Spurs lose tight thriller to Mavericks behind 51 from Luka Doncic

Dallas got here to city on New Year’s Eve for what’s surprisingly the primary assembly between the 2 Texas rivals this season. The Mavericks arrived on a five-game win streak. MVP candidate Luka Doncic has been on an absolute tear of late, averaging 44.3 ppg, 12.5 rpg, and 10.5 apg during the last 4 video games and owns the spotlight of the week in an earlier last-second bucket off his own intentional missed free throw against the Knicks (extra on that later). With Devin Vassell lacking a second straight recreation, the Spurs had been going to want to each determine how to bottle Doncic up and generate sufficient offense to win the sport.

One key to victory, outlined by a tongue-in-cheek Coach Popovich prior to the sport: maintain Doncic to below 50 factors and possibly they’d have an opportunity. Let’s simply get this out of the best way now: (spoiler alert) they weren’t profitable. Doncic would rating 22 factors within the first quarter en route to 51 by recreation’s finish. What the Spurs DID get was a top-tier balanced offensive effort from the squad, with 5 gamers in double figures.

To begin the sport, Luka completely shredded the Spurs together with his signature deliberate offensive play. To get to these 22 first-quarter factors, he shot a really environment friendly 8 of 11 from the ground (together with 3/3 from deep). The Spurs despatched Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson at him, but it surely didn’t appear to make any distinction who he confronted. It wasn’t that the Spurs performed poor protection—fairly the alternative actually—however the Maverick guard is simply hooping at one other degree proper now.

Dallas coach Jason Kidd would sit Doncic for the primary six minutes of the second interval, and the Spurs had been ready to maintain the sport shut however not fairly break free. The Silver and Black would get some good offensive manufacturing from Sochan (8 first-half factors) and Johnson (17 on six of 9 from the ground) however entered the locker room trailing by 4, 68 to 64.

Coming out of halftime, the Mavericks threatened to put the sport away, driving the lead up to 17 at one level. The Spurs would shut out the quarter behind sturdy bench play and closed inside 10, trailing 103 to 93.

And now we come to the fourth interval…and what an insane quarter it could show to be. Remember that spotlight from Luka Doncic towards the Knicks on Tuesday? This recreation would see not one, however TWO profitable executions of the identical play. Before the celebs aligned to give followers this thriller finish to the sport, the Spurs would first want to shut the hole and maintain Doncic to one thing approximating a traditional offensive manufacturing. He would drop 9 within the interval, and the Spurs held the Mavericks to 23 factors within the quarter. Keldon Johnson and Sochan continued to struggle their means to the basket, and mixed with some yeomen-like publish work from Jakob Poeltl, would lead the workforce to a digital tie within the closing moments of the sport. What occurred subsequent would finish the 2022 half of the Spurs’ season in spectacular trend.

With 20 seconds to go, Sochan hit two free throws to put the Spurs inside one. The Mavericks inbounded to Doncic, and a terrifically executed nook entice by the Spurs pressured him to cough the ball up to Tim Hardaway Jr. Surprisingly, the Spurs managed to keep away from a foul name as they performed some very bodily protection on Hardaway, inflicting him to lose the ball close to midcourt to Sochan, who was requested to do some little bit of all the pieces this recreation. Sochan drove to the ring towards Doncic, however the layup rimmed out with 4.5 seconds to go and the sport appeared all however over.

After a Dallas outing, the Spurs fouled Doncic, sending him to the road for his fiftieth and 51st factors. With the ball headed again to the Spurs, they drew up an inbound play meant to open up Doug McDermott on the arc, however Dallas performed off the screens and the Spurs had been pressured to burn a timeout. The second play led to a desperation go to Tre Jones chopping to the basket, who was fouled and despatched to the road. Now down two factors with solely 3.6 left on the clock, Jones tried to repeat Doncic’s spotlight from Tuesday night time by deliberately lacking his second free throw. Incredibly, he was kind of profitable, grabbing his personal rebound away from former Spur huge man Davis Bertans. Unlike Doncic, he was fouled on the shot and despatched again to the road with the possibility to tie the sport and ship it to additional time.

Unfortunately, Jones’ second free throw bounced off the entrance of the rim, and ended up in Doncic’s fingers. After a timeout and a Spurs intentional foul, Doncic was left with a selection: make each free throws, or miss the second and hope time ran out on the Spurs. After lacking the primary, he went with the second possibility, and historical past sort-of repeated…Doncic’s heave off the rim got here straight again to him simply off the free throw line, and he was ready to safe the rebound and maintain on to the ball within the nook as time expired, sending Dallas dwelling with the 126-125 victory. Thus ends the 2022 portion of the Spurs’ season, with the workforce sitting in 14th tempo within the West — Happy New Year, Spurs followers! At least it was an exhilarating recreation and another loss towards a excessive lottery decide.

Game Notes

• My notes for the primary quarter simply learn: LUKA LUKA LUKA LUK@^$#! That man appears to be like just like the next-door neighbor you’d share a beer and a few wings with throughout a block occasion and never the potential MVP of the league. But no query, he’s obtained my vote this 12 months. Just take a look at tonight’s stat line: 51 factors (62% FG), 6/10 3-pointers, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals, 1 block and ZERO turnovers.
• Jeremy Sochan actually impressed this recreation. He scored 20 factors on 58% from the ground (and extra impressively, 67% from the arc) and was completely in Doncic’s gourd a lot of the recreation. He performed harassing, bodily protection and even appeared to be in his head a bit towards the tip, however there’s simply not a lot Sochan (or anybody else within the league) can do to sluggish him down. More and extra, Sochan is beginning to show why he was picked ninth within the draft.
• All season lengthy, the Spurs have been bringing former Spurs gamers to the published mic within the second quarter. This recreation was James Silas’ flip. He highlighted how a lot the league has modified from his period to now, transferring from an inside-out, grind it out type to a fast-paced 3-point centered offensive barrage. I couldn’t assist however see components of the previous type in Dallas’ recreation although. They hardly ever rating quick break factors, and lots of of their performs contain isolations on Doncic’s defender, the place he ceaselessly makes an attempt to again the participant into the paint earlier than driving or capturing a fade away. Not actually apropos of something, however they’re 4th within the West.
• During a second quarter timeout, the Spurs ran a video showcasing Josh Richardson’s new 12 months’s decision solutions. At one level he talked about “stopping smoking” and the Spurs flashed up an image of the DARE lion. Um…what sort of smoking did their media workforce suppose he meant??

Play of the Game

OK so this isn’t the play of the sport, however Tre Jones deserves the award after he missed a heart-breaking second free throw on the finish of the sport. The solely cause he was IN that scenario was due to his personal hustle in securing the rebound off his intentional miss, so right here’s a play exhibiting Tre hitting it in just about the identical spot earlier within the recreation. You obtained this brother (Side Note: It was good to see Pop come out after Tre missed that free throw to reassure his younger level guard. Jones may have many extra alternatives to hit free throws to seal—or steal—the win in his future, and it’s essential that he shake this one off and transfer on).