Heading in to last Tuesday night's opening tilt in a six-game home stand against the lowly Golden State Warriors – losers of eight of their previous nine games – it is doubtful that you thought the Mavs would be required to play their ace card to win the game. But this season, Dallas has a nice shiny red button that they can't wait to push: one that activates their fourth quarter defense, and they happily slapped it again to squash the Bay Area bottom-feeders.
With the score 72-71 for the Warriors after three periods, the Mavericks were in the familiar position of having to pull out a game down the stretch with their late game D, the trait more responsible for their nine-game winning streak entering the game than any barrage of Dirk jumpers or timely Jet three-pointers. And this time, they didn't have defensive anchor Tyson Chandler to backstop their efforts as he was out with a stomach virus.
No problem. The Warriors became the first victim of Les Tours Jumelle (Twin Towers): Alexis Ajinca and Ian Mahinmi combined for 15 points and 16 rebounds, and Mahinmi was on the court for the entire fourth quarter after logging only 39 minutes all season. Mahinmi did a splendid imitation of Chandler, grabbing boards and either blocking shots or altering Warriors' attempts around the rim as he plugged in perfectly in the Mavs' fourth quarter defense and threw down his first double-double. Even non-rotation players are taking pride in defense.
The Mavs ended up forcing seven Warriors turnovers and blocked a pair of shots in the game's final 12 minutes and outscored Golden State 34-28 – a pair of garbage-time threes by Dorrell Wright and Vladimir Radmonovic allowed the Warriors to surpass Dallas' season average of fourth quarter points allowed – on their way to a 105-100 victory, their tenth straight.
Defense has become the Mavericks calling card this year and has been the primary reason the squad is 17-4 through the first quarter of the season and has San Antonio Spurs' head coach Gregg Popovich calling them “the best team in basketball.” They are currently the 4th ranked defense in the league in opponents' points per game (92.6) and 3rd in opponents' field goal percentage (.433), both vast improvements over last season when they ranked 15th in both categories (99.3 and .457).
Specifically, it is the team's fourth quarter defense that has become one of the story lines around the league. Heading on to the Warriors' game, the Mavs surrendered an average of 22 points per fourth quarter, tops in the NBA, and held opponents to 40.8% shooting in the final frame, 2nd in the league. They are now a league-leading 5-1 in games where they trailed going in to the fourth quarter.
It appears that head coach Rick Carlisle, in his third season at the helm, has finally got a stable of horses to carry out his defensive schemes – one that believes in the system and, more importantly, each other. The off-season addition of Chandler has been instrumental in the team's surge in defensive confidence; he has injected an enthusiasm and a swagger in the defense that Mavs' fans have rarely seen for extended stretches. And don't underestimate the insertion of DeShawn Stevenson in to the starting lineup on November 8 against the Boston Celtics, a move that put a pair of defensive aces on the court from the jump. Since Carlisle made that move, the team is 14-2.
During the current ten-game winning streak, the defensive numbers have been particularly strong:
-They have held nine of the ten teams below their season average in scoring, and limited five of the teams to 10 or more points below their norm.
-They have given up just 93 ppg and held their opponents to 43% shooting over the 10 game stretch that included wins over seven teams that average more than 100 ppg.
With three of the next five home games coming against New Jersey, Milwaukee and Portland, it's likely that we are only going to see these numbers continue to improve.
The bottom line is that the Mavericks have shot to the top of many experts' power rankings, and to within a half-game of the San Antonio Spurs, because of their much-improved defensive performance. They have defended at a high level in stretches before, but never have actually been recognized as a defensive force. That may change this year. According to basketball-reference.com, we are witnessing the best defensive team the Mavericks have ever fielded as their current defensive rate of 101.8 points per 100 possessions is far and away the best in franchise history! (Insert lame Don Nelson joke here.)
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