On Monday, the Dallas Mavericks were playing well against the Clippers in Game 1 of their first-round series. However, with the Mavericks up five in the third quarter, Kristaps Porzingis would get ejected, and from there, Dallas would struggle and fall to the Clippers.
On Wednesday in Game 2, Luka Doncic, who finished with 28 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, ran into foul trouble in the second half and had to sit on the bench. However, the Mavericks’ bench played well, and Dallas would defeat the Clippers 127-114 to even up the series 1-1
Due to the foul trouble, Doncic, who recorded the most points (70) in his first two playoff games of anyone since the NBA/ABA merger, would play just over nine minutes in the second half.
“I was frustrated for like 15 seconds, and then I was focused,” Doncic said after the game. “I supported my teammates. They did a great, great job. Being on a bench is hard for me when I have my team playing. But we won the game. Maybe if I don’t take that foul, we don’t win the game. So it’s OK.”
Mavericks backup G Seth Curry came to his rescue and went 6-9 from the field for 15 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Also, Mavericks backup center Boban Marjanović had 13 points and nine rebounds in 10 minutes on Wednesday night.
“We brought our full energy from the beginning to the end,” Marjanović said after the game about the team’s bench. “They played well, but I think we played better in this game. Next game, we need to play super hard and give the same energy, the same spirit, and we need to believe in ourselves.”
G Trey Burke also was cooking and had 16 points on 7-11 shooting in 18 minutes off the bench, and according to Burke, the Mavericks have the talent to win this series.
“Stay together. Stay together,” Burke said about how the team reacted with Doncic on the bench. “We know he’s our go-to guy. But things happen. So we knew we had to stay together. We knew we had to continue to huddle up at all the dead balls. That’s a tough team over there with more experience than we have, but we feel like we match up great with them. We feel like we have the pieces to win this series, so tonight was a big night for us.”
Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle was delighted by what he saw from his bench.
“The guys off the bench did a tremendous job,” Carlisle said. “Trey Burke was great, Seth Curry was great. Boban [Marjanović] gave us great minutes tonight. It’s a group that’s had some time together during the year, during some stretches, particularly when Luka was out. They know how to play together. The other thing was we were scoring, but we were also scrappy defensively. I thought Delon Wright’s game tonight was really huge. He didn’t put up big scoring numbers, but he made a lot of influential plays defensively with deflections, making things happen offensively. Happy for him. He really didn’t get into it in the first game, but his minutes tonight were really important to us.”
The Mavericks’ bench stepped up on Wednesday night, and based on what we have seen in the first two games, this will probably be a long series.
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