The Mavericks’ problems on this home stand – as well as issues with opponents from the Eastern Conference – continued on Tuesday.
The Mavericks were fighting from behind most of the night and while their late rally gave them a shot at the win in the final seconds, they couldn’t pull it off and fell 124-122 to the Indiana Pacers at American Airlines Center.
The Pacers were ahead by 11 with under six minutes to go. But the Mavericks charged back and got within 121-120. Tyrese Haliburton (32 points) hit one of two free throws with 2:13 to go and both teams couldn’t locate the basket until Haliburton hit two free throws with 19.1 seconds to go to make it 124-120.
Luka Dončić, who finished with 39 points, hit a pair of free throws with 11.2 to go and when Andrew Nembhard missed two four seconds later, the Mavericks had a last gasp. But Kyrie Irving’s step-back three-pointer clanged off the rim and the Pacers collected the rebound and the win.
“It was a great look,” Irving said. “It just didn’t go down. I just appreciate the coaching staff and teammates trusting me with that shot.”
It was a step-back three-pointer moving to his left, similar to Luka’s signature shot.
“It was a good shot,” Dončić said. “It’s Kyrie, he can make a lot of those shots and we trust him.”
Luka was quick to add that any malfunctions in execution late weren’t necessarily because of the newness of him and Irving.
“We should be talking about the whole team,” he said. “We play as a team. We lose, we win as a team. It’s not just about two players. It’s about the whole team. We got to get better as a team, that’s it.
“We still got some things to figure out, especially on defense.”
That much is for sure.
This was the Mavericks’ first of nine remaining games (out of their final 20) against Eastern Conference opponents.
So far, the East has not been kind to the Mavericks. They are just 8-14 against that conference, and there are more challenging matchups remaining, starting Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers at AAC.
The Mavericks started this six-game home stand against three teams with losing records. They are 1-2 and have fallen to 32-31 for the season. They already have one more loss than they had all of last season.
The Pacers (28-35) have won three of four and they used a diverse attack that featured hard-nosed play from Haliburton, Myles Turner and a handful of others.
The Mavericks allowed the Pacers to shoot 52.6 percent from the field and sent them to the free-throw line 40 times.
Six of the last seven opponents have hit at least 50 percent of their shots against the Mavericks.
“You see in the fourth quarter the defense was pretty good,” coach Jason Kidd said. “It gave us a shot. And that’s big. The guys that played in the fourth quarter put us in a position to win that game, or tie it. We got stops.
“The one thing defensively we got to do a better job is just fouling. I think they shot 40 free throws. You give a team like that 40 free throws, it’s going to be hard to beat them. And the other thing is we got to the line 20 times in the first half and we made 10. In a game of offense, every point counts. We got to be better at the free-throw line.”
The Mavericks had an awful finish to the first half. They were up 47-46 after a Tim Hardaway Jr. three-pointer.
But the Pacers went on a 24-12 blitz to close out the second quarter. Haliburton came alive with a couple of three-pointers and the Pacers were simply outhustling the Mavericks, as evidenced by the 26-18 lead in the rebounding department at halftime.
They surrendered 75 points in the second and third quarters combined.
” don’t think they really felt us physically every possession,” said Irving. “And there were some breakdowns. We can score 39 in the third, but when we give up 38 in the second, 37 in the third, it’s a high offensive game they’re running against us and we got to be able to break their rhythm better.
“Defensively, we can make some improvements, starting with myself. But we gave ourselves a chance to win. Got to live with the results.”
The loss marred the comeback of Maxi Kleber, who returned after missing 35 games with a torn hamstring.
“I thought he did great,” Kidd said of Kleber. “Nine points, we made sure we got to his mark for minutes, didn’t go over. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. But I think the guys were happy to have him out there on both ends. Offensively for us, we dominated the paint.”
He made his entrance about midway through the first quarter and would play a shade under 24 minutes.
He made his presence known quickly with a one-handed dunk. He also had a strong defensive play against Haliburton, and while he was whistled for a foul on the drive, it sent a message that the Mavericks weren’t going to allow any cheap buckets in the paint.
“With Maxi, it’s going to be a process,” Kidd said. “But with the team, it’s a process. We have new players. Kai (Irving) is still new to the situation. We’re working through this on the fly with not enough practice time and we’re doing in-game situations. This is not just with Maxi. It’s the team.”
Kidd has made it clear that minutes aren’t necessarily going to be to everybody’s liking. That’s the benefit and the curse of having a deep team. And Kleber’s return will only make it tougher for the Mavericks’ big players to get the playing time that they feel they deserve.
That the Mavericks tend to play small a lot doesn’t make it any easier.
“Guys aren’t going to get the minutes they want,” Kidd said. “We’re deep. And so, if we can get to the point of being unselfish and do our part when we’re out there, we’re going to be fine.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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