The Dallas Mavericks’ hot start to the season was extinguished by the Toronto Raptors, who beat them 127-116 last night. During the game, Grant Williams decided to use gamesmanship by sneakily tossing the ball at Dennis Schroder’s head and slapping him with no consequences.
https://twitter.com/TedBuddy8/status/1722516627470872628
Williams has had a great start to life on the Mavericks but had one of his first bad games against the Raptors, His defense was subpar and he scored just six points on 2-7 shooting. With Luka Doncic, Derrick Jones Jr., and Kyrie Irving carrying the scoring, the Mavs’ simply couldn’t defend the paint without Dereck Lively II and struggled to stop the likes of Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.
The Raptors are 4-4 this season, hoping to be competitive and make the playoffs as most of their key players are playing to earn big-money contracts in the summer. Given Masai Ujiri has already implied he thinks his stars were selfish last year, they have a lot to prove to him or teams around the league.
Schroder had a decent game, putting up 18 points and five assists. He had a few contentious moments in this game, also getting into a verbal altercation with Luka Doncic and Maxi Kleber during the game.
Dennis Schroder Has Beef With A Mavs’ Veteran
Schroder was being treated differently by the Mavs on the court, which could be a result of his ongoing beef with fellow German Maxi Kleber. Schroder made very strong remarks against Kleber before the FIBA World Cup in the summer, essentially forcing Kleber to withdraw his name from participation in the trophy.
“Maxi wasn’t there last year. If you didn’t commit – that was actually the message for all of us – then you won’t be there next year either… You throw in the corner, you defend. You’re a pick-and-roll player. You’re not a Carmelo Anthony type of player. You don’t have to work on your game. The older you get, the more you see what your strengths are. And you try to maximize them so blatantly that you can play in the NBA for as long as possible. For me, it’s like, ‘Maxi, working on your game? You can’t play in the NT for that?’ That bothered me a little bit, to be honest.”
When Kleber skipped EuroBasket 2022, he was coming off a heavy workload in the Mavs run to the 2022 Western Conference Finals. Schroder was almost out of the league that season, ending the year on the aimless Rockets after being traded away by the Boston Celtics earlier that season. He’s since rebuilt his value with a strong year for the Lakers, getting rewarded with a two-year, $26 million contract with the Raptors this summer.
Whether or not Williams was sticking up for Kleber is unclear, but the negative feelings about that situation had to be known to both players on the court. Kleber is playing through a toe injury right now and has looked unremarkable to begin the season, averaging 3.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. On the other hand, Schroder has had a great start to life on the Raptors as their starting point guard, averaging 17.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 8.4 assists.
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