It’s the Mavericks’ home opener on Friday against Brooklyn, less than 48 hours after they successfully navigated all the hoopla surrounding Victor Wembanyama.
Which, by the way, is a little easier to do when you have a hype machine of your own.
Luka Dončić was sensational in the season opener at San Antonio, which produced a lot of offense and solid execution down the stretch in the Mavericks’ 126-119 win.
It was enough to leave the not-easily-impressed Gregg Popovich shaking his head. Maybe he wasn’t amazed. But he certainly sounded like someone who was moved by the moment.
“That was average,” he deadpanned after the game Wednesday. “What the hell, that was a hall of fame performance like he gives almost every night. Kyrie (Irving) wasn’t bad either.
“The two future hall of famers got us. They took over the game. You could see Dallas’s execution and experience in the last five minutes.”
Turns out it was no coincidence, Irving said Thursday.
“We got some reps in practice,” he said. “We’ve been working on end-of-game stuff.
“We heard all the noise last year when we did our hot-potato back and forth in one of our end-of-game situations. We’re just trusting each other down the stretch and having that poise to come out with a win, which I feel like we showed.”
And perhaps a little gamesmanship entered into the situation, too.
Call it sandbagging. Or the old rope-a-dope. But whatever, the talk about Dončić and his sore calf faded quickly when the regular season opened. Any fears that he might not be 100 percent early in the season were buried under 33 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists.
He shot 13-of-25 from the field. Irving was 10-of-24 but, more importantly, was 4-of-7 in the fourth quarter, when he and Dončić combined for 20 points.
Whatever you want to name it, it’s exactly what the Mavericks envision from their backcourt beasts.
If the Mavericks can make sure they are in close games in the fourth quarter, they have two playmakers who can take over like they did against the Spurs. Luka had two assists in the final two minutes, both to Irving. They combined for all the points in the 8-0 closing run to seal the game.
And their defense wasn’t bad, either.
“Executing at both ends (was big) – being able to get the stops and then capitalize on the turnovers and get easy baskets in the last two minutes,” coach Jason Kidd said. “But with the atmosphere being what it was, I thought the guys did a great job of handling that. After the first quarter we did a great job of settling in defensively and offensively.”
And when winning time arrived, so did Luka and Kyrie, who put together a combo shot at the Spurs that any pool player could appreciate.
“It looked natural,” Kidd said. “There wasn’t anything forced. They just played. I’ve said it does work and last night was an example of that.”
Kidd wasn’t even that concerned about a first quarter when the Mavericks surrendered 43 points.
“It was the first game, the atmosphere was big,” he said. “They made everything. But no one panicked. We kept playing. And then we found a way to win late.”
They also found a way to get out of Game 1 without any injury issues, Kidd said.
The Mavericks had a workout on Thursday in the afterglow of the opener, and they realize the first step in a marathon is nothing more than that – a first step, even if it did provide them a crunch-time blueprint of how they want to play when games are on the line.
“Everybody was great, health-wise,” Kidd said. “It was a good day at practice. We’ll get ready for the next one (Friday).”
X: @ESefko
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