the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Houston Rockets 112-106 on Friday night in Houston to push the Mavericks record to over .500 on the season (17-16) thanks to a monster 50-point game from Mavericks star Luka Doncic.
It wasn’t the crispiest game, as both teams had several spurts of flat, lousy basketball. The Mavericks TV show said that due to extreme winter weather in Minnesota, where the Mavericks played Wednesday night, and Dallas, where the Mavericks traveled to Houston, the team did not enter in their hotels until very early on Friday. That might explain some of the weird phases the Mavericks went through in this game.
Dallas started hot, going 30-24 opening quarter before pushing the lead up to 16 in the second quarter. Houston chipped away a bit to make it respectable at halftime, but in the third quarter the Rockets bombarded a lethargic looking Mavericks team, beating Dallas 34-20.
In the fourth quarter, it was time for Luka Doncic. Doncic pretty much closed the game on his own, scoring in a variety of ways before nailing a deep three-pointer in the closing seconds to give the Mavericks a five-point lead. Doncic finished with 50 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists. Jabari Smith Jr., the third pick in the 2022 draft, led Houston with 24 points.
Here’s what we noticed.
Luka Doncic is pretty good at basketball
On a night when his teammates had almost nothing to offer offensively, Luka Doncic had one of the best games of his career. It is the second time he has turned 50, narrowly missing his career high of 51 in a game last season against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Luka had it all in his bag tonight – rim hard drives, bullying post-ups, slick fadeaway midrange jumpers and the long ball. Doncic went 6 of 12 from three, the most three he had hit in a game since Dec. 21. 1 loss for Detroit Pistons.
It wasn’t just Luka’s goal, his pass was sublime too. The Mavericks had only two other double-digit players, and both players (Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans) had just 11 points apiece. Somehow, Doncic still got 10 assists, although he had seven turnovers. When Doncic didn’t lose the ball, he scored or threw sweet passes into the corner. Unfortunately, the non-Doncic Mavericks shot 10 of 32 from three.
Luka’s fourth quarter was by far his most impressive stretch as he almost single-handedly carried the Mavericks across the finish line. He scored 17 of 31 points for the Mavericks, passing 7 of 9 from the floor. After a Bertans three with 2:56 left in the game gave the Mavericks a 108-104 lead, Doncic’s teammates preceded to miss a bunch of open shots, before Doncic himself ended the things with a 30-foot three-point dagger with 19 seconds left.
A masterful performance from one of the best in the game. Hopefully this bodes well for the Mavericks’ upcoming Christmas Day showdown with the Lakers.
The Mavericks defied fate!
Tim Hardaway Jr. had a miserable shooting night, scoring seven points on 2-of-13 shooting, missing all seven of his three-point attempts.
While Hardaway is streaky isn’t breaking news, the Mavericks’ win during one of his cold spells certainly is – in Hardaway’s last 18 games, the Mavericks were 0-9 in games Hardaway shot less than 40% in three.
This may be the best news of the Mavericks season so far. There are only two conclusions (don’t argue with me): the Rockets are seriously a bad NBA team, or the Mavericks have broken a horrible curse that had a stranglehold on the outcome of the teams’ games. I choose to believe the latter and it may just be the good omen the Mavericks need to finally climb the Western Conference standings.
Dynamite effort from bench
The Mavericks injury list is starting to get to an uncomfortable level. Maxi Kleber is likely out for the rest of the season after surgery on his left hamstring. Dorian Finney-Smith missed his second straight game with an abductor injury. Josh Green was still out with a sprained elbow. To make matters worse, Reggie Bullock left the game in the third quarter with a sprained neck. It stinks!
That’s one of the main reasons the Mavericks hitting a record .500 while the team was at full health was so concerning — teams have rarely gone through an 82-game season injury-free. That’s why it was such a pleasant surprise to see the seriously stretched Mavericks bench put on a delightful performance.
Bertans wasn’t on fire, but his 11 points in 17 minutes were huge and he made a clutch three in the fourth quarter. Theo Pinson scored his first two three-pointers of the season in the first half. McKinley Wright jumped out of the G-League for his first regular season game with the Mavericks and had a respectable night leading the backup unit offensively. Frank Ntilikina, who entered tonight shooting 11 from 40 overall and 5 from 22 from three on the season made 3 of 4 shots, including one three-pointer.
With how dreadful the non-Luka starters were, the bench really saved this game from an embarrassing loss.
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