The offense is elite again

There was obviously lots of talk about the Mavericks record-setting offense going into the offseason. The team elected to trade some of that firepower in for some grit & toughness on defense. A thought process I think we can all understand.

Through the first month or so, that calculated step back on offense looked more like a hop, skip, and a jump. They regressed all the way to the worst three-point shooting team in the league and a bottom half offense.

Thankfully, the month of February came. And so did the Mavericks offensive explosion. Their three-point shooing has climbed from dead last up to 22nd. And their points per possession had followed suit jumping all the way to 11th.

Its been a weird year. The Mavericks “flow” offense has a noticeable lack of…well flow. But things seems to be coming together and just in time. They have a real chance to gain ground coming out of the All-Star chute.

Luka’s three-point shot is becoming a game changer 

If you woulda told me that Luka would be shooting 36% from deep by mid-season back in early January, I would have called your crazy. He shot 9% from three in December. 9!!!

But here we are, early March, and that percentage has made climbed all the way up to 36%. He is roughly 39% on threes in the new year. 44% from back there in February and he got March started with a 5/10 showing.

It really came out of the blue, but it is certainly welcome. Will it continue? Probably not at this blistering of a rate, but I think it’s fair to say he’s improved as a shooter.

KP is looking better defensively 

This is a big one from the last two games. The Mavericks certainly won’t feel great about giving up 124 points to an undermanned Magic team, but for the second straight game, their rim defense was very good thanks to KP and co.

It in large part made the Magic so perimeter. Now, they feasted from out there (20/41), an outlier performance no doubt, but KP looking himself down low will pay big dividends down the stretch.