Luka Doncic Drills Game-Winner, Mavs Defeat Celtics 107-104
DALLAS — Kristaps Porzingis made his return to the Dallas Mavericks' starting lineup after a five-game absence in what ended up being a 107-104 win over the Boston Celtics during the NBA's Saturday slate. … with Luka Doncic stepping up … by stepping back.
KP on Luka: “He’s so clutch, it’s insane. It’s always so fun to watch him play.”
The Celtics were without Jaylen Brown, who is sidelined due to a hamstring injury. Boston leaned more heavily on Jayson Tatum as a result. Tatum has struggled to meet his usual standard to begin the season — averaging 22.7 points while going 37.3 percent from the floor and 27.1 percent from deep entering this matchup.
Similar to Tatum, Doncic has gotten off to a slow start to his 2021-22 campaign for a player who was a common preseason MVP favorite. He averaged 23.9 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 7.1 assists with underwhelming efficiency prior to his outing against the Celtics.
But here? It was about one shot. Score tied 104-all. And as time expired … off-balance, from distance … game-winner, Luka …
Who was then rendered semi-speechless, not counting a cuss word. Or two.
“It went in,” Doncic said humbly. “I had to stop for a second, I didn’t know if it went in. I just got to my spot.”
The Mavericks - unveiling their new “City Edition” uniforms - began the game with an 11-5 lead after managing to attack the Celtics' switch-everything defensive approach to guarding screens. Boston deviated from this approach briefly by having Marcus Smart fight through screens to stay on Luka Doncic, but regardless, their approaches failed early.
Boston struggled to put up points while Tatum was on the floor to begin the game — totaling just five points up until the 5:50 mark when he checked out with Dallas leading 17-5 at this point of the contest. Jalen Brunson led the bench unit with consecutive makes to end the period — giving the Mavericks a 29-15 lead.
To begin the second quarter, the Mavericks brought back Tim Hardaway Jr. and Kristaps Porzingis to play with the bench unit while the Celtics had Tatum on the floor. Brunson led the bench unit as the floor general and his aggression as a scorer proved key in Dallas holding a 43-32 advantage when Doncic checked back into the game with 5:44 left to play.
Boston struggled to contain the Mavericks after switching screens throughout the opening half. Doncic and Brunson picked apart the Celtics' defense to get downhill. Tatum put forth an admiral effort to try to carry his short-handed team in the opening half but his 12 points were outscored by both Doncic (16) and Brunson (13) as the Mavericks led 57-40 at halftime.
Tatum came out of halftime with the clear intent to put the Celtics' offense on his back. He scored eight early points — cutting the Mavericks' lead to 60-50 when the team used its first timeout of the half with 8:29 left to play in the frame.
There was a significant focus from the Celtics' offense to prioritize getting deep dribble penetration and the Mavericks' on-ball defensive execution was mostly unable to contain. Dennis Schroder's speed advantage played a pivotal role in this stretch — causing the Mavericks to call timeout again at 5:57 with their lead down to two.
Doncic began to attack as the initiator repeatedly in order to regain control of the momentum for the Mavericks down the stretch of the third quarter — scoring nine points within the frame. Dallas didn't finish the period with him on the floor but the team still managed to be up 79-72 entering the fourth.
The Mavericks began the fourth quarter with Hardaway Jr. and Porzingis playing with the bench unit while Doncic rested. Meanwhile, Tatum was still on the floor for Boston but wasn't enough to overtake the lead. Dallas remained ahead until Doncic checked back into the game with 9:48 left in regulation — holding an 86-81 advantage.
Dallas looked to use just one big on the floor down the stretch with the focus being to draw advantageous matchups for Doncic on switches with the Celtics still switching everything.
It worked mostly until Boston threw out a hard double on Doncic leading to an empty possession. The Celtics followed that up immediately with a lob to Robert Williams for a dunk — cutting the Mavericks' lead to just 96-94 with 4:35 remaining in regulation.
The Mavericks seemingly miscalculated its personnel out of the timeout by having Dwight Powell still on the floor after Porzingis came with Dorian Finney-Smith at the scorer's table. Porzingis was matched onto Schroder and gave up an and-one finish on a drive.
After reversing the ball as a unit, the ball found its way to Marcus Smart in the corner for a made three-pointer — giving the Celtics a lead on the scoreboard. Porzinigs answered by flushing home a putback dunk on the other end then recording a key block in the following possession. At this point, it was a 104-104 tie with 1:17 left.
Instead of allowing Tatum to beat them, the Mavericks sent an early hard double on him all for Smart to have to make another big play. He attempted to draw a contact foul on a drive that ended in a miss on a hanging finish attempt. Dallas regained possession with 16.6 seconds on the clock.
A broken-up pass on the inbound put the Mavericks further away with just eight seconds on the shot clock. Smart inexplicably fouled Doncic after the inbounds pass — giving Dallas an inbound with a turned-off shot clock. Doncic took full advantage of the circumstances using the stepback on the left side of the floor as time expired.
Said coach Jason Kidd of Luka: “It’s a beautiful thing to watch. I played with a guy like that (Dirk Nowitzki) here.”
It was another impressive outing for Doncic, who not only finished with the game-winner, but also racked up 33 points, nine rebounds, and five assists along the way. He went 12-of-21 (57.1 percent) from the floor and 5-of-10 (50 percent) from deep.
And the Mavericks’ return to action from a sore-backed KP? He scored 21 points, with seven rebounds and two assists, all of it leading up to “Luka Magic.”
Again. .
