fully we haven’t seen the fully realized flag and we may not for this whole like for the this whole beginning part of the season. It may take a little bit of time and I think I think I’m okay with that. Well, they’re also not doing him any favors. I mean, I don’t I don’t it’s too much him being on ball is like the only way we’re looking to get him anything going offensively. Uh I don’t understand especially when you have other ball handlers out there like DL like Coupe needs to be setting screens like that. That is a super weapon you have in your arsenal. Like he did it at Duke. Setting screens and not just like I’m I’m setting a screen and it’s going to lead to like something else like someone else coming up to get a dribble hand off or something like let him set a screen or roll to the rim or something like put put pressure on the defense in that way. Just haven’t seen much of that yet. And I’m hopeful we see more of it because I I don’t think they’re even really putting him in a position to succeed much early on here. Uh, and maybe that’s a trial by fire type thing that that’s the strategy, but I I wouldn’t Everybody on this offense has a trial by fire. It’s like you got to all everybody it feels like everybody’s got to find their own way, right? Like Yeah. choose your own adventure to everybody. Feels like No. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, uh, we’ll see. It’s It’s why the continuity thing to me, I was always like, I don’t care. I don’t care about the number of players coming back. It’s not. It’s a worthless number because none of these guys have played together really. On top of that, they’re trying to implement an entirely new offense. But I just feel like they could do more to get him easier looks to help him get just get settled in a little bit more. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when did in all the games we’ve seen Coupe start to like really get going. How does it happen? It usually happens cuz he gets a few buckets in transition, easy buckets, easy dunks, and that really gets him going. Uh, and in the Spurs game, in this game, he hasn’t even had like a single opportunity for something like that. So, and then screens and switches, like you said, when he’s going against a mismatch, and we just didn’t see that very often. It was like him versus Case Wallace a bunch, and you’re like, h, that’s not going to go that well most of the time for you. Well, the Thunder, to be fair, the Thunder don’t have many mismatches like also Drew, like even without going to screen SGA on you. Okay, that’s a bigger defender. Okay, you’re going to screen Dort on you. You may not make it out of that possession with all of your limbs. Yeah, like they’re true. They’re uh they’re starting five. No Cruso, no Jada. They’re still rolling out a starting five. And Cruso doesn’t start for them obviously, but Casey Wallace, Lou, Dor, Shay, Cadet, and Hartstein. That’s an elite defensive group right there. And then I I’ve got to It’s been too long in the show to not have said like AJ Mitchell. Yeah, AJ Mitchell’s a dog. Locked on Thunder Host Ryland Styles texted me and said, “Uh, how much would you love AJ Mitchell on the Mavericks right now?” I was like very much. Like I think he he may start over over DLO, right? Well, DO’s not even starting, so he he may actually start for this team. 17 points, seven boards. He was attacking. It just felt like he could get at most anything he wanted when he had the ball. And man, that that guy has played really well to start this season. Yeah, he’s been really, really good for him. And he was good for him in spot minutes last year, too, when they needed him. So, uh, they just find these guys. And they got Topic coming back, too. I mean, they’re the defending champs for a reason. And I’ve picked them to win 70 games this year and they haven’t they’re 4 and0 and I don’t even think they’ve looked great. Well, they’ve played multiple like overtime games, too, where they’ve been they’ve just they get multiple overtime games. They’re hurt. They get everybody’s best too, right? Like everybody’s going to come and and like throw their fast ball at OKC right now. Yeah. People don’t like what I say about the Thunder. I don’t care. They’re the best team in the league. They’re I’m picking them to win the championship again. Like you can you can hate it, but it’s still true. They had one of the They had the best net rating in all of basketball ever last year. Okay. They’re a really good team. The second youngest team to win a championship ever. So, what are you going to say? What are you going to say coming up? Coming up, I want to talk about Anthony Davis because Anthony Davis was great in this game at times. Anthony Davis was terrible in this game at times. And I think the Mavericks have gone as Anthony Davis has gone so far. And that’s not really a good thing. We’ll talk about that more coming up. Today’s episode of Locked on Maps brought to you by Ripling. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. 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He’s going to be motivated because this Maverick season last year went really like south really quickly.” We have the quote in the intro that we always play that he’s like, I want to give this city life back. Seemed to be a motivated guy. Seemed like he was ready to take take on, you know, control of this team and be ready to start a new chapter. He had the eye surgery and his eye surgery didn’t seem like he was able to like really work out in the offseason. Didn’t seem like was he came into camp in in shape and people asked him about it because he came into camp overweight. He said, “Yeah, I am overweight, but I do this on purpose. I always come into camp overweight because then I can I lose weight. I lose like 12 to 13 pounds really quickly during training camp.” And then you watch Anthony Davis play in these regular season games and there have been times when he looks really good. 26 points, 11 boards in this game, three assists. He