Beaubois shows what hype was about
The long-delayed Roddy Show finally aired Wednesday night and it had the feel of Opening Day at the ballpark. A buzz was in the air and hope sprang eternal.
Unlike Opening Day, where the result has little bearing on the rest of the season, this night felt like it had plenty of meaning for the Dallas Mavericks. It didn't matter that the opponents were the lowly Sacramento Kings, made even more vulnerable by the absence of Tyreke Evans.
The victory on this night was that 55 games into the season the Mavs finally welcomed back their budding youngster, Roddy Beaubois, and he provided all the swiftness and sizzle -- with a few hiccups and expected fatigue along the way -- the club could have hoped for with 13 points, six assists, three steals and three turnovers in 21 minutes.
The most interesting aspect of his night was how often Beaubois handled the ball while playing with Jason Kidd, who benefited from Beaubois' penetrations with wide-open 3-point looks. He knocked down 6-of-7 from beyond the arc and five in the Mavs' 35-point third quarter.
For all the angst about Beaubois' ability to play the point, he and J.J. Barea both handled the ball for large portions with Kidd on the floor. Barea (11 points, 10 assists) and Beaubois each had more assists than Kidd, who compiled probably one of the rarer and more improbable line scores of his career with 20 points and just four assists.
"Jason will probably have fewer assists now if he's going to play with Roddy more," Carlisle said, "because it allows him to play off the ball, which allows him to be a different kind of playmaker, which is a positive for us."
A 17-year career devoted to setting up others is suddenly, and tactically, going to earn a measure of payback with the help of a young, ultra-quick penetrator (and really two with Barea's recent stellar play at the point) still learning how it's done?
"Roddy and those guys found me in my new position," Kidd said. "I wanted to get the ball to Roddy to get him comfortable. The more he has the ball the sooner he can maybe get more minutes and get him a little bit more comfortable. I'm not going to beat him down the court, so get him going towards the basket and trail and spot up and stretch the defense.
"If I can do what I did tonight, hopefully that just makes it easier for him to get to the basket and then also for others guys to do what they do best. You see J.J. finding guys. It just makes the game so much fun and easy for everybody."
