Brunson's 31 Points Power Mavs Past Spurs, 109-108
Last week, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the San Antonio Spurs on the first night of a back-to-back before getting blasted against the Denver Nuggets on the following night. On Wednesday night, Dallas defeated San Antonio yet again by the score of 109-108, despite being on the second night of a back-to-back this time around.
Jalen Brunson, who made his second consecutive start of the season led the Mavs with 31 points, including 13 points worth of clutch buckets down the stretch to help seal the victory. He also grabbed 10 rebounds to go with three assists.
"(Brunson) was attacking (Doug) McDermott,” said Luka Doncic after unselfishly handing the keys over to Brunson in crunch-time.
“We tried to put McDermott into the pick and roll, and (Brunson) was just going downhill. He was hot, and why not put the ball in his hands?”
This was the first game of Brunson's career where he scored at least 30 points and at least 10 rebounds or assists. Brunson, who is now in the final year of his contract, has proved time after time that he can be a big-time contributor as a starting point guard in this league. The Mavs might want to extend him as soon as they can, if possible.
Other Mavs' contributions included 23 points from Doncic to go with 12 rebounds and seven assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. also chipped in with 23 points of his own to go with six rebounds and three assists. Overall, it was a very productive scoring night for the Mavs' most talented players available.
On a night where the Mavs were without Kristaps Porzingis for the fifth straight game and Maxi Kleber, reserve big man Boban Marjanovic had his number called and made the most of his opportunity. Marjanovic finished the game with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting to go with five boards.
As for Porzingis, the team's medical staff has been listing "lower back tightness" as the reason for him missing the last five games. Is there something else going on there that we don’t know about?
After all, the last time Porzingis had a significant injury (Game 1 against the Clippers in the Orlando ‘Bubble’ a little more than a year ago), it was deemed as “knee soreness” by the Mavs until being officially announced as a torn meniscus a week and a half later, so you’ll understand our worries here. Hopefully Porzingis can suit up in the next game and alleviate some of the worry.
After finishing up this brutal stretch of five games in eight nights, the Mavs will now get a little bit of a breather, as they won't take on the Boston Celtics in Dallas until Saturday night. The Mavs won both of their games against Boston last season, including a thrilling 110-107 win back on February 23rd where Doncic hit a game-winning three-pointer with less than a second remaining.
Catch up on our latest Mavs Step Back Podcast episodes while you wait for Saturday's game to get here!
