If, at first, you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again, and that’s the attitude that Mavs guard Dante Exum had on Friday night in Sacramento against the Kings.
With just over two minutes left in the fourth and the game tied at 103, Exum had multiple opportunities to give the Mavs the lead. He missed a wide-open three from the wing. With under two minutes to go, Exum got another chance and missed another wide-open three, this time from the corner. Exum and the Mavs again had an opportunity to take the lead, but he missed a driving layup.
Exum got his final wide-open look and drained a three with 28.6 seconds to go. The Mavs defeated swept the Kings in Sacramento and won 107-103.
Dallas (44-29), who has now won six straight and 10 out of their last 11 games, defeated the Kings 132-85 on Tuesday night.
Exum knows that playing with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving means he will get open looks, which he must make.
“They’re going to be doubling them(Doncic and Irving),” Exum said. “We’re going to be open and will have to make the plays, and I think that’s what we realized, and that’s what we gotta do.”
The Mavs were led by their stars, Irving, who scored 14 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth, and Doncic, who had 26 points, nine rebounds, and 12 assists. These two combined for 56 of the team’s 107 points.
Doncic believes that he and Irving trust their teammates.
“We know that they are going to double me and Kai a lot of times,” he said. “So, that’s the trust we have, the whole team. That shows that our team is great.”
Last February, Doncic and Irving made their debut together in Sacramento. In 61 games played, the duo is 35-26. According to Doncic, both players are happy to play with each other.
“I think we’re both happy,” Doncic said. “We’re both doing some good things on the floor, and we have great teammates, so I think this team is special.”
The Mavs are playing fantastic basketball and are peaking at the right time. These two wins over Sacramento (42-31) were big; Dallas, who is the sixth seed in the West, now lead the seventh seed, the Phoenix Suns (43-31), by 1.5 games and have a two-game lead over the eighth-seeded Kings, so things are looking good in Dallas.
Leave a Reply