Getty Boban Marjanovic, Mavericks
It has been a while since we have seen Boban Marjanovic get significant minutes in an NBA game for the Mavericks, but a spate of injuries to the team’s big guys—Maxi Kleber and Kristaps Porzingis are both out with back issues—has forced Jason Kidd to tinker with using the 7-foot-4 Serb.
It paid off on Wednesday against San Antonio, when Marjanovic notched 17 points in just 15 minutes of action, going 8-for-10 from the field as the Mavs improved to 5-3 with a road W over the Spurs.
But more than Marjanovic’s point production was the duty he performed on the final play of the game, with San Antonio down by one point and inbounding the ball from three-quarters court with two seconds on the clock. That is plenty of time to get a shot off, of course—unless you’re trying to hurl a pass over a behemoth like Marjanovic.
That is what Keldon Johnson was faced with on the final play. All he could do, as Marjanovic bounced with his arms raised in front of him, was toss a prayer of a pass toward the far sideline, where Spurs guard Dejounte Murray was unable to handle it. Turnover, game over.
trying to run a play while Boban is guarding the inbound = game over
“You gotta win those close games,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said, “and he helped for sure tonight on the offensive end and defensive end. But that last play, it was big for us.”
Boban Was Set to Play Minutes vs. Spurs
Kidd said that the plan all along had been to give Marjanovic minutes against the Spurs, who were dealing with their own problems at center thanks to an injury to starter Jakob Poeltl. San Antonio started Drew Eubanks at center and really had no backup on the bench.
“Boban stepped in,” Kidd said. “We had him slated to play tonight and he delivered. He’s delivered every time he’s played. We’ve gotta find time for him in that rotation. But he was big—everybody is going to look at the points and stuff, but the last play of the game was huge for us, to put him on the ball and make the pass as difficult as possible.”
Jason Kidd Once Threw a Game Winning Pass Over Yao Ming
Kidd had a smile when he was reminded by reporter Tim Cato of The Athletic of a similar situation he was in 11 years ago, when he was playing for Dallas and the team was facing the Rockets at home. With 0.4 seconds on the clock, Kidd threw an alley-oop over 7-foot-5 Houston center Yao Ming to a streaking Shawn Marion, who finished the play for the win.
It was something Kidd might have thought about when he put Marjanovic into the game. But he did not have time.
“Unfortunately, there is a lot going on very fast, so Yao and myself did not come into the picture until you just said that,” Kidd said. “But that’s a great comparison. That play was a little different because that was on the other side of halfcourt and this one was three-quarters court. The thought, as the review happened, it helped us—helped the Spurs organize a play—to be able to sub to get Boban in to change the pass pattern that they were going to try to throw. Again, Boby did a great job of making it go as high as possible to give us a chance to deflect it or intercept it.”