In the middle meeting of three contests in 16 days against the San Antonio Spurs, the Mavericks had to scratch and claw, but came out with a 109-108 victory at AT&T Center.

They earned the win with a lot of grit and clutch play to improve to 5-3. The Spurs are 2-6, but have taken just about every opponent down to the final buzzer.

Here’s our takeaways from the Mavericks’ hard-fought win:

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: OK, the Mavericks have lost by 31 to Denver, 26 to Atlanta and 15 to Miami. Those are high-quality teams that have made deep playoff runs in recent seasons. But the Mavericks also have beaten San Antonio twice, Sacramento, Toronto and Houston. Those are not high-quality teams at this point in time. So the Mavericks are beating the teams they are supposed to beat. That’s one of the keys to getting where the Mavericks want to go, which is into the top four in the Western Conference. Take care of the teams that are in rebuilding mode or not quite ready to contend. Try to scratch out as many wins as you can against the heavyweights. So far, the Mavericks have done the former. The schedule will give them more chances to do the latter as November wears on.

J.B., THE “KILLER” TO THE RESCUE: In Jalen Brunson’s 36 minutes on the floor Wednesday night, the Mavericks were a plus-13 points. That’s a good thing. Makes up for that minus-17 by a certain backcourt mate of Brunson’s. Teams are doing everything they can to rattle Luka Dončić. It still doesn’t work all the time. He did have 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. But it was Brunson’s opportunity to shine and he ran with it. His 31 points tied the second most he’s had in his career. And he pulled down 10 rebounds for his eighth career double-double and second this season. He also had 13 consecutive fourth-quarter points when the Mavericks really needed them. It followed Brunson’s 19 points last week against the Spurs when he had four points and two assists in seven fourth-quarter minutes. “Brunson was the killer again,” Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich said postgame. “In both games, he was the difference. He plays really smart, tough kid, he’s skilled and in the fourth quarters, he got us both times.”

KUDOS TO BOBAN: Everybody will point to the 17 points Boban Marjanović scored in 15 minutes against the Spurs. But it was the play that didn’t show up anywhere in the box score that was one of the 7-4 Boban’s best  contributions. He was the interference for the Spurs’ trigger man on the final play with 2.7 seconds left. Boban forced a high-arching pass to get over his long arms and the hang time allowed the Mavericks to get in better defensive position and make the steal. Game saved because of it.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT TIM: While Brunson, Luka and Boban all deserved credit, Tim Hardaway Jr. quietly rolled up 23 points, including 15 in the first half when the Mavericks bult a double-figure lead. When their offense began to sputter, it was Hardaway who helped keep them in range of the Spurs.

SCHEDULE SLOWS DOWN: While the Mavericks got through this stretch of five games in seven days with a 3-2 record, they now will settle into a more conventional part of the schedule, playing just 11 times in the next 26 days with no back-to-back situations. Of course, the level of competition spikes considerably later in the month.

Twitter: @ESefko

 

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