The Dallas Mavericks have been trying to win games without the injured Kristaps Porzingis. On Sunday night in Chicago for the first time this season, the Mavs tried to win a game without the injured Luka Doncic — and Porzingis.
That obviously is not a plan the Mavs want to become accustom to as they hung around the Bulls for the better part of three quarters without their top two players before Chicago pulled away at the end and claimed a 118-108 victory at the United Center.
The loss dropped the Mavs to 2-4 on the season, while the Bulls padded their record to 3-4.
Porzingis has yet to play this season after undergoing surgery on Oct. 9 to address a lateral meniscus injury of his right knee. Meanwhile, Doncic suffered a left quad contusion during last Friday’s win over the Miami Heat and sat out the game against the Bulls.
There is no timetable for the return of both Doncic and Porzingis, but the former is listed as day-to-day. However, coach Rick Carlisle said it’s too early to tell if his superstar point guard will be ready to play in Monday night’s road game against the Houston Rockets.
“We’ll see how he is tomorrow,” Carlisle said. “I don’t think this is a long-term thing, but we’ll just have to see how he feels when he gets up tomorrow and see if tomorrow is going to be a possibility or not.”
Obviously, the Mavs were at a huge disadvantage against the Bulls without Doncic and Porzingis at their disposal. But Jalen Brunson started in place of Doncic and contributed 31 points, five rebounds and seven assists and ignited a spark that kept the Mavs within shouting distance of the Bulls.
However, Zach LaVine poured in a game-high 39 points and Coby White added 21 of his 23 points in the second half as the Mavs ran out of gas at the end. With LaVine tossing in 29 of his points in the first half – the Mavs led 60-59 at the midway juncture – he and White caused a lot of problems for Dallas.
“It’s difficult without Luka and without our big guy, KP,” said Brunson, who tallied 12 of the Mavs’ first 18 points of the night. “Luka obviously does a lot for us, KP does a lot and brings another element for us as well, so it’s definitely difficult, but you’ve got to push through that.”
Carlisle always subscribes to the “next man up” mantra, so that’s precisely the way he approached the game against the Bulls. And he knows there were a plethora of opportunities available for the Mavs to get out of town with a victory.
But the Bulls won the rebounding battle, 48-41, and also outscored the Mavs, 59-48, in the second half. In addition, the Mavs did themselves no favor by missing 31-of-42 shots from 3-point range for 26.2 percent, and also by missing eight free throws.
“I thought a big part of it was the rebounding, a big part of it was 50-50 balls – we didn’t do a good job in either area,” Carlisle said. “These are balls that are up for grabs.
“They just beat us to them. We shot ourselves in the foot with some missed free throws and some other things. In the end Chicago played a better game than we did and we just didn’t do a job enough job.”
The Mavs were within 106-104 of the Bulls when LaVine buried a pair of free throws, then fed Otto Porter Jr. for a bucket. White’s 3-pointer increased the Chicago lead t0 113-105, and following a 3-pointer by Maxi Kleber, the Mavs had inched a bit closer to Chicago (114-108).
But with a chance to chop that deficit down to three points, Josh Richardson, Brunson and Tim Hardaway Jr. each misfired on a 3-pointer within a 10-second span on one trip up the court with 28.2 seconds remaining in the game.
“Staying in when stuff is not going our way, we just got to put our head down and keep on playing and good things will happen,” center Willie Cauley-Stein said. “Right now we kind of get into a, ‘Man, something’s bad happening on the offensive end,’ and we kind of give up on defense.
“It’s just little internal stuff that winning teams do. We’ve got to focus on what to do, and possessions matter each night.”
Brunson, who led Stevenson High School in nearby Lincolnshire, IL, to the Class 4A state championship in 2015, scored 18 of his points in the first half. The three-year veteran explained that nothing changed as far as his approach to the game just because he returned to the area where he enjoyed a decorated prep career.
“I try to play the same way every time I step on the court,” Brunson said. “I just had a little bit more opportunity tonight. I just tried to make the most of it and tried to help my team win.”
Besides Brunson, the Mavs got 16 points apiece from Maxi Kleber and Richardson, and 13 from Hardaway. But it was very evident that the Mavs missed the production they would normally receive from Doncic and Porzingis.
“Like coach said two days ago, we’re going to get everybody’s best,” said Cauley-Stein, who had eight points and four boards before fouling out. “We’ve got a lot of media coverage, we’ve got two All-Stars.
“We’ve got a target on our back, so we’ve got to come with that same mentality that they’re coming with us. We just got to come out with a different swagger that we’re hard-nosed and that we’re going to get after it.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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