Cavs rally from 20-point deficit to defeat Mavs, 113-110

For two quarters Wednesday night, things were going fairly well for the Mavericks. Then the last two quarters happened.

Even without their top three scorers, the hard-charging robo-rebounding Cleveland Cavaliers were able to rally from a 20-point deficit and stun the Mavs, 113-110, at American Airlines Center. After the game, both teams left the building with identical 18-13 records.

The Mavs will take that record into Thursday’s second leg of a back-to-back in Minnesota against the Timberwolves, who own the Western Conference’s best record at 22-7. But the Mavs undoubtedly left home with a bad taste in their mouth after building a 50-30 lead less than three minutes into the second quarter, only to see it – and a victory – slip through their hands.

The Mavs had a 105-96 lead with 6:07 left in the game after Dante Exum maneuvered inside the paint and scored on a short hook shot. But from there the Mavs’ offense went stone cold as the Cavs went on a blistering 15-0 run and took a 111-105 lead with 1:13 remaining.

In the critical fourth quarter, the Mavs were only 9-of-24 from the field and scored just 20 points. Their shots simply were not falling.

“We played bad,” Luka Doncic said of the team’s woes in the fourth quarter. “We missed a lot of good shots.

“That was on me in the fourth quarter.”

After Georges Niang missed a pair of free throws with 10.9 seconds left and the Cavs up by three points, the door was ajar for the Mavs to possibly send the game into overtime. But two Cavs crowded Doncic, forcing the ball out of his hands, and Seth Curry couldn’t get off a decent shot at the buzzer while he was closely guarded by Max Strus.

“We just missed a screen for Luka,” said coach Jason Kidd, referring to the final play. “That happens. We’ve got to get better at it.”

Kidd also said the Mavs must get better at rebounding the basketball. The Cavs battered the Mavs on the boards, 57-37. That includes Cleveland center Jarrett Allen collecting more offensive rebounds – nine to seven – than the Mavs en route to grabbing 23 boards to go with his 24 points and six assists.

“You look at our defense, again, we talked before the game about how we’ve got to rebound the ball,” Kidd said. “You look at Allen, he’s going to come.

“Nine offensive rebounds. That will just put you in harm’s way. Give them credit. They played hard and they were the better team.”

The Mavs were the better team in the first half of the game. Behind 20 points from Doncic, the Mavs carved out a 39-27 lead after the first quarter and proceeded to bump that all the way up a 20-point cushion less than three minutes into the second quarter.

“You look at what Luka was doing,” Kidd said. “He was getting to the basket and he was making his threes.

“Again, give them credit. They kind of took everybody else away and let (Doncic) score. With that being said, we’ve got to be able to knock down shots, but we’ve got to be able to get stops. At the end, we just didn’t get a good look — the look that we wanted. We’ve got to be better late in the game.”

Doncic paced the Mavs with 39 points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks. Also for the Mavs, Seth Curry tallied a season-high 19 points while making 5-of-9 three-pointers.

In addition, Tim Hardaway Jr. tossed in 14 points, Dante Exum finished with 13 points, six assists and three steals, and Derrick Jones Jr. collected 12 points, five rebounds and three blocks.

Other than Allen, the Cavs got 29 points off the bench from Caris LeVert, 22 points from Isaac Okoro and 16 points from Niang.

Besides their lack of work on the boards, it also hurt the Mavs that they were just 8-of-30 from three-point range for 26.7 percent.

“It was kind of a whirlwind,” Curry said. “We missed some looks and let that affect our defense a little bit. The momentum just shifted. It felt like momentum was a real thing tonight in the second half.

“We couldn’t do anything on the offensive end. They were coming down and getting what they wanted offensively. Their plays were working. They were knocking down the shots.”

And the rope slipped away form the Mavs.

“We let them back in the game, and then once it was a close game, anything can happen,” Curry said. “We didn’t finish it the right way.”

X: @DwainPrice