SAN ANTONIO – Wednesday was one of those win by any means necessary type of games for the Dallas Mavericks.
In other words, it was necessary for the Mavs to defeat a San Antonio Spurs’ squad that’s more interested in being a participant in the NBA Draft Lottery than being a participant in next month’s playoffs. So, although it was the struggle of all struggles, the Mavs were able to finally escape the AT&T Center with a wild hard-fought 137-128 overtime triumph over the Spurs in front of a sellout crowd of 18,354.
That’s the good news. Even more good news came strolling right up Interstate-10 where the Houston Rockets did the Mavs a big favor by defeating the Los Anglers Lakers on Wednesday, 114-110. The results of those two games put the Mavs (35-35) one game ahead of the Lakers (34-36) when those two teams collide on Friday in Los Angeles.
But before they’ll tangle with the Lakers, the Mavs had five players score 20 or more points — that’s the first time that’s happened in franchise history – in dealing the Spurs (18-51) a defeat.
“It feels good to get the win,” said Dwight Powell, who was 8-for-8 from the field and finished with 22 points and eight rebounds. “Obviously, we’d like to finish in regulation, but I think this was good for us to battle through.
“In the last 10 seconds before we walked out there, I kind of looked over at the bench, we had our game plan and were able to execute. I think we can learn a lot for that.”
The learning process Powell was referring to happened in the final frantic seconds of regulation play. In a dogfight for their playoff lives, the 
Mavs almost had this game wrapped up in regulation.
After Jaden Hardy spilt a pair of free throws that pushed Dallas ahead, 121-119, with 3.4 seconds, Maxi Kleber was whistled on a foul near the basket against Keldon Johnson (27 points) with 1.8 seconds remaining.
Coach Jason Kidd challenged the call, but it was upheld. However, Johnson missed the first free throw, then committed a lane violation while he intentionally misfired on the second charity toss.
But Kleber’s long inbounds pass intended for Christian Wood didn’t touch anyone. Thus, the Spurs were able to inbound the ball not far from the Mavs’ bench, and they successfully executed a backdoor lob pass which Johnson caught and dunked to tie the game with 1.5 seconds left, sending the contest into overtime.
The Mavs apparently were not shaken by the late-game miscues as they quickly put a choke-hold on the Spurs by going on a 13-0 run to forge ahead, 134-123, with 1:12 left in overtime thanks to a pair of three-pointers by Reggie Bullock and five points from Wood.
“Everybody who participated helped us win that game tonight,” Kidd said. “Again, some mistakes there that we’ve got to clean up.
“But I thought the group stayed connected, even when we were down late. It was easy to fold going into overtime, which is the mistakes that we made at the end (of regulation).”
When it was all said of done, Wood collected 28 points and 13 rebounds, Jaden Hardy had 22 points and six boards, Josh Green contributed
21 points and seven assists, and Bullock added 20 points and 13 boards.
“I thought Wood was great tonight on both ends, and then being able to play through him down the stretch,” Kidd said. “Before that all took place, I thought Hardy didn’t have a great first half, but came back in the second half and stayed aggressive, got downhill, and (Powell) cleaned up a lot of those misses. If he didn’t clean them up, he got to the free throw line.
“I thought Josh, (I) played him (45 minutes) and he was able to play both ends of the floor. I thought he did a great job.”
While all of that is obviously true, the game nearly got away from the Mavs when the Spurs led, 112-103, with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. That’s when Powell got the Mavs back into the thick of things when he went on a personal 9-0 run.
“They were doing some switching,” Powell said. “We were trying to find ways to get downhill and crashing the glass and trying to find open shooters.
‘But we have great ball handlers and were making good decisions, and all of our playmakers were making good decisions. So, when we’re connected like that, plays start to stream together and we were getting even more juice on defense. That’s stuff we need to look at and learn from.”
Green noted the Mavs 
certainly learned from how Powell was able to dominate in the late stages of the fourth quarter.
“He was on one,” said Green, who was 9-of-18 from the field. “The second half he turned into an apparent superhero, and he was awesome.
“He took over when we really needed him. He was dominating in the paint. He turned into the Hulk, I’d say, in the second half. It was cool.”
Powell was just as appreciative of the job turned in by Green.
“I would say he was pretty much the Hulk tonight,” Powell said. “He had a little green tinge. Josh played great. I think he’s done an amazing job in our system all year, and especially these last few games having to step up into a role that requires a little more from him in terms of production.
“I think he’s done a great job of finding guys, he’s done a great job of running our offense, and then at the same time with these new responsibilities, running the floor, being a pest on defense and contributing in the ways he has all year.”
The Mavs played without Luka Doncic (left thigh strain), Kyrie Irving (right foot soreness), Tim Hardaway Jr. (left calf contusion) and Markieff Morris (left knee soreness). Meanwhile, the Spurs played without three starters — Jeremy Sochan, Zach Collins and Devin Vassell – who played during Tuesday’s home win over the Orlando Magic.
Overall, the Mavs shot 51.2 percent from the field and were 17-of-33 from three-point range for 51.5 percent. They also converted 32 of their 37 free throw attempts.
Meanwhile, the Spurs (18-51) made 45.8 percent of their shots, were 15-of-34 from beyond the arc and missed 11 of their 26 free throws.
All-in-all, while the Mavs didn’t easily put away a Spurs’ team that won’t have an invitation to this year’s playoffs, they’re just happy to add another ‘W’ to the win column.
“We just have to continue to stay positive, keep coaching, keep putting guys in a position to be successful,” Kidd said. “The game of basketball is about mistakes. You make mistakes at the wrong time, and if you can capitalize on it, then it puts you ahead.
“If you are the team that’s making mistakes, it’ll put you behind. We made two mistakes there at the end. It wasn’t when we were trying to make the mistakes. It just happens. As much as we look at them as numbers, they’re human. At the same time, we took advantage of that.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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