Coming off a bounce-back win over the Jazz 24-hours earlier, the Mavericks travelled north to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves. After being ousted in the Western Conference Finals by the Mavs last season, the Wolves had revenge on their mind. Despite a scorching hot start from Anthony Edwards, the Mavericks stayed close and used a third quarter burst to take the lead enroute to a 120-114 win to bring their record to 3-1.
In this article, we’ll recap and grade each player’s performance for the night. Since we are only a few iterations deep, we have again listed the basic ground rules on how we approach grading.
- Grades will be given to all Mavericks players who logged meaningful game time/stats.
- The grading system will use an alphabetical scale of: D, C-, C, C+, B-, B, B+, A-, A, A+ (for those who prefer a numeric scale, you’ll notice you can conveniently use these ten letter grades as a 1-10 scale if you prefer – we love math people, too).
- There is no F grade. It would defy credibility to categorize anyone capable of making an NBA roster as a “fail,” no matter how bad a game they had.
- Players will generally be graded to scale. In other words, a Luka A+ is going to look different than a Dwight Powell A+ for obvious reasons.
If a player logged mostly garbage time and had few or no stats, they will not be included or otherwise given an N/A instead of a grade.
Without further ado, here are the grades for your Dallas Mavericks in their win against the Timberwolves.
Luka Doncic: B-
24 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal
Luka had some nice numbers on some not-so-nice shooting. In the first game of this back-to-back, his percentages were horrendous. Tonight they were marginally better, but his threes have taken a nose dive two nights in a row. After going 1-for-9 from three last night, he went 1-for-8 tonight. However, this is Luka and the three he did hit was a massive knock-out punch. With 1:04 left in the game, the Mavericks had a five-point lead and the ball. Luka was well defended, but pulled up for a three that was closer to the half-court line than the three-point line. Nothing but net to give the Mavs an eight-point lead.
Kyrie Irving: A+
35, points 4, rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal
For the second night in a row, Irving was blistering and looked to be much more in his groove than he did the first two games of the season. He again shot nearly 60% from the field and a whopping 75% from three, going 6-for-8 from beyond the arc. The only thing close to a blemish on his game tonight was when he inexplicably missed two free throws with 20-seconds remaining and the Mavs up by four points. Despite this, he gets top marks tonight because of his point total, huge three after huge three when the Wolves were making pushes, and ridiculous shooting percentages.
Klay Thompson: C+
7 points, 1 assist, 1 steal
In this fourth game of the season, Thompson finally had a sub-par outing, going 2-for-7 from the floor (all three-point attempts). Even in a poor game, you could see the attention he gets just being on the floor, which helped open things up for others. Still, this was a forgettable one.
PJ Washington: B+
17 points, eight rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal
Washington kept his momentum going with another nice outing. Just shy of a second straight double-double, he shot 53.8% from the floor and 50% on threes (3-for-6), finally breaking through in that department. He actually cooled off as the game went on, but looks to be getting into a rhythm.
Dereck Lively II: B+
5 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 1 block
Lively’s box score won’t blow you away, but he had a big impact on this game with his interior defense and his efforts to help equalize Rudy Gobert. He grabbed four of his nine rebounds on the offensive glass and he forced turnovers with quick hands for a nice bundle of steals.
Naji Marshall: B-
4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
Marshall had a solid game, but still hasn’t displayed his highest upside. He does look to be a bit more comfortable with where he is on the floor and reading the tendencies of his teammates. His biggest highlight of the night was undoubtedly the steal he got off Anthony Edwards with 13-seconds left in the game. This came immediately after Kyrie missed two free throws, and his quick hands put the game on ice.
Quentin Grimes: B
9 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal
Grimes broke out a bit in this one, scoring all of his points on a very efficient 3-for-5 from three-point land. His stat line wasn’t mind-blowing, but it’s important to note he did his damage in only 12 minutes of play and looked smart doing it. He was in the right spots at the right times and capitalized on his opportunities.
Daniel Gafford: B+
14 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block
Gafford continues to be Gafford. He has consistently done what you’d expect, save for shooting percentages lower than his league-leading percentage from last season. That changed tonight as he went 6-for-6 from the field. While it would have been nice to see a higher rebounding total, it was again difficult to see any major fault in his game tonight.
Spencer Dinwiddie: C+
3 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Dinwiddie shot a paltry 1-for-5 on the evening and that shooting mark largely outweighs the rest of his resume for the night. A couple of rebounds and assists were nice for his 18 minutes of action, but you only have to look to last night to see what he’s capable of on this team.
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