Luka's Mavs Lose Hard-Fought Game to Pacers, Snapping Four-Game Home Streak
As much talk as there has been about the Dallas Mavericks' struggles at home this season, the team had been playing extremely well at American Airlines Center lately, having won four in a row. Despite having a late fourth-quarter lead on Sunday night, though, the Mavs' home winning streak was snapped at the hands of the Indiana Pacers, 112-109.
“It was a tough, physical game,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "It was a tough loss.”
Dallas was shorthanded in this one, missing Seth Curry, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, but still had plenty of opportunities to secure the 40th win of the season.
Luka Doncic was as masterful as he usually is, finishing with 36 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, despite missing a couple of threes for the tie in the final seconds. Doncic's sidekick, Kristaps Porzingis, after scorching the nets for over a month now, fell flat on this night, scoring just nine points on 3-of-17 shooting to go with eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
Although Doncic stuffed the stat sheet, he felt like there were a lot of potential points left on the table, due to the officials swallowing their whistles. This was nothing new for Doncic and Mavs, as they've been on the wrong side officials' whistles (or non-whistles) all season long. Mavs owner Mark Cuban may not be willing to speak up as quickly about it this time, having been fined $500,000 by the league recently for publicly criticizing the officials, but that doesn't mean Doncic himself can't voice his displeasure. (Full video story of Luka's gripes here.)
"I got hit in the face three times and two of them were not a foul,'' Doncic said. "It was a knee to the face (that required halftime X-rays). I don’t know.”
Tim Hardaway Jr. stepped up in a big way with Porzingis off his game, finishing with 30 points on 11-of-21 shooting overall and 6-of-11 from deep. Justin Jackson was the only other Maverick not named Doncic or Hardaway Jr. to score in double-figures with 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting. Jackson also recorded five assists and was a team-high plus-7 in the box score.
Victor Oladipo only scored 16 points on 6-of-18 from the field for the Pacers, but half of those points were scored in the last six minutes of the game to keep the Mavs from closing it out. T.J. Warren, notorious Mavs-killer, also pitched in with 16 points of his own on 7-of-13 shooting. Domantas Sabonis led the Pacers with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting and 17 rebounds.
The Mavs will now look to bounce back in Tuesday's showdown on the road against the San Antonio Spurs, which will be on the first night of a back-to-back. With a win, not only would the Mavs secure their 40th win, but they'd also sweep their season series of their 'big brother' Spurs.
But to sweep ... they've got to close.
“When you struggle during a stretch at the end of a game, you can come up with a lot of reasons and excuses,'' Carlisle said. "But I just don’t think we can do that. I think we have to own it and look at it objectively to see what we can do better. Then we simply have to do better.”
