The Dallas Mavericks traveled to New Orleans after beating Portland last night. Going up against Anthony Davis on tired legs isn’t a recipe for success and it showed. The Pelicans shot 60% from the field in the first half. They often got the shots they wanted, where they wanted, and converted them. Dallas once again had a hard time defending the paint. The result is a 132-106 loss.

Road woes continue

Dallas falls to 2-9 on the road this season. They are now 0-3 in the second games of back-to-back sets and have shot 41% from the field and 30% from three in those games. Their opponents have shot 51% and 45%, respectively. The Pelicans shot the best out of their three opponents. New Orleans’ 26-point win was due in large part to shooting 57% from the field and 59% from three. The Mavs will look to fix their road woes against the Phoenix Suns on December 13th. They host the Rockets, Magic, and Hawks at home prior to the Suns game.

Turnovers

Dallas committed 18 turnovers against the Pelicans, two more than their season average. The Pelicans only scored 16 points off those turnovers, but they also lead to 29 fast break points. The turnovers are more of an indication of how forced the offense seemed to be. Dallas’ offense didn’t have its usual flow and there were lots of isolation shots. It was similar to how they looked whenever they were struggling at the beginning of the season. They did finish with 26 assists, but most of them were after the game was already out of hand. The Mavs will need to get back to moving the ball around and finding good open shots, instead of contested isolation shots, if they want to beat Houston on Saturday.

Defense M.I.A

The Pelicans are good and loaded with talent. They have plenty of guys who can make shots but there is no reason for them to shoot so efficiently. A large part of the Pelicans high shooting percentage was because they got quality shots either at the rim or wide open. DeAndre Jordan was once again lost in the pick and roll, often leaving the lane wide open. The defense didn’t rotate correctly, which lead to open threes, which the Pelicans made 17 of. Is it odd to say that they looked like they missed Dennis Smith Jr. on that end? Because it looked like they did. His defensive energy has been important to the Mavs recent success. Hopefully his sore wrist doesn’t keep him out of anymore games.

Dallas host the Houston Rockets on Saturday at 6:00 PM on Fox Sports Southwest.