On Friday, the Dallas Mavericks faced off against the Phoenix Suns for the second straight game. Similar to their first meeting on Wednesday, the Mavericks were without their star Luka Doncic and managed to make it a very tight game; they lost 112-104 to the defending Western Conference champions.
In both games, Dallas held leads to start the fourth quarter but was thoroughly outperformed in the final frame to end up with two consecutive losses. On Wednesday the Suns scored 37 points in the fourth and on Friday they exploded again for 33 points in the final quarter while limiting Dallas to only 20 points.
“We’re doing it for three quarters and we’ve got to figure out … you know, Luka’s not playing, it’s the guys in the uniform,” head coach Jason Kidd said postgame. “We have to grow and learn from this, and we will.”
Kristaps Porzingis led Dallas with a double-double of 23 points and 12 rebounds and also admitted the team’s need to improve in late-game moments.
“When the pressure’s up, we weren’t as clean on our execution on offense,” Porzingis said. “They were better down the stretch, they got better looks and they just took the game from us.”
The Suns took the game over by opening the fourth quarter on a 15-2 run, turning a Dallas five-point lead into an eight-point deficit. Phoenix wound up gaining a lead as big as 15 points with two minutes left before Dallas closed the game on a 9-2 run to make the defeat more respectable.
The Mavericks record dropped to 9-6 with this loss. Along with Porzingis’s double-double, Jalen Brunson added his own with 18 points and 10 assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 18, and Dorian Finney-Smith finished with 12 points.
A positive takeaway from this game is that Dallas again played the team with the second-best record in the league closely without their star player. Phoenix is now 12-3 and on a win streak of 11 consecutive games. The winning streak is the Suns’ longest since the 2006-07 season.
Mikal Bridges led them with 19 points, hitting all seven of his scoring attempts, including three three-point attempts. Devin Booker also scored 19 points, and Chris Paul added 18 points and 14 assists.
There is no question that they are one of the top teams in the Western Conference.
Dallas did well to keep the game close despite shooting very poorly from three-point range. In their Wednesday match up the Mavericks scored 16-of-32 (50%) three-point attempts, but on Friday night they made just 12-of-40 (30%) three-point attempts.
Dallas had great defensive pressure for much of the game, finishing with a season-high 15 steals. Their defensive efforts were most noticed in the third quarter. After forcing just five turnovers through the first two quarters, the Mavericks forced seven in the third quarter alone.
Due to their great defensive pressure, Dallas was able to get several easy scores and turn a four-point halftime deficit into a five-point lead at the start of the fourth.
Dallas traveled to Los Angeles for back-to-back games against the Clippers. The first game will begin today at 2:30 p.m. CT.
