The Dallas Mavericks have continued their good moment with a victory against the Raptors. The Texans beat the Canadians at the American Airlines Center 102-98, earning their fourth consecutive victory and the 10th in the last 11 games, a streak with which they have managed to rise to fifth place in the West and begin to approach the highest positions. Those from Toronto, for their part, maintain their position of play-in in a hugely compressed East where a couple of wins or losses make the standings dance.
Jason Kidd’s team was led by another great performance by Luka Doncic, who with 41 points signed his best score of the season and surely also the best in terms of offensive production. With his usual ability to finish close to the rim and a more than decent 4/10 in the triple (one of his pending tasks this season), the Slovenian took the reins of the match almost from start to finish, also appearing in the decisive moments to seal the win. The point guard added 11 of his goals in the last quarter, including a layup and a triple that made it 100-96 with a minute to go and left the duel on track.
Luka also managed to grab 14 rebounds and dish out 7 assists, making for a fairly complete night. However, in his statements he wanted to focus on another aspect of the game: «We are making a great choral defense. That is what is making us win games.”
Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr., authors of 18 and 16 points, were the only members of the Mavs who accompanied him in double figures, because, as Doncic himself pointed out, it was the defense that once again helped the Texans to add a win to your locker. In 2022, Dallas is being the best defense in the league with a defensive rating of 98.2, notably better than the Warriors’ 104.3, seconds in that period.
In that sense, Kidd’s men were somewhat benefited by the losses of the Raptors, to whom the absences and Nurse’s decision not to give minutes to the base of the squad’s closet players left them very short of troops. The coach decided not to bring in other members of the squad to make up for the lack of Gary Trent Jr. and Kem Birch, and opted to play the match with only seven men, six of whom finished in double figures.
Pascal Siakam, with 20, led his team on the scoring side followed by OG Anunoby’s 19, while Fred VanVleet finished with 18 despite his disastrous 4/20 shooting. Both he and Chris Boucher had a chance to put their team ahead in the closing stages, but both missed their respective 3-pointers and allowed the Mavericks to kill the game from the free throw.
(Cover photo: Tim Heitman/Getty Images)
