Playing without Luka Dončić or Kristaps Porzingis on the floor is something coach Jason Kidd did by choice in the fourth quarter Monday night – with terrific results.
But he’s hoping it’s not something he has to go to out of necessity, at least with Dončić.
The superstar point guard went down clutching his left ankle with 44 seconds left in the Mavericks’ 111-101 victory over Denver, stopping the Nuggets’ five-game winning streak and avenging their blowout loss in Denver last month.
Dončić was able to put his weight on the leg as he left the court, which was good news. But that doesn’t mean the Mavericks aren’t holding their breath to some degree.
“Luka walked off on his own power,” Kidd said in his postgame news conference. “I think he got rolled up on his lower left leg. So we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”
The Mavericks (9-4) leave Tuesday for a four-game, seven-day trip that starts in Phoenix on Wednesday. Their Tuesday practice was canceled and Dončić did not have a postgame media availability.
He did, however, talk with Porzingis, who led the Mavericks with 29 points and 11 rebounds against the Nuggets.
“I talked to him for a little bit,” Porzingis said. “He’s always: ‘Hey, I’ll be good, I’ll be good.’ Hopefully, he is good.
“We don’t know what it is. But we’re all hoping he’s healthy and just needs a little bit of time and he’ll be back soon.”
Dončić has been durable early in his career. He missed only six games last season, although he did miss seven in a row in February, 2020, before the pandemic interrupted his second season.
Interestingly, Dončić and Porzingis were rolling for the first three quarters against Denver, yet the Mavericks were trailing virtually the whole way.
When the other Mavericks joined the party, things did a U-turn.
With Dončić and Porzingis on the bench to start the fourth quarter, the Mavericks went on a 13-2 blitz that was the catalyst for the win. Frank Ntilikina, Dorian Finney-Smith, Jalen Brunson, Tim Hardaway and Reggie Bullock helped jump-start the Mavericks as they avenged a blowout loss last month in Denver.
It was Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock who made back-to-back 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter to put the Mavericks up 85-83. Moments later, it was 92-85 and while the game was far from over, the Mavericks’ supporting cast had set up Dončić and Porzingis, who returned to the court and guided them to the finish line.
“I think it was funky,” said Hardaway of the lineup that started the fourth quarter. “I looked down the line and we don’t have a guy over 6-7, 6-8 on the floor, so we knew going into the fourth we wanted to get the pace going. We understood that they were coming off the back end of a back-to-back. So we wanted to get that pace going higher.”
The Mavericks did that in the second half, when they scored 62 points, including 32 in the fourth quarter. Hardaway had 13 of his 19 points in the fourth.
So how comfortable was Kidd going to a lineup with the 6-7 Finney-Smith as their center?
“We trust everyone in that locker room and everyone has been able to answer when they’re number is called,” Kidd said. “When you look at the league, the league has played small for a while now. When you put those guys on the floor, they compete at a high level.
“We went with Dorian at the five with their second unit we felt they were small. We felt that could be a lineup that we could get going, give us some energy and some physicality and that’s what they brought. They gave us a lift in that fourth quarter. That group was great and they haven’t played together.”
With the NBA moving toward smaller, quicker lineups, it showed that the Mavericks are capable of doing that, too, even though they have Porzingis, who is 7-3, as one of their heavy-minute players.
Often in the past few games, Porzingis has been the only true big man on the floor for the Mavericks.
To start the fourth quarter, Kidd took it a step further and went with no big men.
That was also the moment that Ntilikina got shoved to the floor by Denver’s JaMychal Green. As soon as that happened, several Mavericks popped up to Ntilikina’s defense.
Said Hardaway: “J-Kidd came at halftime and asked us how the officials were officiating. And he let us know Denver was the aggressor in the first half. They were grabbing, scratching, clawing and setting the tone. How we were going to respond in the second half was up to us.
“We just took it upon ourselves like grown men. Whatever happens, it happens, but we’re going to do it as hard as we can and be as physical as possible so we could impose our will.”
The small lineup took care of that just fine.
Twitter: @ESefko
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