The Wizards always see former players and coaches when they take on the Mavericks.
The first game for the Wizards following the Rui Hachimura trade ironically is with a team the Wizards made a trade with just last year. The Dallas Mavericks now have former Wizards Davis Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie as active contributors to their squad. For Bertans and Dinwiddie, the Mavericks sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Wizards. It seems like the trade is working out so far for both teams.
Last night against the Wizards, Dinwiddie had 20 points and eight assists in 35 minutes of playing time. He hit a three-pointer late in the game that helped the Mavericks get in position to potentially win the game. Ultimately, the Mavericks were unsuccessful.
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Bertans scored seven points, one rebound, and one steal in last night’s contest.
Two more familiar faces are on the Dallas Mavericks coaching staff.
Kristi Toliver is a Harrisonburg, Virginia native and former University of Maryland Basketball Lady Terrapin. With the Lady Terps, Toliver was a member of the school’s first women’s basketball championship team. Being in the WNBA since 2009, Toliver has experienced championship status again with the LA Sparks and Washington Mystics. In 2018, she joined the Wizards coaching staff as an assistant. With her WNBA moves back to LA, she now spends her offseason on the Mavericks coaching staff.
Jared Dudley had a short stint with the Wizards in the 2015 – 2016 season after he was traded to the team from the Milwaukee Bucks. He would move on to play for the Suns (a second stint), and Brooklyn Nets before landing a championship with the Lakers in 2020. After announcing his retirement from the NBA, Dudley joined the Dallas Mavericks coaching staff.
“That’s not a one-man job. Luka is a great player,” Lillard explained in an interview with Brooke Olzendam of the Trail Blazers. “He does the same thing to everybody. He’s going to come out, you know, he had a 60-point triple-double this year, and he scores 40 seems like every night, so it’s important that we make it a team effort. We gave him a lot of attention. We sent two guys on him all night. That can be exhausting. To have two guys in your face and you have gotta be willing to trust your teammates, and I think we would lose to other guys hitting shots than lose to him. They couldn’t sustain it tonight, but tomorrow is a different story. We’ve just got to look at what we did well tonight and repeat it tomorrow and just know that they’re going to come harder.”
Luka Doncic Asked Mavericks for More Help
While Doncic has been playing great this year, it’s clear that the Mavericks are a piece or two away from seriously competing for a title. And according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, he recently indicated to the Mavericks front office that he wants them to add help at the trade deadline.
“Sources said Doncic, who hasn’t shown a desire to be involved in personnel matters in the past, has strongly indicated he wants the Mavs to upgrade before the Feb. 9 trade deadline,” MacMahon wrote.
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