The Dallas Mavericks started fast on Sunday at home against the 76ers. They jumped out to an 11-0 lead, but they were outscored 32-11 the rest of the quarter, and Philadelphia (35-25) led the rest of the way as they would defeat the Mavs 120-116.
Dallas (34-27) returned home after going 1-3 on their East Coast road trip, and they were hoping to take advantage of some home-cooking. However, outside of the first few minutes of the game and some moments in the fourth quarter, they didn’t play well.
The Mavericks, who trailed as many as 17 in the third quarter, scored 40 points in the fourth; according to Mavs coach Jason Kidd, Dallas is at its best when they are scoring the ball at a high level, but when they don’t, they struggle.
“You look at being desperate, understanding you have no room for error,” Kidd said. “I thought the guys in the fourth quarter played at a high level. The execution defensively — a lot of our schemes we didn’t do until the fourth and when we did execute them, they went the way we thought. Offensively, I’ve said this earlier in here, our offense is our defense. When we score, we’re one of the best teams in this league. When we don’t score, we’re one of the worst teams.”
After winning seven straight, the Mavericks have lost two in a row and four of five. Despite that, Kidd says the team has to stay positive.
“Right now, we’re struggling, and we’ve got to stay together and stay positive and understand when the ball goes in the basket for us, we’re really good,” Kidd said. “The next step is if the ball isn’t going in the basket, how do we get stops? That’s what a young team is going through and that’s what we’re going through right now.”
Luka Doncic, who recorded his 69th career triple-double, with a game-high 38 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, added:
“I mean it’s hard. When you lose games, it’s hard. In the NBA, you’ve got another game in one or two days, so just have to bring that energy.”
If the season ended today, the Mavs, the eighth seed in the West, would be in the Play=In Tournament.
Kyrie Irving, who had 28 points, five rebounds, and four assists on Sunday, believes the Mavs have no excuses; they must get the job done.
“We took a little bit of a dip from the last few games, some tough ones on the road … 1-3 on the road,” Irving said. “Come back home and not take care of home court; that’s on us. We’ve got to take accountability for that as players. Got to bring the energy and no more excuses. We’ve got 20-some-odd games left, we know the positioning that we’re in right now, we know what happened last year when we didn’t make it. We know how that feels to fail miserably.”
Dallas returns to action on Tuesday when they host the Indiana Pacers.
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