had a couple of, you know, some some really good plays, some really good attacks at the rim where he’s finishing over guys and you’re like, “All right, that’s the Anthony Davis that we want.” Getting set up by DLO. He had the and one late that really helped the Mavericks that they desperately desperately needed with with a minute 25 left and it was 92 to 95. And then I watch Anthony Davis and he lets the the Isaiah Hardenstein like drive and finish right over the top of him with 33 seconds left to make it a three-point game. He lets Isaiah Hartenstein get some rebounds on him. And I can tell that Anthony Davis doesn’t like to play center and doesn’t like to play center because of guys like that. They’re going to out hustle him and that he’s going to, you know, struggle with those kinds of things. He doesn’t have a clear mismatch or advantage over some guys like that. And Anthony Davis looked like he was really gassed by the end of this game and it has been for basically all four of these games that I’ve seen. But I was sitting Corside and got to see it up close this time. And man, he is he does seem like he’s huffing and puffing out there and I think it’s going to take a little while until we see Anthony like the full Anthony Davis that we expected going into the season. Yeah, 38 minutes tonight. Um, playing the five for pretty much every single one of those minutes. Like we on a on a second night of a backtoback, too, which I think is also notable. Yeah, I mean I I think he’s been pretty good the last couple of games. I thought he was good tonight, too. But yeah, the trans transition defense stuff and some of the defensive stuff. I mean, you’re going to give up buckets from time to time. Like that is what it is really. But, uh, I think it’s been better the last couple games. And I and I don’t think it’s a coincidence it’s because he’s been at the five and I don’t think it’s a coincidence because they’ve been playing a point guard. So, um I know he’s the one that wants to play at the four, but the thing about that is we’ve talked about it here. You have to play fast if that’s what you’re going to do. You have to be a fast-paced team, and that means you also have to get back in transition defensively. And Anthony Davis teams have just historically not been good uh in defensively in transition whenever he’s been out on the floor. So, that’s going to have to be an adjustment for him. like if if you’re that committed to playing the four and that’s what you want to do that that has to be especially within the context of this team absolutely is nonotable yeah non-negotiable it has to be better uh in transition but no I think he’s been I think he’s been pretty good the last few games it’s just been a lot less jumpers and he’s just been more assertive down low and there’s not a lot of people who can stop him when he gets down there pretty good but have you seen a top 10 player top 15 player no I mean this team has stunk Like there there hasn’t been anything good really. I know, but like aren’t but it’s like shouldn’t it be they be driven by the head of the snake and the number one player like the best player on the team that there’s more responsibility on you to come out and be that like the Spurs didn’t all play great but WBY came out and was like all right that is a top one player in the NBA right now and then everything else follows suit behind him. SGA same kind of thing where he gets his stuff and then everybody else kind of follows suit behind him. And I don’t feel like the Mavs are like really have that right now. as as solid as Anthony Davis has been at times and he’s been the only guy keeping him connected sometimes offensively. I just think that’s the that’s one of the things that the Mavs are missing right now too. No. Yeah, for sure. I mean, uh it hasn’t been a great start to the season for him necessarily, but um it also, you know, the idea being that this team was going to be fast, they were going to have they’re going to be deep and they’ve already been dealing with injuries. they’re going to be, you know, have this rookie who’s gonna be a top 50, top 75 player, and but by the end of the year, he very well could be that, but he just hasn’t been that through the first four games, which is completely understandable. So, there’s just a lot of factors that go into it and this wonky starting five that outside of tonight cuz Dive was out that they’ve been going with that’s just not good, uh, I feel like has been part of the problem as well. So, we’ll see. I’m kind of going to reserve judgment more around November or so for that. But uh I don’t know how I don’t know the luxury you have now that you’re one and three. I don’t know the the runway you have of just being like oh we’ll see you in November. Yeah. Right. Cuz you know our conversation around Thanksgiving could be like dude Kyrie just what’s the point? Yeah. Yeah. If they’re if they’re three and like 15 three and you know whatever 27 like like whatever it is would be crazy. Whatever it is. I was trying to think I was trying to count in my head how many games between here and Thanksgiving cuz it’s like a month, right? There’s usually like you usually get like what 13 14 15 games in a month. Something like that. Sounds right. So one and three right now. And so if you go I don’t know like you win like two or three more games you’re four and you’re four and like 18. That would be a really that would be a really tough four and 13. That’s just a tough start to the season where you’re like remember the Pelicans? This happened to them last year where all of a sudden you’re like they they’re in a hole too deep. They’re in a hole too deep and it came really fast for them. Yeah. I mean, you know, you don’t want to overreact, but I feel like if you were to look at these first four games all at home, like two and two bare minimum would have had would have made you feel I mean, and we’re talking about a difference of one game. So, we are kind of overreacting here. But you don’t want to