HOUSTON – The injury bug bit the Dallas Mavericks – again – on Wednesday night.
This time it was forward P. J. Washington who fell victim to an injury as he suffered a right knee sprain in the first half of the game against the Houston Rockets and did not return. Washington’s injury was part of what ailed the Mavs during their 110-99 loss to the Rockets at the Toyota Center.
It was the fourth loss in the past five games for the Mavs, who finished this week-long road trip with a 1-3 record and will take their 20-14 overall worksheet into Friday’s home game against the high-flying Cleveland Cavaliers.
Quentin Grimes led the Mavs with 17 points and five rebounds, and Kyrie Irving finished with 16 points, seven boards, three steals and two blocks. Also for the Mavs, Klay Thompson had 16 points and five rebounds, and Jaden Hardy collected 11 points.
Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green were the pacesetters for the Rockets (22-11) with 23 and 22 points, respectively, Dillon Brooks scored 19 points, Cam Whitmore tallied 18 points, and Jabari Smith Jr. added 12 points.
Washington joined Luka Dončić (left calf strain) and Dante Exum (right wrist surgery) on the list of Mavs who are now nursing an injury. But even before Washington was ruled out of Wednesday’s game, the Rockets were getting the upper hand on the Mavs.
Thanks to 16 points from Green, 13 from Whitmore, and 11 each from Brooks and Sengun, the Rockets built a 61-52 lead at the half. That lead mushroomed to as high as 17 in the third quarter and 18 (104-86) with 6:50 remaining in the game following a three-pointer by Whitmore.
After the Mavs got within 55-52 of the Rockets, Houston tallied the last six points of the second quarter to assume that nine-point lead at the half. And as the Mavs kept turning the ball over, the Rockets built their lead to as much as 86-69 with 2:52 left in the third quarter following a three-pointer by Jae’Sean Tate.
Thompson scored eight early points, and a jumper by Washington got the Mavs off to a 16-6 lead with 7:22 remaining in the first quarter. Then, the game turned in the Rockets’ favor as Houston outscored Dallas, 37-22, in the second quarter.
“We kind of just stopped playing the basketball we played in the first quarter,” Grimes said. “We got away from playing easy basketball.”
Still, with missing Naji Marshall – he’s serving a four-game suspension by the NBA for his involvement in last Friday’s fracas in Phoenix – Doncic, Exum and Washington in the second half of Wednesday’s game, Grimes refused to make any excuses for the Mavs.
“It’s easy to make excuses about stuff like that, but we know we have more than enough to go out there and win games that we should have won,” he said. “We should have had the one in Portland (last Saturday), we should have the one in Sacramento (last Monday) and we definitely should have had the one tonight.
“So we just have to come together and watch film just knowing that we don’t have the guys that we usually have, and be sound and be more discipline and just kind of take care of the ball. But it’s tough when you don’t have some of the guys that you’re used to playing with, but that’s been the name of the game the whole season.”
X: @DwainPrice
