At the tail-end of a five-game homestand to open up the season, the Dallas Mavericks desperately needed to pull away a victory over a depleted Indiana Pacers team, even though Dallas was fairly injury-riddled themselves as well. Dallas needed an extra scoring punch badly, as Anthony Davis left the contest in the first quarter due to left leg soreness.
However, 25-year-old guard Brandon Williams was able to provide that punch, leading Dallas in scoring with 20 points off 9-14 shooting from the field in only 22 minutes, and no one expected this considering how the last few days had fared for Williams.
Williams' best game of the season comes in the face of some tremendous adversity over the past few days, as he went to attend a funeral for a close friend back home, only for him to be arrested for marijuana possession at DFW Airport. Williams spoke to the media before the game and apologized for the distraction, and while the investigation is still ongoing, it seems unlikely Williams will get heavily penalized considering how lax the NBA has become on marijuana related charges.
Brandon Williams is forcing Jason Kidd's hand in Dallas' rotation
So long as Williams' legal trouble doesn't interfere here, he proved last night that he should be Dallas' first point guard in the rotation, whether that's coming off the bench or starting. Williams' ability to get downhill and his ball-handling repertoire are unrivaled compared to any other guard on Dallas' roster (besides Kyrie Irving when he's healthy), and he's an elite finisher at the rim.
Almost all of Williams' 20 points last night were tough finishes at the rim off the dribble, and this is something the Mavericks had been desperately lacking in their first four games of the season. D'Angelo Russell has been a solid table-setter and playmaker for the Mavericks so far this season, but he simply doesn't have the burst or downhill ability that Williams has, nor is he as adept a finisher.
Head coach Jason Kidd even played Russell and Williams together last night, and it honestly complemented both of them from the standpoint that Indiana wasn't able to solely focus on just one creator throughout some parts of the game. Sure, there may be some matchups that warrant Russell playing more than Williams, particularly if Dallas needs more distributing once Irving rejoins the lineup, but Williams is Dallas' best bet as a lead point guard right now.
With the way Williams finished last season, there's no doubt he has some tantalizing three-level scoring potential, especially if his 3-ball can continue to trend in the right direction like fans saw from him at the end of last season. Williams is a solid pick-and-roll playmaker and doesn't make a ton of mistakes passing in the half-court either, even if he's not quite on the same level as Russell, likely due to being a little smaller than him.
Williams is easily a better defender than Russell as well, even despite the height and length disadvantage, as Williams plays with tremendous effort on defense and uses his athleticism to his advantage, even if he's not an elite point of attack guy.
This game versus Indiana wasn't some one-off occasion for Williams, as he had many games like this for Dallas toward the end of last season, as aforementioned, so this game should really push the notion in Kidd's mind to give Williams more minutes going forward at the very least, especially after a great summer from Williams.
Williams had a rough start to the season with an injury in training camp as well as his aforementioned incident, but he put all of these deterring factors in the rearview mirror on Wednesday night, as it should give the Mavericks hope he can continue to replicate this type of production as a starter or the first point guard off the bench given how he stepped up in the midst of one of the roughest stretches he's probably ever gone through in his personal life.
