On Wednesday night in Dallas, the Mavericks were without their star player Luka Doncic. Still, they defeated the last-place Houston Rockets 110-91.
Doncic was resting a sore right ankle. Without him on the court, Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie carried the load. Brunson scored 28 points, and Dinwiddie added 26.
The win pulled the Maverick’s record even with the Utah Jazz at 45-28 for fourth place in the Western Conference, with nine games remaining. However, the Jazz holds the tiebreaker with a 2-1 record against the Mavericks this season. The Jazz will be in Dallas on Sunday for the two teams’ fourth and final meeting.
The win was also a great birthday present for head coach Jason Kidd who turned 49 years old on Wednesday.
“Yeah, we’ll take it,” Kidd said. “Maybe I need a birthday more often.”
Although defeating the Rockets, who hold the NBA’s worst record (18-55), may not seem impressive, the team just behind Dallas in the playoff standings, the Minnesota Timberwolves, lost to Phoenix on the night.
With nine games remaining, Dallas is now four games ahead of seventh-place Minnesota (42-32) in the loss column. The Mavericks will be in Minnesota for the fourth and final meeting between the two teams on Friday.
“We’re not scoreboard watching too early,” Kidd added. “We’ve got to take care of ourselves. If we can do that, we’ll accomplish one goal, and that’s to make it to the playoffs. We can’t dictate who we’re going to play. We’ve got to worry about ourselves.”
When asked about the performance of Dinwiddie, who started in place of the resting Doncic, Kidd had nothing but praise.
“It’s big … to be able to start Spencer or have him come off the bench when we’re healthy, but when one [of the team] is out, to be able to start him and kinda have the same game plan as if Luka [was] still playing,” Kidd said. “As a coach, that makes my job a little bit easier.”
Dinwiddie scored 19 points before halftime, then Brunson took over with 16 points in the third quarter alone. Brunson’s third-quarter explosion helped Dallas take the lead for good after trailing 53-52 at halftime. The Mavericks took the lead early in the third and never looked back, outscoring the Rockets 58-38 after halftime.
“I think me and Spencer have been comfortable since he got here,” Brunson said. “It kind of just slowed as soon as he was inserted into the lineup. It’s a credit to him for being a great teammate coming in here and just wanting to win.”
Dallas took their first double-digit lead after a Dorian Finney-Smith’s three-pointer made the score 77-66 with three minutes left in the third quarter. Finney-Smith finished the game with 14 points. The Mavericks then opened the fourth quarter on a 13-3 run to take a 20-point lead.
“We talked about the energy,” Kidd said. “At halftime, we talked about the communication was a little silent. A lot of times Luka will create that energy shooting the ball or making plays. We had to find that. We did a good job in the second half on both ends.”
Kidd and Brunson also added that a halftime pep talk from Finney-Smith ignited the team.
“Doe is a man of a few words,” Brunson said. “So when he speaks, he’s holding a lot of weight to that. He basically just told us to wake up.”
The win gives the Mavericks the season sweep over the Rockets. They won all four meetings this season against Houston for the first time since consecutive seasons in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
Dallas continues to be hot as they have won ten of their last 13, 16 of their last 21, and 29 of their last 39 games.