That nasty cold snap of a few weeks back is a distant memory, but the Mavericks found out Saturday night just what it feels like to have the pipes freeze up.
They were running smooth and easy with a 25-point lead against Milwaukee. And then everything just stopped.
The Bucks made up all of that deficit and more with a 59-26 blitz that bridged halftime on their way to a 129-117 victory at American Airlines Center.
With Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard outgunning Luka Dončić on a night when he actually got quite a bit of help, the Bucks got their first win since Doc Rivers took over on the bench as coach. They had lost Monday at Denver and Wednesday at Portland.
The Mavericks simply forgot where the gas pedal was after opening up a big lead as they fell to 26-23. The Bucks improved to 33-16 as Antetokounmpo had a monstrous night with 48 points, six rebounds and 10 assists. Lillard had 30 points and needed only 11 shots to reach that total. He made 10 of those shots.
“They just kept playing and took our best shot in the first half,” coach Jason Kidd said. “And (they) ended the half on a positive with Dame making that three at the buzzer. And we didn’t take care of the ball. You got to take care of the ball, especially against a team like this.”
The Mavericks had an uncharacteristic 21 turnovers, which Milwaukee converted into 25 points. The Bucks had just 12 turnovers for only four Maverick points.
“That was on me,” Luka said. “I think I had 10, 11 turnovers (nine, actually), which is unacceptable, for sure. That was on me just being not that careful with the pass. I threw some bad passes today.”
The end of the first half was the beginning of the end for the Mavericks. The Bucks finished it on a 15-0 run and Lillard’s three-pointer at the buzzer cut the Mavericks’ once-massive lead to 65-60.
“We had some turnovers . . . our composure, we have to be better,” Kidd said. “The first half was at a high. I thought the guys had carryover from practice, the energy’s high. We lost Luka there for a minute (in the first quarter) and then he comes back. But when Dame only misses one shot and Giannis goes 20-for-28, that puts you in a bad way and those guys took advantage of that.”
Luka had 40 points, nine rebounds and 11 assists and got assisted himself by 21 points from Maxi Kleber and 20 from Josh Green.
But it wasn’t enough as the Bucks overcame a lot. The Mavericks were up 49-24 early in the second quarter and still ahead 65-45 with two minutes left before halftime.
That’s when things went haywire.
“We got really hot in the first quarter, cooled down a little in the second quarter,” Kleber said. “But that’s when we got to maintain the lead. Even though we made shots in the first, we still got stops. And we didn’t do it in the second quarter.”
As Dončić said: “I think our defense – we hold them to 20 points in the first quarter, so we could run out of that, play faster. When they score every time it’s tough to play fast. So I think it was our defense.”
After the disastrous finish to the first half, the Mavericks were victimized by a 23-10 Milwaukee start to the third quarter.
From there, it was a dogfight.
The Mavericks were down 106-101 after a three-point play by Antetokounmpo with 7:29 to play. Grant Williams traveled and the Bucks got a three-pointer from Lillard for a 109-101 lead with 6:38 left.
The Mavericks’ defense couldn’t come up with enough stops the rest of the way to complete a comeback.
“Tip my hat to them,” Kleber said. “They kept their composure and played the right way, played hard, made a bunch of tough shots and made a good run. We just got to be better than that.”
When Dončić hobbled off the court midway through the first quarter and headed toward the locker room, Maverick fans held their breath, feared the worst and hoped for the best.
As often happens with Dončić, the scare was brief and not really a scare at all.
The Mavericks superstar returned to the court with 3:35 left in the first half and proceeded to carve up the Milwaukee Bucks with 23 of his 26 first-half points afterward. That’s why the Mavericks were dominant – up until the spigot turned off.
“It’s the same ankle. It’s OK,” he said. “I just heard the pop. I’ve been working almost every day on that ankle. It’s pretty strong now. It’s better than if I did it last year, it would be way worse. We’ll see tomorrow how it is.”
Luka also suffered a kick to the gut, inadvertently, from Antetokounmpo late in the second quarter. The play was reviewed but deemed to be incidental contact, although it didn’t feel all that incidental to Dončić. It was a key play in that Antetokounmpo fed A.J. Green for a three-pointer simultaneously when his flailing leg hit Luka.
The Mavericks weren’t exactly flush with bodies, either, although their injury situation improved slightly.
Kyrie Irving (right thumb), Dereck Lively II (broken nose) and Dante Exum (knee soreness) all were out.
While missing three starters isn’t great, it was an upgrade from Wednesday in Minnesota, when all five starters were in the infirmary.
X: @ESefko
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