For the first time this season, the Dallas Mavericks were victorious without Luka Doncic in the lineup this season. On Sunday, the Mavericks 103-84 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder brought their record to 1-4 without Doncic.
Doncic was forced to miss the game as he is still dealing with lingering effects of an ankle injury suffered last month. Overall it got their record back to .500 at 13-13, after losing nine of the last 12 games.
The Thunder have one of the worst records in the league but are a very young team with promising players. The loss dropped their record to 8-18.
Jalen Brunson stepped up for Dallas in Doncic’s absence. Brunson was steady all night, scoring 18 points and adding nine rebounds and three assists. Kristaps Porzingis had a significant role in the victory, adding 13 points and seven rebounds.
“Just got to find ways to be productive without one of the best players in the game,” Brunson said postgame. “It’s tough, but we’re just going to keep playing off each other, keep being aggressive, keep finding each other, and playing with pace, and just try to get easy baskets as much as we can.”
The Mavericks had to overcome another poor 3-point shooting night to win. They made only 9-of-33 (27.3%) three-point attempts all game but were buoyed by solid performances in the paint and from reserve players.
In the paint, Dallas outscored Oklahoma City 50-20, and their reserve players outscored the Thunder 54-29. Maxi Kleber led the Mavericks reserve players with 16 points, and Moses Brown added 15 points.
“It’s definitely something that we’ve been working towards, just being able to be relied upon, not only by my coach but my teammates,” Brown said postgame. “Being able for them to rely upon me and trust me in the defensive coverages as well as on offense, and them knowing that I’m going to go out there and do a job every single time.”
The Mavericks started well right out of the gate, scoring the game’s first seven points and never looking back. Their three-point shooting was efficient in the first quarter as they made four of the first nine three-point attempts before slowing down the rest of the game. They led by as many as 11 points in the first half and went into halftime up 56-46.
Dallas solidified their lead even more in the third quarter behind Brunson. Midway through the third quarter Oklahoma City had trimmed the lead to six points, but Brunson stepped up and scored ten straight points for the Mavericks to bring the lead back to double-digits.
Dallas completely controlled the fourth quarter, outsourcing the Thunder 23-13 to win by a comfortable 19 points.
The Mavericks already know they will win again with or without Doncic in their next game tonight when they host the Charlotte Hornets. Coach Jason Kidd said before the game that the team will not re-evaluate Doncic’s availability until before Wednesday’s home game against the Los Angeles Lakers.