LAS VEGAS – A blowout-in the-making wound up being a game too-close-for-comfort for the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday afternoon at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Mavs led Croatia by 19 points in the first half, only to see that lead trimmed to four points with under a minute left. But center Shayne Whittington scored four straight points down the stretch and the Mavs held on for a 79-71 victory in the MGM Resorts NBA Summer League.
That closer-than-expected win improved the Mavs’ record to 3-1 and put them squarely in the middle of the playoff mix. Still, the Mavs – they won’t know when they’ll play next until late Wednesday night –are aware that they’ll have to execute better from here on out, or else their next game could be their last in Vegas.
“I will say this: It wasn’t a work of art today,” coach Mike Weinar said. “It was something that came out on the correct side for us, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.”
Josh Reaves continued his solid summer league play as he tallied seven points during a 22-3 run as the Mavs broke free from a 19-19 tie to charge ahead, 41-22, with 46.1 seconds remaining before halftime. From there, it appeared as though the Mavs simply took their foot off the gas.
“We got a little complacent, we slowed down a little bit and we got a little comfortable,” said Reaves, who finished with 15 points. “We got the lead because we were playing fast, we were pressuring the ball, we were just doing everything that we needed to do to speed their game up and try to push their offense out a little farther.
“After we got the lead they started playing their type of basketball, cutting to the basket and shooting threes. But I feel like we did a good job just staying composed, and in a situation like that, just persevering and just pushing through as a team and we just got the win.”
With the Mavs up, 70-66, Croatia had a chance to slice its deficit in half. But rookie Isaiah Roby drew a crucial charge inside the key with 2:06 left, and Whittington scored six of the Mavs’ final eight points to help snuff out any other rallies by Croatia.
That helped offset the 25 turnovers the Mavs committed that directly led to 32 points for Croatia.
“We were a little bit lackadaisical offensively and defensively,” said Whittington, who led the Mavs with 19 points and two blocks in 23 minutes. “They came out in the second half and started hitting a few shots and our offense wasn’t exactly very mobile.
“We were very stagnant, so we were just a little bit down and we had to pick ourselves back up. They came back, we fought back and it was a good game.”
That fight helped the Mavs bounce back from Monday’s 105-101 loss to Sacramento.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Whittington fed Reaves for a dunk, and on the ensuing trip up the court Reaves returned the favor and fed Whittington for a dunk and a 67-55 lead for the Mavs.
“I was just taking advantage of opportunities,” Reaves said. “I saw he was open and I tried to get it to him as fast as possible. I was just taking advantage of an open lane.”
Besides Whittington and Reaves, the Mavs got 14 points on 7-of-10 shots, five steals and two blocks from Antonius Cleveland.
“Similar to Josh in that AC makes a lot of plays,” Weinar said. “He’s all over the place.
“He’s long, he’s active, and he has a knack for finishing. So those two guys out there together we really like as a tandem.”
What Weinar didn’t like was the ease in which Croatia got back in the game after the Mavs held a 41-25 lead at halftime.
“They asserted leverage on us and in the beginning of the game we had all the leverage,” Weinar said. “We were imposing our will, then they certainly fought back.
“I tell you what, they’re well coached, they executed their stuff and if you’re not ready to go they’ll hit you right in the mouth.”
The Mavs shot 55.8 percent from the field and held Croatia to 37.7 percent shooting. While there were obvious lulls offensively and defensively for the Mavs during the middle portions of the game, they took solace in the fact that when the game was on the line, they found a way to do what they needed to do in order to come out on top.
“Croatia is a good team and they have really good players,” Whittington said. “Europe’s a little under-valued in my opinion.
“We kind of just weren’t ready when we were there, but we got ready. We came back in the second quarter and started playing really well and I think our defense helped us out with that.”
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