The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Phoenix Suns 109-101 on Thursday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 28 points, while Devin Booker led the Suns with 28 points.
The Mavericks held the Sons to 45 points in the first half. Phoenix could not make any easy shots. The Mavericks didn't quite get it, but Luca did have a little magic up his sleeve to end the first half:
Unfortunately, turnover began to accumulate in the second half, and Sun's 3-pointers began to fall. After hitting only two shots from behind the arc in the first half, Sun hit a six in the second half. But it was mostly muddy with the Mavericks ball that doomed them, and the Sun eventually closed the game at 22-6.
The past has never been changed. The Mavericks have lost to the sun. The Mavericks have always lost to the sun. Here are three things from the game:
Luca is back to his old self, but eventually ran out of gas
In the last two games, Luca has been seen as the player who set the league on fire in the last two years. He has scored 69 points in the last two matches, and nearly had triple-doubles in both. He's coming in more color, and his 3-point shot looks like he's finally starting to fall. Unfortunately, the Mavericks' rough schedule eventually caught up with him, and he couldn't quite summon the magic in the end to help the Mavericks pull off a win.
Dallas must not rely on Luca to save them all alone at all times. But on the second night of back-to-back, role-playing players sure to feel some fatigue (Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber combined for 14 points on 2-of-12 shooting from the deep), he That usually happens when you lean on your superstar to win the game on your own. Luca, unfortunately, is often asked to do so. Talking so that...
Kristaps Porzingis did not show in the second half
Porzingis scored 18 points, but only collected seven points in the second half. Again, in the fifth game in seven nights, the Mavericks needed someone to put the team on their back and lead it to victory. Why not the highest paid Mavericks player who is set to score a lot? But again, Porzingis had a calm second half. It's a recurring theme this year, where he puts up a decent number in the first half only to shrink in the third and fourth quarters. He's got his 3-point shot, and soon. There are less than forty games left until the start of the playoffs. To get past the second round, the Mavericks will need to play Porzingis well for all four quarters.
It was also strange to see Porzingis off the floor for some major stretches in the fourth, as apparently his minute restrictions coming back from COVID protocols are still in place.
Turnover killed the Mavericks
The Mavericks have been very good at taking care of the ball this season, and they played to form in the first half. But things fell apart in the second half. Dallas had ten turnovers, and Phoenix had zero. It is difficult to win any game when this happens. Not too much harp on it, but again, the schedule had to play into it.
You're more likely to make mistakes when you're tired, and it's bad scheduling luck that the Mavericks ran into the best team in the NBA at the end of a tough stretch of play. Not only that, the Suns had two days off prior to this game (the reason for complaining about the NBA always having to schedule national TV matchups with one team on the second night of back-to-back, but it's not the case for second place.) is for.)
There probably isn't much to learn from this game in this regard. The Mavericks showed they could hang with the Sun, but they also made the same type of mistakes they make when they lost, no matter how much rest they had. In the end, they are where they were before this game - looking at the Suns, both in the standings and as a playoff contender.