DALLAS -- On the day Houston agreed to trade Christian Wood to the Mavericks this past summer, Rockets coach Stephen Silas and Wood spoke about the business realities of the NBA.
Mostly, though, Silas told Wood how fortunate he was.
“I told him that playing with Luka is going to be great for him,” Silas said. And, “Playing for this organization, that just went to the Western Conference finals, was going to be great.”
Silas, though, never told Wood there would be nights like Wednesday, when the Luka Doncic-less Mavericks would lose to the NBA-worst, Rockets, 101-92, in American Airlines Center.
Wood (26 points) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (28) points came off the bench and led the Mavericks in scoring, but Dallas (8-6) otherwise didn’t have enough firepower as the Rockets (3-12) had seven players who scored in double figures.
Dallas fell to 8-2 at home, including 2-1 on this five-game home stand. In many respects, this bad loss could be blamed on what occurred 24 hours earlier.
One night after squandering a 25-point lead but holding on to beat the Clippers by two, the Mavericks not only played without Doncic (rest), but Maxi Kleber (lower back contusion) and JaVale McGee (neck strain).
“Maybe just fatigue from last night,” coach Jason Kidd said after watching his team shoot 55 3-pointers, making only 12, and shooting 30.4% for the night. Unfathomably, Houston blocked 19 Mavericks shots and outrebounded Dallas 56-38.
“We played too many minutes last night, and that’s why guys didn’t go to the paint and settled for threes. . . We shot 55 threes; didn’t shoot the ball straight. Nineteen blocked shots, I’ve never seen that stat, either.”
Dallas suited up only 11 players, of which three were forced to play significant minutes against the Clippers: Spencer Dinwiddie (41), Dorian Finney-Smith (36) and Reggie Bullock (31).
Dinwiddie clearly was weary legged. He shot 3-of-18 from the field, including 1-of-9 on 3-pointers, and finished with nine points. Hardaway and Wood were the only Mavericks who scored in double figures.
Last season the Mavericks were 10-10 in games in which Doncic didn’t play, including 2-1 in the playoffs, but Wednesday was his first absence of this season.
Fortuitously for Dallas, it seemed, the opponent was a Houston team that had lost three straight and nine of its last 10 games.
After never leading during the game’s first 14 minutes, Dallas finally seemed to gain traction when Facu Campazza, Wood and Finney-Smith sank consecutive 3-pointers to give the Mavericks their biggest lead, 51-42.
Houston, though, outscored Dallas 15-0 the rest of the first half.
“We’ve just got to be better, man, just got to be better,” Hardaway said. “From start to finish. There’s no excuse.
“We played a good young team that plays fast, but we should have taken care of business at home. . . . Just really disappointing.”
Wood and Silas have a longstanding relationship dating to Wood’s second NBA season, 2016-17, when he played 13 games for a Charlotte team on which Silas was an assistant coach.
Before the 2020-21 season, during the offseason in which Silas left his Mavericks assistant position to become the Rockets’ head coach, Houston acquired Wood from Detroit in a sign-and-trade, giving Wood a three-year, $41 million contract.
Wood said the opportunity to play for Silas was a big reason for signing with Houston, as was the chance to play with James Harden. Harden and Wood, though, played only seven games together before Harden forced a trade to Brooklyn.
On the night of Wood’s trade to Dallas, Silas told Wood that playing with Doncic would be like the opportunity that he never got to fully experience.
“Because when he played with James Harden for a short period of time, his rolls and pops were different,” Silas said. “It’s different when you’re playing with the guy who’s who can really make those plays, like Luka.”
But on Wednesday, Wood didn’t get to play with Doncic. Nor did any of the Mavericks. The result, compounded by a blown lead the previous night, was a home loss to the worst team in the NBA.
