DALLAS — After losing 137-120 against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night, the Dallas Mavericks had lost five of their last six games. With the NBA's worst defense since the All-Star break, a message of impending changes being on the horizon was clear.
Against the Miami Heat, the Mavs inserted Daniel Gafford and Derrick Jones Jr. into the starting lineup in place of Dereck Lively II and Josh Green. After Tuesday's game, Mavs coach Jason Kidd communicated to reporters in his postgame press conference that many changes will be on the table, including adjustments to the starting lineup, rotation size, and minute distributions.
"We can fix this. We’ll be ready for Thursday," Kidd said. "We’ve got a lot of games left, but the personnel, we can look at different rotations. We can look at different starting lineups. We’ve talked about that before the game. We have options, and we’ll explore those.”
The Mavs felt they had tried "everything" defensively against the Pacers, but proved unable to get the job done. Dallas intended to review film of its shortcomings against Indiana in hopes of having a better outing against Miami next game.
“Yeah, well, we tried everything. We switched, switched to hit, we went zone, sometimes – give them credit,' Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. "They’re one of the best offensive teams in the league. And so, for us, it’s about the rotations, not giving up the corner 3 – which we have been here, so we’ll go back, look at the film, and see what we can do better."
Kidd emphasized Lively being a rookie and all of the downsides that come with it despite the excitement of seeing flashes of impact from a young player. It sounded as though this was a starting point for where a starting lineup change would occur.
"I know everyone gets excited because he did well against Victor, but like there's 81 more games to be played and there is a rookie wall," Kidd said. "He's a young man who's seen the NBA for the first time. There's going to be ups and downs. But that's why it's called a team. And that's why Gafford picked him up tonight. Maxi has to pick up Gafford. Gafford has to pick up Maxi. That's just the beauty of what this is.
"D Live, going through the rookie season, is having a heck of a rookie season. And he's going to only get better, but he could be tired," Kidd continued. "He's never played this many games, or this many minutes. I don't even know if he knows what letting go of the rope means. Sometimes being young or being a rookie, being naive, you can use that as a positive."
It remains to be seen what will stick in the Mavs' approach for the duration of the season. If the team's success doesn't improve in a hurry, there's no telling what else may end up being on the table as a struggling team searches for answers.
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