The Oklahoma City Thunder played the Dallas Mavericks in their first practice game in 2023. Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi was the place where the game took place. Even though it wasn’t a normal season game, the preseason game gave us a good look at the Mavericks team.
The Mavericks were able to make a few important moves over the summer that helped them get ready for the season. First, the Mavericks re-signed Kyrie Irving to a $126 million, three-year deal, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN. Grant Williams, Seth Curry, Derrick Jones Jr., and Richaun Holmes were also added.
Today, the Dallas Mavericks played the Minnesota Timberwolves in a practice game. Here are five things we learned about them.
Five things we learned after the Dallas Mavericks’ first practice game in 2023
The Mavericks lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 99–111. Here are five things we learned from their first game of the 2023–24 season.
#5: Grant Williams’s good performance
The Dallas Mavericks got some good players when they signed Grant Williams. He scored 9 points on 2-of-7 shooting and grabbed 2 boards. Around the middle of the second quarter, Williams gave the Dallas team new life by hitting two straight 3-pointers.
His perimeter defense was a little rusty, but it still showed signs of the defensive range he had when he played for the Boston Celtics.
Fourth, Jaden Hardy shines
In his first season with the team, Jaden Hardy showed what he could do by scoring 8.8 points per game on 43.8% shooting, including 40.4% from 3-point range. Hardy played in more than 48 games for the Dallas Mavericks as a rookie.
Coming off the bench in the preseason game against the Timberwolves, Hardy blew everyone away. The Mavericks’ guard scored 13 points (4 of 10 shots, including 0 of 4 from 3-point range) and gave out three assists.
#3: This is still a defense issue
If you look at the whole league, the Dallas Mavericks had the 25th-best defense last year. They also had a 116.1 grade for defense. They had another tough game against the Timberwolves earlier because defense was a big problem for them in the 2022–23 season.
Their defense let Minnesota score 111 points, hitting over 44.2% and 31.4% from three-point range.
#2: Offense that needs to be fixed
The team’s attack also had a tough game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, in addition to their bad defense. Dallas got 99 points by making 37.0% of their shots, including 30.4% from three-point range.
The only starter who scored more than 10 points was Luka Doncic, who scored 25 points. The only bench player who scored more than 10 points was Jaden Hardy.
#1: The team of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving is still not ready to play together.
It was 16 games last year that Doncic and Irving played together. It did, however, lead to a bad 5-11 record. Since there haven’t been many games yet, the goal for the next season is to get the team to work well together.
But much of what they did at their most recent show was the same. Besides Doncic’s 25 points, Kyrie Irving had a tough time scoring with only 2 points (1 of 6 shooting, 0 of 2 from 3-point range).
No matter what, they still have a long 82-game season to go, which gives them plenty of time to keep getting better together.