NBA Game Notes: Mavs outscore Warriors; Playoff contenders take care of business

Notes from: DAL-GSW, NYK-ORL, PHX-POR, LAL-MEM

After a couple of days of NBA Cup games on Friday and Saturday, the NBA got back into full swing on Sunday. Several playoff contenders care of business, while the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors staged an epic shootout.

Here’s what I saw on Sunday!

Dallas Mavericks - 143 at Golden State Warriors - 133

• I am throwing down my gauntlets and challenging anyone who says the NBA is boring to call the Mavs-Warriors shootout a boring game. Were there a ton of three-pointers? Yup! Was the game awesome? Sure was!

• In somewhat of a rare twist, the Dallas reserves didn’t cover themselves in glory and they were outscored by what had been a struggling Golden State bench unit. But a few Mavs backups had nice nights.

  These moments are few and far between, but this (along with playing defense) is how Olivier-Maxence Prosper can earn more minutes. I really enjoyed that Prosper was girding up for the shot before he even got the ball. He was letting this one fly, no matter what:

• Prosper can learn a lot from Quentin Grimes. Grimes has become the Mavs 3&D wing that they needed when they traded away Josh Green. He does a great job staying rooted to his spot, because he knows the ball will come:

• Go back and look at the two above clips. There isn’t a better player in the NBA at finding the shooting in the opposite corner than Luka Doncic. Sure, he gets a little wild sometimes. But Doncic makes these passes so repeatedly, that they seem almost simple. Because of that, we take these sorts of plays for granted. That’s part of the brilliance of a superstar. They make the impossible look easy.

• In two games against his former team, Klay Thompson is averaging 25.5 points and has shot 13-for-23 - 56.5% - from behind the arc.

  Against everyone else, Thompson is 55-for-151 on three-pointers. That 36.4% marker is still fine, but it’s clear that Thompson has been a bit more dialed in to play the Warriors.

• Despite the offensive outburst, there were moments when you could really see why the Warriors made the trade for Dennis Schroder. At moments, offense just comes too hard for Golden State. Steve Kerr says he’s probably starting Schroder alongside Stephen Curry. That’s fine, but the real win will come from having Schroder to run the show in the non-Curry minutes.

• Still not entire sure what to make of how much Steve Kerr is playing Lindy Waters III. There are moments when it looks like Kerr likes the idea of Waters more than Waters is providing production.

  In this one, Waters earned his minutes. He knocked down four triples, but what was really exciting was snagging four second-half steals. This was the best of the bunch. Waters blew up the Mavericks plan to get the last shot and instead created one for the Warriors:

• Kerr is still searching for the right combinations. That’s going to continue with Dennis Schroder in the fold. One thing that is for sure is that Trayce Jackson-Davis needs to be part of whatever lineups that Kerr cooks up. When you’re searching for offense sometimes, let your playmaking big man do more of this:

New York Knicks - 100 at Orlando Magic - 91

• Another big rebounding night for Karl-Anthony Towns, as he snagged 22 rebounds, including 18 on the defensive glass. The defensive rebounding was huge, as Orlando is sending extra guys to the offensive boards to steal extra possessions for their limited offense. Towns made sure that didn’t happen too often.

• This play is outstanding offensive basketball from the Knicks. Jalen Brunson breaks down the defense before kicking to OG Anunoby. A good closeout from Orlando chases Anunoby off the arc, so he repeats the drive-and-kick to Josh Hart. Another good closeout forces Hart to put it on the floor before he kicks to Mikal Bridges. Three drive-and-kicks hitting the paint (or close enough) is how you beat a terrific on-ball, rotating defense like the Magic have:

• The Magic are super limited on offense right now (see: Jalen Suggs going 4-of-19 from the floor). Against a good team like New York, scheming for buckets can only get you so far. Expect a lot of games, especially against quality opponents, to look like this until Paolo Banchero is back, and eventually Franz Wagner. Orlando can hang in, but eventually, they just run out of gas.

• A silver lining of stars being out, that will help the Magic long-term, is that other guys get to explore the studio space. One of those players is rookie forward Tristan da Silva. He had a couple of nice self-created scores against the Knicks.

  First, da Silva did a nice job here to dribble into the post-up for the score over Josh Hart. The second clip is good work to get to the off-the-dribble pullup against a very good on-ball defender in OG Anunoby. Good stuff from da Silva here!

• Cole Anthony probably needs a longer leash right now. The defense can get a little sideways, but he’s one of the reliable on-ball creators Orlando has right now. Four points and five assists in nine minutes in this one. That screams that Anthony should have played more.