Klay Thompson popped off for 22 points in his Mavericks debut and Luka Doncic top-scored with 27 and narrowly missed a triple-double as Dallas downed the San Antonio Spurs 120-109 in the teams’ season opener on Friday (all times AEDT).
Following his high-profile move from the Golden State Warriors, Thompson was back to his best, dropping six triples on 7-of-13 shooting from the field with seven rebounds and three steals in 26 minutes.
The sharpshooting star’s six three-pointers set a franchise record for the most threes for a Mavericks player on debut.
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“Couldn’t have asked for a better start,” Thompson said post-match.
“Sharing the floor with ‘Ky’ (Kyrie Irving), Luka and the rest of the guys is very special after a hard month of really good work.
“It’s just a small step of where we want to go but something we want to build off.”
Doncic finished with 28 points on an inefficient 8-of-24 shooting with 10 rebounds and eight assists in 36 minutes, while Kyrie Irving added 15 points in 27 minutes.
For the Spurs, Victor Wembanyama had 17 points and nine rebounds on 5-of-18 shooting — including 1-of-8 from downtown — with Jeremy Sochan and Julian Champagnie top-scoring for the visitors with 17 apiece. Chris Paul tallied three points, seven rebounds and eight assists in his first appearance for San Antonio.
The Spurs took it right up to 2024 NBA finalists in the first half including Harrison Barnes dropping 12 first-quarter points on debut for Gregg Popovich’s side.
The Spurs held a narrow 49-47 edge at half-time before the home side got hot in the second half.
A 22-6 run to start the third term — capped off by a PJ Washington triple — saw Dallas shoot out to a 69-55 lead and assume control of the game.
But the Spurs promptly responded to Popovich’s time-out, with a quick four points to Sochan followed by a Champagnie three getting the visitors back within seven points at the 6:28 mark of the third term.
Back-to-back threes to Wembanyma and Paul — their first triples of the game — then made it a 71-68 game with 4:17 left in the third.
But the Mavs closed the third on a 16-12 run to take a 87-80 lead into the final term, when the home side got hot again.
Doncic early in the fourth hit two threes, with Thompson’s fifth triple in between, to push the Mavs’ lead back out to 100-83 with 9:43 remaining.
Doncic assisted Thompson’s make and turned around and started celebrating while Thompson went into his shooting motion.
A PJ Washington three-pointer extended the Dallas lead to 111-90 with 6:00 left as Popovich waived the white flag, emptying his bench.
Jason Kidd followed suit but kept Doncic out there, with the Slovenian star missing the entire pre-season with a calf issue.
Aussie Dante Exum is currently inactive due to a serious wrist injury that could require surgery.
In other games on Friday, defending champions Boston Celtics downed the Washington Wizards 122-102 behind a combined 52 points from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum on the road to improve to 2-0.
In later games, the Oklahoma City Thunder visit the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves travel to Sacramento to play the Kings.
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