Dallas Mavericks find success, but is it sustainable?

When the Dallas Mavericks fell 109-129 in game two, the Phoenix crowd rained down the chant “Suns in four” onto the beaten and battered Mavs. After watching Dallas lose their first two in pretty hapless fashion, those three words seemed somewhat believable, even to the most optimistic among MFFLs.

The Mavs had been struggling to rediscover that magic that propelled them into the second round for the first time in roughly a decade. With the exception of Luka Doncic’s other-worldly play, nothing seemed to be going right for the Mavs those first couple games.

Luka pointed to the offense and said if the Mavs want to compete with Phoenix they have to get their offense back on track. He plainly said, “offense was the problem.”

How are the Dallas Mavericks winning and is that a sustainable blueprint for success?

Well Luka, it’s safe to say the Dallas Mavericks have found their offense. And just as Luka suggested, it was the rediscovery of the offense that helped propel them to a 2-0 run at home. Even with Luka having a relatively cold night from the field, the Mavs went 20-of-44 from deep making them a force to be reckoned with.

Dorian Finney-Smith went a staggering 8-of-12 from 3. Davis Bertans went 4-of-6. Reggie Bullock went 40% from deep and Spencer Dinwiddie put in half of his attempts.

The question at hand though, is that kind of shooting sustainable? To ask it another way, is this blueprint for success sustainable?

The answer is a little bit of “yes” and little bit of “no” and a little more “yes.” Allow me to explain…

Just because Luka pointed out the problem being offense in Phoenix, doesn’t mean that was the real problem. Players have a way of believing things they want to believe and not always things that are true, and that’s partially the case here.

The Dallas Mavericks weren’t getting thumped in Phoenix simply because their offense wasn’t clicking. It was because they were playing terrible defense. In games one and two, the Suns shot .505 and .645 respectively.

Sure the Mavs could have played better offensively, but it’s hard to out-offense a team that’s shooting over 60 percent from the field, wouldn’t ya say?

The Dallas Mavericks defense is what made the biggest difference in this series. Over the past two games the Suns have been held under 50% from the field. That’s the first time a team has held them to sub-.500 shooting this playoff cycle and directly related to the Mavs success these past two games.

Defense, most certainly, is a sustainable pathway to victory, so the answer to the sustainability question is, yes. But even refocusing on the three-point shooting, that might be sustainable as well.

In game four the Dallas Mavericks shot .455 from deep. Impressive, to be sure. But they shot .410 and .415 in those first two losses which ain’t too shabby in their own right. Brunson and Doncic were shooting the 3-ball better those first two games but overall team percentage has been strong and fairly stable. Game three was the biggest outlier with the Mavs only going .333 from deep, but as we know, that resulted in a win because of the defense.

The takeaway is this: The Dallas Mavericks are winning because of defense. The 3-point shooting and contributions from role players is important but not nearly as stable as team defense. Dallas needs to keep shooting from deep in high volume but can’t relax a bit on defense or this series can swing back in a millisecond.

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The Mavs success is sustainable as long as the Mavs focus on what’s really winning these games.