The Dallas Mavericks picked up a 103-94 victory at home over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday. Despite being without two regular starters in Kristaps Porzingis and Maxi Kleber, who missed their fourth and second consecutive games, respectively, the Mavericks got the win.
Luka Doncic finished with 18 points, ten rebounds, and 11 assists for his second consecutive triple-double and ninth this season. Doncic seemed poised to have an even more impressive stat line, but fouls played a massive role in this game.
Doncic and fellow starting guard Jalen Brunson had to sit the majority of the second half due to having five fouls each. Backup guard Trey Burke also picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter.
Doncic picked up his fifth foul just 53 seconds into the third quarter and sat the rest of the period. Midway through the third, Brunson picked up his fifth foul, forcing him to the bench.
With three of the Mavericks’ top guards just one foul away from fouling out, Dallas was disadvantaged, especially against Atlanta’s All-Star guard Trae Young. Yet, they still managed to win as their defense stifled the Hawks.
The Mavericks were able to get 21 points off of 12 forced turnovers. Dallas was also careless with the ball, racking up 14 total turnovers. However, Atlanta could only manage to convert them into seven points.
After scoring near 25 points each of the first three quarters, the Mavericks held the Hawks to only 18 points in the fourth quarter. Doncic returned for the final nine minutes to be part of the solid fourth-quarter defensive performance. Brunson returned with about six minutes remaining, which he would finish with 22 points, including from a season-high four three-pointers.
The Hawks entered the game leading the NBA in three-point shooting percentage (37%). On Sunday, they were forced into several contested three-pointers and only managed to make 5-of-25 (20%) attempts. That includes Young, who is known as an effective long-range shooter, going 0-of-6 from three.
Overall, Young had a game below his All-Star standards. He finished with 19 points, making only 6-of-19 shot attempts, for which Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith deserve credit, as they shared the primary defender duties on Young the majority of the night. Bullock was vital to the win both defensively and offensively, adding 22 points and a season-high nine rebounds, with two clutch three-pointers in the last two minutes of the game.
Finney-Smith was the only regular starter who was not in foul trouble, allowing him to remain on the court when Brunson and Doncic had to sit in the third quarter. Finney-Smith played a game-high 42 minutes and helped the Mavericks go into the fourth quarter with an 80-76 lead.
This game was a complete reversal from when the two teams met in the season opener in Atlanta in October. In that game, the Hawks were considerably more effective from three-point range, making 15-of-35 (42.9%) from three in a blowout 113-87 victory.
The Mavericks got their revenge from that bad loss and have now won nine of their last 13 games.