Mavericks vs. Suns Final Score: Dallas loses at Phoenix, 114-102

The Dallas Mavericks fell to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night on the road, losing 114-102. Kevin Durant led a balanced Suns shooting effort, scoring 31 points. Luka Doncic was the best man for Dallas in the loss with 40 points. Dallas falls to 1-1 this season.

The Suns and Mavericks went back and forth in the first quarter, with Dallas taking a 7-2 lead. Phoenix responded quickly with an attack and took the lead on multiple possessions while Dallas struggled to shoot the ball. The Mavericks remained within striking distance of the Suns, but better shooting from Phoenix helped maintain the lead. Luka Doncic earned seven free throw attempts in the frame to help Dallas close the shooting gap, and the Mavericks trailed 28-26 after one quarter.

Phoenix quickly jumped out to a five-point lead and the Mavericks struggled to keep up for much of the quarter. Dallas struggled to string together stops, made baskets and trailed by double digits for all but a few minutes of the second half. Lively picked up his third foul with 4:29 left in the frame and head coach Jason Kidd opted to play small with Maxi Kleber at five. Jusif Nurkic attacked the court tirelessly, scoring or fouling on four consecutive possessions to keep Phoenix ahead. Doncic free throws cut the lead to single digits and Dallas trailed 63-55 after two periods of basketball.

The sloppy, referee-controlled basketball continued into the third round, with a lengthy stoppage in play due to a too-long review of a flagrant foul. Dallas' poor offense exacerbated the problem; Too many threes and long jumps and not enough drives at the rim, coupled with poor finishing at the edge of those drives. The Mavericks stayed down through several possessions and never seemed to dent the Suns' lead. Dallas never looked consistently awake and, due to an error at the end of the quarter, was down by double digits before the start of the fourth quarter, trailing 91-80.

Dallas finally played with some strength in the fourth quarter, cutting the game to six, but a tie midway through the quarter by both teams left the score tied at 96-90 on multiple possessions. The Suns opened the game with two three-pointers and a Durant finish. Dallas tried to hold on and cut the lead to 10 points in less than four minutes. But the Mavericks failed to put together a decent series of possessions and were embarrassed in their second game of the season with a 114-102 loss.

Now a few thoughts…

A lack of attack from Dallas

The Phoenix Suns have no rim protection. And yet, in their second game of the season, the Mavericks didn't try to force the issue. The choice of shots… almost every one felt bizarre. Phoenix played drop coverage with Jusuf Nurkic and Dallas settled for a lot of mid-range shots that they couldn't make. This Dallas team scoring 102 points is pretty ridiculous.

Maverick bank paging

The Dallas bench scored 7 points! Naji Marshall is just 2 of 11 from the field this year and his shots seem unfamiliar with the game of basketball. Maxi Kleber scored two of those seven points and injured his thigh, so it's likely we'll next see him in December. Dereck Lively was the other substitute with five points, but he looked as confused as I've seen him in a regular season game. Yes, he grabbed 11 rebounds, but he played poorly on defense and wasn't often in good defensive rebounding position while also committing bone-headed fouls. Jaden Hardy was 0-4 and while he wasn't bad, he needs to get better if he wants to play 12 minutes.

The Western Conference is too good to give up games

We all understand that 82 games is too many. We all understand that sometimes men have evenings off. But in the second game of the regular season, the Dallas Mavericks played a game where it looked like they thought they could flip the switch and easily beat the Suns. That chance never came and now they are 1-1 after losing to a team for the second night in a row. I'm sure some fans are mad at Jason Kidd, some are mad at the refs, some are still mad at a guy like PJ Washington. The bottom line is the Mavericks as a team that can't afford to lose games due to a lack of urgency. The West is simply too overloaded.