Does Your Triple Double Matter If You Got Your Ass Kicked?
Luka Dončić is really great at a lot of things on a basketball court. He's great at shooting. He's great at dribbling. He's great at creating space for his shot. He's great at passing. He's great at rebounding. But you know what he's not great at? Playing defense. And because he really can't be bothered to play defense, and he also can't inspire his teammates to play defense, his team got its ass handed to it tonight in Boston.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Celtics had a 12-point lead. They had won each of the first three quarters (by six, one, and five points, respectively), but the game was far from decided. But Dončić helped get it decided real quick with his lackluster effort on the defensive end. Take this drive to the hoop from Jaylen Brown. Dončić meets him at the three-point line, but then lets Jaylen by without any resistance. He even puts up his hands as if to say, "I didn't foul him." Once Jaylen is by him, he doesn't try to help, he just stands and watches. Jaylen puts in a circus shot that might have been the play of the game. Celtics up 14.
Speaking of standing around, three possessions later, Dončić does that precisely once again. He had cut the lead back down to 16 with a turnaround fadeaway, and coming back down the court, he was ostensibly guarding Xavier Tillman. Except he's not. As Jaylen drives to the hoop, Dončić never accounts for Tillman, who starts in the far right corner and crosses under the hoop, where he's fed an easy pass from Jaylen for an even easier dunk. Dončić had no reason to stand and watch. For one thing, Kyrie Irving plays pretty good defense, and stays in front of Jaylen the entire time. And Maxi Kleber also slides over to cut off Jaylen's drive. Dončić was completely superfluous. If he had stuck with Tillman, the Mavs might have had a stop on their hands. Instead, the C's went back up by 18.
Two possessions later, Dončić gets caught watching again when his man, Al Horford, goes to set a pick for Jaylen. Dončić flashes a double team, but does nothing to make Jaylen uncomfortable with the ball, something plenty of people have done in the past. And with Dončić standing there doing nothing, Horford flashes into the paint, and then has all the time in the world to pick apart the defense for an alley-oop to Tillman. Celtics up 20.
The Mavs would cut it back down to 16, but the C's solved that quickly by getting Dončić switched onto Tatum. Tatum stops for a mid-range jumper, and offers what honestly wasn't a pump fake to write home about. But it was good enough to get Dončić in the air, and Tatum took full advantage, drawing a foul and getting to the line. Celtics back up 18.
That would pretty much do it. The C's would hit threes on their next two trips down the court, and with 3:55 remaining it officially became garbage time. Despite scoring nine points in the fourth quarter, Dončić was a -12 because he's not willing to try hard on the other end. For the game, Dončić was a -20. Only two Mavs were worse. In the teams' first matchup in Dallas, Dončić was a team-worst -13. The C's won that game too.
And yet, that's not the story you're likely to hear. You're likely to hear about how Dončić had a triple double in both games. Tatum, meanwhile, put 39 on the Mavs in the first game, with 11 rebounds and five assists, and 32, eight, and three tonight. Most importantly, he was a +27 and a +17, and his team won both games.
Last season, one of the big things that tipped the MVP race in Joel Embiid's favor was his dominant performance over Nikola Jokić when the two teams played in Philly. Embiid dominated and his team won, and it was a major point in his favor. In these two games, Tatum put on dominant performances, and his team won. Luka Dončić can have his heliocentric triple doubles. They're completely meaningless without the win.
Is Jason Kidd the Dumbest Person Ever to Be the Head Coach of Multiple Teams?
The Mavericks tried to upgrade their talent by trading a first-round pick at the trade deadline for Daniel Gafford. There was just one problem with that plan. Their head coach is still Jason Kidd, and he's too dumb to play him. Gafford played for just five minutes and fifty-seven seconds tonight. Meanwhile, the very much useless Maxi Kleber and Dante Exum combined to play nearly 35 minutes. Their combined numbers? Five points, four rebounds, and three assists. That overstates their performance. Exum had a possession where he nearly fell down dribbling, and then airballed a wide-open three after Dončić drew three defenders in the paint. They were awful. Where was Gafford? Your guess is as good as mine. I just have a hard time seeing how the Mavs are ever a serious contender while Jason Kidd is their coach.
Somehow, It's Never Tom Thibodeau's Fault
In other news, it caught my attention that New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has now played Josh Hart 40+ minutes in five consecutive games. Hart is a strapping, strong man, and I generally don't like resting guys, but this is lunacy. It also is the kind of behavior that may have gotten OG Anunoby hurt in the first place.
Anunoby has never been the paragon of health. The only season he played 70+ regular season games was his rookie season. Since then, he's missed more than one-fourth of his team's regular-season games. In other words, he's a guy you don't want to run into the ground. But after not playing 40 minutes in any of his first 27 games of the season with Toronto, he played three consecutive 40-minute games on Jan. 15, 17, and 18. That back-to-back, Jan. 17 and 18, was the first and only time in his NBA career (409 regular-season games and 27 playoff games) that Anunoby played 40+ minutes on consecutive days. A week and a half later, he got hurt and hasn't been back since. Is that a coincidence? Maybe! But it sure seems like a wonky strategy.
A coach's main job is putting his players in the best position possible to succeed. I have a hard time believing that the way Thibodeau is riding his players is accomplishing that goal. And yet, no in the media ever holds him accountable. Curious.