Dinwiddie’s Season-High 36 Points Push Mavs Past Suns After Doncic Injury
On top of all the other bad injury luck the Dallas Mavericks (26-24) have endured lately, they also lost Luka Doncic to an ankle injury after just three minutes of action during their 99-95 road win against the Phoenix Suns (25-25) on Thursday.
The Mavs needed something major to go their way given that the team had been 0-5 in games that Doncic doesn't play altogether … and something major they got indeed from Spencer Dinwiddie.
Dinwiddie answered the call to the tune of a season-high performance with 36 points, six rebounds and nine assists in 40 minutes. He shot 10-18 from the field, 5-6 from deep and 11-14 from the charity stripe.
Every time it felt like the Suns were poised to take the lead, Dinwiddie hit them with a huge 3-pointer to keep momentum on the Mavs’ side.
Leading 96-95 with just 12 seconds remaining, Reggie Bullock stepped to the free-throw line for two freebies. After making the first one, he missed the second, but Dwight Powell out-hustled Deandre Ayton for the offensive rebound. That sequence led to Ayton fouling Powell, and Powell then stepped to the line and calmly nailed the game-winning free throws.
Powell finished with 15 points and four rebounds on 6-9 shooting in 36 minutes. Ayton had 19 points and 20 rebounds in 31 minutes for Phoenix, but he shot just 6-20 on the night.
Suns veteran guard Chris Paul tried to get into Powell’s head before his clutch free-throw makes, but it was to no avail.
"[CP3] said, 'Make the first, miss the second.' So I half agreed with him,” Powell told TNT in his postgame interview.
Dorian Finney-Smith stepped up as the Mavs’ second-leading scorer with 18 points on 7-16 shooting. He secured a double-double as well, as he grabbed 12 rebounds.
Next up, the Mavs take on the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com, because we should know more about Doncic’s availability for that one throughout the day on Friday.
“We’ll see [about Doncic’s availability] as we go forward here. We’ll have probably more information once we get to Utah,” said coach Jason Kidd after the win. “He was smiling, and he was happy for his teammates, saying [Powell] made some big free throws and that missed free throw rebound [over Ayton]."
Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Dallas Mavericks? Click Here.
