DALLAS \u2014 With the Dallas Mavericks\u2019 offense stuck in the mud, coach Jason Kidd made a starting lineup change ahead of Wednesday\u2019s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n
For the first time this season, Kidd inserted D\u2019Angelo Russell into his starting five. To make room for Russell, Kidd moved Klay Thompson to the bench. Thompson, a four-time NBA champion who has made the fifth-most 3-pointers in NBA history, had previously started all 79 games he\u2019d appeared in as a Maverick.<\/p>\n
Kidd explained that he wanted a traditional point guard on the floor. With Thompson mired in an awful shooting slump to begin the season, swapping Russell in for him made sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalked to Klay,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cSaid, \u2018This isn\u2019t a permanent thing. But can you come off the bench?\u2019 He was good with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mavericks\u2019 new starting lineup yielded familiar results. Dallas shot 41.6 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from 3 in a 101-99 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, who until Tuesday were the NBA\u2019s last winless team.<\/p>\n
Cooper Flagg scored 20 points, the most of any Mavericks player. With Dallas trailing by 2 points in the final seconds, Kidd drew up a play for his 18-year-old rookie. Flagg got an open look at a midrange pull-up, but his shot went long.<\/p>\n
Flagg\u2019s miss ensured Dallas would fail to break 100 points for the third time in eight games. The Mavericks remain the NBA\u2019s worst offensive team by a significant margin. They are averaging 103.2 points per 100 possessions. The rebuilding Washington Wizards \u2014 ranked 29th in offense \u2014 are scoring at a rate of 105.7 points per 100 possessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt still got a little sticky at times,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cI think we have to keep working on moving the ball, getting organized and just attacking mismatches. I think we could have done a lot being better organized. We had a lot of possessions where guys were in the wrong spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
During training camp, the Mavericks talked about using Anthony Davis as an offensive hub, similar to how the Sacramento Kings have utilized Domantas Sabonis. That idea hasn\u2019t panned out. Davis missed his third straight game Wednesday with a left calf strain. Even when he has been available, Dallas\u2019 offense has looked sludgy.<\/p>\n
After drafting Flagg in June, the Mavericks were loaded with frontcourt players and lacked proven guards who could handle the ball, space the floor and set up others. The Mavericks dismissed concerns at the time that they had an unbalanced roster. That appears to have been a miscalculation. Dallas is now ranked 28th in assist-to-turnover ratio and 30th in 3-pointers made per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to make shots,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cWe aren\u2019t making shots. We are getting great looks. We are missing layups. That just happens in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell was underwhelming in his first start as a Maverick. He scored 9 points on 3-of-10 shooting with three assists and two turnovers. In the fourth quarter, the Mavericks played through Flagg more than anyone else. The rookie scored 8 points in the final 9:09 of the game. Had Flagg made one more basket in the final quarter, the Mavericks could have taken the game into overtime. Flagg was clearly miffed about his miss afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s the most I\u2019ve lost since, I think, ever,\u201d said Flagg, whose Mavericks fell to 2-6 overall. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a lot different. You have to adapt to playing a lot more games. You have to get used to that. I wouldn\u2019t say anybody is happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson, who was coming off the bench for the first time since March 24, 2024, tied a season-high with 11 points. He converted 3 of 6 3-pointers. With 2:16 remaining in the fourth quarter, Flagg fed him for a corner 3. As Thompson went into his shooting motion, the ball slipped out of his hands. The result: a turnover.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys are trying to stay levelheaded,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cWe know we have a lot more games to go. It\u2019s still early. But speaking personally, it\u2019s not fun to keep losing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 With the Dallas Mavericks\u2019 offense stuck in the mud, coach Jason Kidd made a starting lineup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,2695,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-265867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}