Reeling with four straight losses over a seven-day span, the Dallas Mavericks found themselves desperately needing a win on Saturday night.
Wearing their new city edition jerseys for the first time this season, the Mavs were able to keep the main thing the main thing, then defeated the San Antonio Spurs, winning, 110-93, at American Airlines Center.
In showing up and handling their business, the Mavs used a massive surge in the third quarter to improve to 6-7 on the season, while the Spurs fell to 6-8.
The Mavs hope to keep the winning going when they play the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Sunday at 6 p.m. before they return home to host New Orleans on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Kyrie Irving (22 points, eight rebounds, six assists), Daniel Gafford (22 points, seven rebounds, three blocks), and Luka Dončić (16 points, six rebounds, six assists) led the Mavs, who also got 12 points from Jaden Hardy.
Zach Collins (20 points), Sandro Mamukelashvili (14 points) Julian Champagnie (13 points), Stephon Castle (12 points) and Chris Paul (11 points) paced the Spurs.
Looking very poised in the second half, the Mavs outscored the Spurs in the third quarter, 38-18, to stretch a slim 55-51 halftime lead to 93-69 entering the fourth quarter. So, why was the third quarter tilted so much in the Mavs’ favor?
Dončić said the Mavs had to “just play our game, defend, block out, get rebounds and just play with pace.”
Gafford added that the Mavs had to “pretty much just make them drive and keep them off the three (point line). That was the main thing we had to do was take that away and keep them from getting second chances.
“We wanted to keep them off the glass, so that kind of gave energy to us because it fueled our offense.”
And when the Mavs’ offense was energized, the Spurs had no chance of slowing them down. The game got so far out of hand that the Mavs led by 99-73 early in the fourth quarter following a three-pointer by Hardy.
It also helped that the Spurs shot just 31.8 percent from the field and also misfired on 29 of their 40 attempts from beyond the three-point arc.
“San Antonio didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” coach Jason Kidd said. “And when teams don’t shoot the ball well that means there’s opportunities for rebounds, and I thought we did a really good job of rebounding the ball.”
The Mavs outrebounded the Spurs, 53-45, with the 53 boards tying a season high for Dallas. In addition, the Mavs outscored the Spurs in second-chance points, 24-14.
“There’s a lot of guys that crash (the boards) on the Spurs, so we had to be extra careful with the rebounds,” Dončić said. “And then everybody is just boxing out their own guy and getting the rebound.”
The Spurs were hampered because they were playing without center Victor Wembanyama, who has a right knee contusion that he sustained when he collided Friday
night with Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Six points from Irving, and later on a personal 8-0 scoring run from Gafford increased the Mavs’ lead to 88-67 late in the third quarter. A three-pointer from Hardy followed by a pair of free throws from Naji Marshall extended Dallas’ lead to 93-69 going into the fourth quarter.
It all led to the Mavs finally putting an end to their losing streak.
“It’s like the world is off our shoulders now,” Gafford said. “Most of those games got down to the last second. Of course, we didn’t want to lose those games, but stuff happens.
“We got to kind of li
ke learn from it and just keep moving forward. That’s’ the main thing. That’s kind of like what we did tonight. We came out, we were positive, the energy was good, when it came to frustrations, we fought through that as a team and we found a way to get through obstacles together.”
At the game’s outset, Klay Thompson started the scoring spree when he buried a pair of jumpers to give the Mavs a 6-0 lead less than two minutes into this Interstate-35 showdown.
“He’s one of the best shooters that’s ever played,” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said, referring to Thompson. “So, you put that alongside Luka and Kyrie and the rest of the pieces, it’s a formidable group that can score in a lot of different ways.”
Fueled by four points from Collins and a three-pointer and assist from Castle, the Spurs went on a 9-0 run to assume a 13-11 lead with 5:05 to go in the first quarter.
“I think he’s been great,” Johnson said of Castle, a 20-year old rookie from Connecticut. “I think the most impressive thing has been his temperament. He’s had some highlights, he’s had some low lights and he’s kind of been flat-lined — in a complimentary way.
“And I think as he gets experience and plays with the ball and plays off the ball, he’s so versatile that I think we see the potential of him being able to impact winning in a lot of different ways. So, that’s really exciting to see in a player so young and so early on in his career.”
The Spurs also pieced together a 10-0 run to forge ahead, 26-19, with 1:30 left in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the Mavs were able to welcome back forward P. J. Washington, who sat out the previous five games while nursing a sprained right knee. Washington came off the bench and was scoreless in 19 minutes while missing his only two field goal attempts.
On what his team missed by not having Washington for five games, Kidd said: “I think his ability to play both ways — offense and defense — his leadership, his defense, his rebounding. We missed a lot. So, it’s good to get him back into the flow.
“What you talk about the flow of adding guys coming back from injury and trying to get back into the flow, so patient is going to be a big thing once we get healthy here. Just understanding of looking at P. J.’s minutes, he’s not going to play the 36 minutes that he’s been playing until he gets some minutes under his belt.”
And now it’s on to Oklahoma City for the Mavs to battle a Thunder squad that has the best record in the Western Conference at 11-2.
“OKC is rolling right now,” Gafford said. “We’ve got to come in with our head on our shoulders and we’ve got to know they’re not going to come out and give us an easy game.”
X: @DwainPrice
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