Luka Magic in Mavs 108-100 Win Over Wizards
DALLAS - The Dallas Mavericks opened the 2019-20 season on Wednesday night, facing high expectations with their newly upgraded roster. It was far from perfect, but thanks to a night full of Luka Magic, they did not disappoint, winning 108-100 in front of a sold-out home crowd on opening night.
“There were a lot of positives," Rick Carlisle said. "We obviously have some things to work to clean up. Turnovers were high. Rebounding is going to be a challenge. Even when [Dwight] Powell gets back it is going to be a challenge for us. We will need to get better there. You have to love the energy in the building tonight. There is a lot of excitement around this team, which is understandable. Those are all great things.
Many expected Luka to take the next step heading with his scoring ability into his sophomore campaign, but on Wednesday night, he went beyond that, and more.
Doncic was electric, scoring 34 points on 12-19 shots, including 4-9 from beyond the arc. The 20-year-old also nabbed nine rebounds to go along with three assists, and two steals.
"Luka is getting better every time he steps out on the floor and he will learn whatever it is he is supposed to learn from it," Carlisle said. "We just have to keep moving forward. I thought [Kristaps] Porzingis, after a slow start, hung in there and found his rhythm offensively. We have a lot of guys that can score out there. Some of them found a little bit of a rhythm tonight, and some didn’t. For the ones that didn’t, we need to move the ball in their direction and make sure everybody is involved. But again, it is a good win against a hard-playing team. It has been a while since we have won our opening game of the season, so we will take it.”
Doncic wasn't along in terms of tantalizing performances, however, as his new running mate Kristaps Porzingis did not disappoint in his Mavs regular-season debut, despite still having to knock off some rust..
In 29 minutes, Porzingis added 23 points while hitting 7-16 from the field, 3-7 from three, and 6-7 from the charity stripe. Porzingis would also do the dirty work around the rim, contributing four rebounds and a blocked shot along the way.
“It was a long time that I was out," Porzingis said of his first game back in uniform. "To be back out there on the floor felt really good and I was just excited to be out there and get the season going.”
Perhaps more importantly than their young stars producing, however, was the play of the supporting cast, and more specifically, the bench, which combined for 42 points as a unit.
Dorian Finney-Smith and Justin Jackson each added 10 points and finished the game +18 and +10, respectively, while Seth Curry added nine points in 20 minutes, and finished +11 for the game. Jalen Brunson also got in on the action, adding nine points of his own and throwing a game-clinching alley-oop to Porzingis.
Following the win, the Mavericks are now 1-0 to start the year for the first time since the 2015-16 season. That season, Dallas made the playoffs, finishing as the sixth seed in the Western Conference with a 42-40 record.
"I think Luka [Doncic] had a really good game, but I think the rest of us as a team can get much better than this," said Porzingis. "We have huge room to grow. We got the win. We have to be happy about that, but we’ve got a lot of work to put in and get better, for sure.”
The Mavs will look to keep that momentum alive on Friday night when they travel to New Orleans to take on the Zion Williamson-less Pelicans for the first road game of the season.