overreact, but you also want to say, “All right, this is what I’m seeing on the court right now. What I’m seeing is experimentation from Jason Kidd, right? Caleb Martin got another four minutes. Jaden Hardy played late. He’s trying a bunch of stuff. Trying new lineups, trying new start. Okay, by the way, Caleb didn’t look half bad on defense. Caleb Caleb defended SG pretty well, I thought. Yeah, you look pretty okay. I still have stock on the Caleb Martin mound. It’s I don’t think it’s an island. I think it’s just a mound. Just a hill. Um yeah, I and so to for Anthony Davis to get in shape plus the offense to like them to learn the offense plus the experimentation of the lineups like I don’t think they have that much runway. Like I’m with you. It’s the next couple of weeks and then maybe I’ll give them and then after that I’m like, “All right, now I’m going to start to judge what this team actually could be.” I’m still open for the Mavericks to be a good team right now. Yeah. But I mean, it’s also um it would be a little bit different if it’s like, man, they were toe-to-toe with the Spurs and like they got embarrassed by the Spurs. Really got embarrassed by the Wizards and needed a huge ginormous run here against this Thunder team to not get absolutely blown out. So, and then they needed a big run to come back and beat the Rap. Like, they haven’t looked really impressive at all. You know, like we’re hanging on like two good calves of basketball. And it’s not like a facet of the game. They’ve looked really good. Like, oh, this team is going to be able to defend the rim. They don’t have an identity. They don’t have an identity at all. Right. So, it’s like, all right, your starting player is not in in like in full game shape yet. Still don’t know what your starting lineup or or anything like like any kind of lineup rotations are yet at all. You don’t have an identity. you you don’t have a clear like elite skill. The thing that you’re supposed to be good at, your bigs are are unhealthy, so that goes against them for sure. Lively missed this game. Gaffford is still out. There’s just like a lot of issues right now. A game like a game like this, you talk about the front court being their biggest strength. When we start to talk about, well, do you maybe trade this guy? Do you maybe trade that guy? AD and D Live missed games. And you see tonight it’s like all of a sudden when you’re without one of them, god forbid both of them like you’re so small now and you’re getting outrebounded by a Thunder team that’s not even like a fantastic rebounding team really and this is how you’ve beat them in the past. They got Hardenstein to to fix that obviously, but 55 to 36. That’s almost 20. And the thing that the one thing I will say that I have not quite understood just yet is it’s just okay if you were to tell me hey they’re one and three their offensive sucked I’d have been like okay honestly I could have I could have easily seen that coming. They should be much better on the offensive glass than they are. Like they should be much better. Well they have not been good at the big the big bully ball team things they should be good at. Yeah I know it makes no sense cuz we’ve been trying to figure out why they’re not playing lively too. And maybe it’s part of the maybe it’s part of the the uh the injury that he’s dealing with. Oh my gosh. Just royalty walked into the room just now. Who is it? Are they coming on the Hi. You can’t say royalty came in and it’s the co-host of the show. I thought I was I thought I was about to be like a special guest. No, listen. Listen. I’m just here to talk about the vision. Um, if you don’t see the vision, fortune doesn’t favor you. The vision. Hey, the vision was there for three quarter. Three quarters. Just take out the third quarter. I just came from the locker room. Cooper has a big old ice pack still on his shoulder. That’s good. AD kind of sad right now, but I’m looking at his I’m looking at his podcast, not his podcast. I’m looking at the video of his locker room and he looks sad. Yeah, I was going to say that, but trying to trying to get the vibes a little bit that uh things aren’t super sad, but yeah, he looked pretty down, but they’re one and three, so I don’t know what to expect right now. Oh man. All right, guys. I’m going home. You already here first. Yep. You already here first. You’re already heard here first. There’s our locker room report brought to you by Locker Report. Uh, Cooper Flag has a giant ice pack on her shoulder and AD is sad. All right, guys. Only 78 left. Come back every single day here at Locked on Maps to hear more, more like that. Uh, guys, go check out SL’s great YouTube channel. All kinds of stuff there. Go check out uh all the other stuff we have going on. The QR code links in the description, guys. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs. Peace out. Boom. Let’s hope for the best, guys. That’s all we got.

The Dallas Mavericks mounted a near comeback against the Oklahoma City Thunder but fell short in a hard-fought NBA matchup. Can Cooper Flagg bounce back from his struggles, and what do Anthony Davis and the Mavs need to improve while waiting for Kyrie Irving’s return? Get analysis on Dallas Mavericks trends, breakdowns of the Mavs’ defensive effort, and reactions to key young players in the NBA.

Nick Angstadt is joined by co-hosts Slightly Biased to discuss the Mavericks’ performance, featuring insight on Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, Naji Marshall, D’Angelo Russell, and head coach Jason Kidd. Listen for a deep dive into how injuries, lineup changes, and rookie Cooper Flagg’s development are impacting the team, plus how Anthony Davis is handling his role at center. The episode also covers OKC Thunder’s defense, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, and much more from around the NBA.

0:00 Mavs Thunder Comeback?!
13:18 Cooper Flag’s Early Struggles
23:17 Anthony Davis: Fitness & Team Impact

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