The Dallas Mavericks are in playoff mode right now as they fight to stay out of the Play-in Tournament, and on Thursday night at American Airlines Center, Dallas defeated the Brooklyn Nets(43-24) 113-109.
With the win and the Lakers’ loss to the Clippers on Thursday night, Dallas(38-28) has sole possession of the fifth seed in the Western Conference. Dallas has a one-game lead on both the Lakers and Blazers.
Dallas was led by Luka Doncic’s 24 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists, while Tim Hardaway Jr. added 23. Kyrie Irving had a season and game-high 45 points for Brooklyn.
“We’ve got a little momentum here; we’ve got to keep it going,” Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle said after the game. “The game tomorrow is obviously very, very important because of everything that is going on with the standings. We’ll get some rest and do our best to be ready.”
Doncic had 19 points in the first half but only had five points the rest of the way, including 2-11 from the field, but according to Carlisle, Doncic, who had seven rebounds and five assists in the second half, was able to impact the game in other ways.
“The thing, when Luka [Doncic] goes through periods where he’s not scoring, he finds other ways to impact the game,” Carlisle said. “He was rebounding really well during that stretch. He moved it to some guys for some really good shots. And he kept playing the game — that’s what you’ve got to do.”
Dorian Finney-Smith, who had 17 points against the Nets, did an excellent job against Kevin Durant and Dallas held him to 1-10 shooting from the field with four points in the second half. Durant finished the game 7/21 from the field with 20 points.
After the game, Finney-Smith discussed his defense against Durant.
“Man, he’s just one of those guys you try to make him uncomfortable because he can shoot anytime he wants (because) he’s so tall,” Finney-Smith said. “Sometimes you feel like you’re there. You feel like he just plays like he’s in front of a cone. He’s doing the cone drill, but you got to try to make it tough for him, and we did a good job tonight.”
Dallas has won eight of their last 10 games, and Finney-Smith believes that Dallas can beat anybody if they play as they did against Brooklyn on Thursday night.
“Sometimes when we play teams not as good as Brooklyn, we don’t come out with that fight,” he said. “If we come out how we did tonight, we can beat anybody.”
Dallas, who again was without Kristaps Porzingis(right knee), seem to be putting it together at the right time, but they must not play down to the opposition, and that would be put to the test when they battle the Cavs(21-45) at home in the second half of a back-to-back on Friday night.
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