Mavs Show 'Next-Man-Up' Grit Without Doncic in Loss to Heat
DALLAS - With the Dallas Mavericks hosting the Miami Heat Saturday night it represented a benchmark stretch of sorts. The game kicked off a five-game stretch against five of the top six teams in the Eastern Conference in the next nine days.
Three minutes into the game the Mavericks were shell-shocked when Luka Doncic went down with an ankle injury. So were their fans. Despite that, the Mavs found a way to crawl back into the contest, at one point leading by four in regulation, before falling, 122-118, in overtime at the American Airlines Center.
At one point the Mavs (17-8) were down 24 points in the second quarter and were down 23 points at the break. Late in the third quarter the Mavs had the lead down to single digits and by the end of the third quarter the Heat (19-7) were only up 10 points.
The Mavs finally grabbed the lead on a Maxi Kleber basket with 4:25 to play, and from there it was back-and-forth until Miami was finally able to wrest the game away in overtime.
Head coach Rick Carlisle appreciated the grit from his team. But he knew after the game all everyone wanted to talk about was Doncic. And he hit on it right away.
Doncic has become the Mavs’ indispensable player, just as Dirk Nowitzki was before him. What Doncic has done this season — including 20 straight games of at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, a streak that ended on Saturday — underscores that importance. Losing Doncic for any stretch of time puts the Mavs’ hopes of a playoff berth in peril, especially in a hyper-competitive Western Conference where it doesn’t take much to fall back to the pack (the Mavs entered Saturday’s game in third place in the West, but only six games ahead of eighth place).
How long will he be out? That’s the big question, and Carlisle didn’t have much in the way of an answer, and no coach really does two hours after his best player gets hurt. The Mavs have not performed an MRI and Carlisle doesn’t expect Doncic to play against Milwaukee on Monday.
Perhaps the larger question is what the Mavs will do without him? Who steps up? Is it Kristaps Porzingis? Is it Tim Hardaway Jr.? Jalen Brunson? Who’s going to fill those shoes, which are likely headed for a waste basket after the injury?
It could be all of them, based on Saturday’s game.
"Luka obviously is a huge, huge part of this organization, this team,” Hardaway said. “To see him go down is not easy to see. ... Just try to figure things out. ... Hopefully he’s back soon. But for now we know it’s next man up.”
Porzingis stepped up with a double-double — 22 points and 14 rebounds. Hardaway dumped in 28 points and hit six 3-pointers. Brunson had 18 points and 8 assists. JJ Barea had 12 points and Kleber dropped in 17. At times the Mavs played stifling half-court defense and entering the final minute of the game had outscored the Heat 62-35 in the second half.
It just wasn’t quite enough. But the fight was encouraging.
Jimmy Butler led the heat with 27 points, one of six Miami players in double figures.
After Saturday’s game with the Heat the Mavericks travel to Milwaukee for a game on Monday, back to Dallas to host Boston in an 8:30 p.m. start on Wednesday and then depart for a two-game road trip to Philadelphia and then to Toronto.
By Christmas, we were supposed to have a gauge on how the Mavs not only stack up against the best in the East but how they can handle a rigorous stretch against the league’s top teams, especially since the Mavs are perceived to be one of those teams in the Western Conference. Now, as we wait to see how long Doncic will be out of the lineup, now it’s all about survival — and seeing who steps up.
“If you play hard and do the right things for 48 minutes you’re always going to have a chance in this league,” Carlisle said. “We got plenty on this roster to win a game like this, even with Luka out. We just got to do better.”
