The Dallas Mavericks can’t catch a break, and they have the 5-5 record to prove it after Sunday’s 122-120 loss to the Denver Nuggets at the Ball Center in Denver. The Mavericks have now lost back-to-back games by three combined points.
Kyrie Irving went supernova in the second half, but the Dallas defense had no answer for Nikola Jokic on the other end without injured bigs Dereck Lively II and P.J. Washington. Irving scored 27 of his 43 points in the second half, when he was unconscious from the perimeter, shooting 11-of-14. Jokic was the immovable object to Irving’s unstoppable force, making plays all over the court for 37 points on 13-of-21 shooting, a game-high 18 rebounds and 15 assists.
13, 4: Michael Porter Jr.’s first-quarter stat line
The Mavs’ slow start wasn’t as protracted in the first quarter Sunday as it has been in some recent losses. They largely righted the ship after falling down 11-3 on Christian Braun’s finish in transition off a steal and lead pass from Michael Porter Jr. with 9:23 left in the opening frame. Porter Jr. was one of the main reasons the Nuggets were able to hold the Mavericks at arm’s length early on.
He scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds in the first quarter, shooting 4-of-5 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point range. Olivier Maxence Prosper had him bottled up late in the shot clock and about 27 feet from the bucket midway through the quarter. Porter calmly stepped back and canned his second 3-ball of the game to extend Denver’s lead to 22-14.
Nikola Jokic also filled up the stat sheet for seven points, six rebounds and five assists in the first quarter after coming into the game on the heels of three straight triple-doubles. The Nuggets took a 35-29 lead after one.
Porter Jr. would only score four points the rest of the game. His only bucket of the second half was the decisive driving leaner that put Denver up 122-120 with 6.5 seconds left to play.
7-for-7: Daniel Gafford’s first-half shooting
Boy, Daniel Gafford is a man with a certain set of skills, isn’t he? He is what he is, and he ain’t what he ain’t. Take, for example, the exchange with just over five minutes left in the second quarter. Gafford took a beautiful interior feed from Kyrie Irving and scored an easy bucket inside to pull the Mavericks in front, for just their second brief lead of the game, up 50-49 for the moment. He was 6-for-6 from the field at the time, and his efficiency and finishing at the rim had been no small part in Dallas’ effort to stay connected to a high-octane Denver offense.
The next time down, just 10 seconds later, Gafford lost Jokic on the wing for a wide open 3-pointer that brought the Nuggets back in front, 52-50, with 5:12 left before the break. Gafford will give you what he’ll give you, but he’s just not cut out to defend on the perimeter, and he’ll be exposed to more and more situations like this as long as Dereck Lively II is sidelined with injury.
Gafford shot 7-for-7 from the field and maximized his productivity with 14 points, three rebounds and two blocked shots in the first half. He was one of three Mavericks in double figures at the break, as Irving led all scorers with 16 points and Luka Dončić tallied 12 points, six assists and five boards.
The Mavs outscored the Nuggets 42-26 in the paint in the first half and took a 63-60 lead into halftime as a result. Gafford finished the game with 16 points and seven boards and missed his only two field goal attempts in the second half.
10: Consecutive made field goals for Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving scored 11 more in the third quarter on 5-of-5 shooting from the field, as the Nuggets showed no ability to stop the quick, crafty veteran with handles to spare. As the lead changed hands nearly as quickly as the clock ticked, Irving read the room and surmised he was the Mavs’ best option in a game with a pace as frenetic as the one unfolding at Ball Arena. Irving got to his spots in the mid-range and attacked the cup with a smooth aggression, cutting like a knife through butter.
At one point in the third, Irving had made his last eight shot attempts. Heading into the fourth quarter, with the Mavs now trailing 97-94, Irving was doing more than his part, shooting 11-of-13 from the field for a game-high 27 points.
He nailed two long 3-point attempts early in the fourth to give Dallas a 102-100 lead with 10:20 left to play to bring his consecutive made field-goal streak to 10. Irving made all six of his eight 3-point attempts on the night and set a new season-high in scoring with 43 points.
4: Consecutive triple-doubles for Nikola Jokic
Jokic was the other side of that coin, though. Neither team could do much to defend the other team’s best weapon on Sunday. As Irving has his way with the Denver backcourt, Jokic made mincemeat of the Dallas frontcourt.
Jokic earned his fourth consecutive triple-double and his fifth overall of the young season midway through the third quarter when he rebounded his own miss for his 10th board of the game. He scored 12 points of his own in the third but pulled down eight rebounds and dished seven assists in the quarter, too.
Jokic finished with a gaudy 37-point, 18-rebound and 15-dime stat line for his Sunday night’s work.
20-16: Denver’s bench scoring advantage
Both the Mavericks and the Nuggets benches, as currently constructed, leave something to be desired. The Nuggets only played three off the bench and still outscored the Mavs, though, which was a little bit of a head-scratcher. Prosper and Dwight Powell are what they are. Jaden Hardy was ineffective, going 1-of-7 from the field in his 18 minutes.
So why does Mavs head coach Jason Kidd refuse to give Quentin Grimes any significant run lately? When asked about it in the postgame press conference, Kidd was reportedly short in his answer, calling Grimes’ and Maxi Kleber’s DNPs “coach’s decisions” without elaborating.
Arbitrarily shortening the team’s bench even further when it’s already shortened by injury seems less than ideal, but what do we know?
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