After easily defeating the Hornets on the road last week, the Mavericks, who got Kristaps Porzingis back in the lineup, were on a four-game winning streak and riding high.
One week later, the team is shorthanded and struggling. On Monday night, Dallas lost their third straight game after falling to the Raptors on the road 116-93. The Mavericks and Raptors were tied at 47 at the break, but Toronto(5-8) would dominate the second half and outscore the Mavericks(6-7) 69-46.
The Mavericks, like a lot of NBA teams, are dealing with issues related to COVID-19. The Mavericks are still without Maxi Kleber, Dwight Powell, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Josh Richardson, who are all out due to the league’s health and safety protocols, and according to Porzingis, who had 23 points against the Raptors, Monday’s loss to Toronto just wasn’t the team’s night.
“It wasn’t our night,” he said. “We didn’t play the best basketball, coach(Rick Carlisle ejected in the first quarter) got kicked out because of some calls and stuff. That’s it. We move forward. We learn from this, and we get better.
As losses mount, Luka Doncic, who scored 16 points on 4/11 shooting against Toronto, just wants to find a way to get back to winning games.
“The mentality is we gotta win the game,” Doncic said. “I don’t like losing; it’s terrible. I just feel bad, and we don’t like (it). The four-game winning streak, everybody felt great. The locker room felt happy, so we gotta go back to that and just enjoy playing basketball.”
Dallas is in a stretch now of five games in seven nights, so that’s a lot of basketball, especially when you’re undermanned. The next two games(Indiana on Wednesday night and San Antonio on Friday night) on this three-game road trip won’t be easy, but as Doncic said, this team has to get back to that winning mentality.
