Mavericks’ summer leaguers playing more as a team

Now that they’ve gotten their joy back, the Dallas Mavericks’ summer league team believes the next step for them is to take the Las Vegas Summer League trophy back to Dallas.

The Mavs face the Atlanta Hawks at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in the summer league quarterfinals. A win in that game, another one Sunday and one in Monday’s championship game will give the Mavs their first title during summer league play.

Just the idea of a championship was difficult for the Mavs to imagine when they lost their first three games. But when the summer league’s 24 teams were reseeded Tuesday, the Mavs have looked like a different team.

“Hopefully we can keep winning and play until Monday,” guard Maalik Wayns said. “Let’s keep this thing going. When you win, everything is better.”

The Mavs followed Wednesday’s victory over Washington with a solid 104-88 triumph over D-League Select on Thursday.

The last win was a complete game for the Mavs. They posted summer league highs in points (104), rebounds (46), assists (20), field goal percentage (50.6 percent) and 3-point shooting (42.1 percent), and also outrebounded D-League Select by 13.

“We’re getting better moving the ball and I think we’re more connected defensively,’’ summer league coach Kaleb Canales said. “Like I said, our mindset coming into this tournament is we’re 0-0 and we still feel that we haven’t played our best basketball yet.’’

“I hope we play better,” Canales said. “I think it’s a byproduct of us moving the ball, us trusting the pass and us playing in tempo and pace.

“I think it’s just us being connected on the offensive end of the floor. We’re getting better moving the ball and I think we’re more connected defensively.”

Rookie forward Justin Anderson thinks the Mavs’ recent success has more to do with the team becoming more familiar with each other.

“We’re just trying to jell, and for those first three we never want to look at it like it didn’t matter, because absolutely every time out matters,’’ Anderson said. “But at the same time we were just trying to find our way.

“A couple of those other teams had played in [previous summer leagues in] Utah or in Orlando, or have been practicing for a while. We just had a week of training camp and we hadn’t really gotten to go up and down the floor against teams, but now we’ve kind of gotten a little flow and we’ve got it clicking.”

Clicking to the point where the Mavs look totally different than the disjointed team that couldn’t get any key stops or critical baskets in the first three games. Now, the Mavs’ whole outlook has been altered for the better.

“We’ve got a tough matchup ahead of us,’’ Anderson said of the game against the Hawks. “But at the same time I think teams need to worry about us a little bit more rather than us worrying about other teams.’’

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ summer leaguers playing more as a team."