Mavericks fall just short in late comeback

DALLAS- The 20-17 Dallas Mavericks hosted the 25-15 Los Angeles Clippers Monday hoping to continue their wining ways. Entering the game the Mavericks were winners in eight of their last 10 games.

Dallas got off to a bit of a slow start, finding themselves trailing by double-digits when Paul George knocked down a jump shot to give the Clippers a 20-10 lead in the opening frame. The Mavericks weren’t able to find much offense for there rest of the quarter, trailing 31-23 entering the second quarter.

Luka Doncic gave Dallas a spark, hitting a pair of 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to begin the second quarter. Momentum shifted the Mavericks way, as a bucket from Josh Richardson gave Dallas their first lead at 44-43 with 3:38 left in the first half. Things stayed close for the remainder of the half, as Dallas went to the locker room trailing 55-50 at the halfway point.

Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzginis came to life in the second half, knocking down a 3-pointer for the first basket of the half. Porzingis knocked down four more 3-pointers in the frame, doing his best to keep the Mavericks in the game. Offense was hard to come by otherwise, however, as Dallas trailed 85-78 entering the final frame.

Trailing 101-90 with just 5:56 remaining, Dallas got the spark they needed when Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was charged with a technical foul. The Mavericks turned the tech into four points, as Porzingis made the free throw and Doncic drained a 3-pointer to make the score 101-94.

Dallas got as close as 103-99 with 3:15 left when Tim Hardaway Jr. hit a deep 3-pointer off a Doncic assist. Unfortunately, the Mavericks weren’t able to complete the comeback, as they fell by a final score of 109-99.

Doncic was once again the leader for Dallas, as he finished with game-high’s in points (25), assists (16) and rebounds (10). Just behind Doncic was Porzingis who had an efficient 22 points on 9-14 shooting. Along with his 22 points Porzingis grabbed seven rebounds and had one block.

Hardaway Jr. had a stand out performance as well, posting 21 points, going 8-12 from the field and 5-9 from behind the 3-point line. No other Maverick was able to score in double-digits, as the rest of the team combined for just 31 points. Their three starters outside of Doncic and Porzingis scored 17 points and shot a combined 7-20 from the field.

The loss drops the Mavericks record to 20-18 on the season but does keep them as the eight seed in the Western Conference at the time of this article. Dallas returns to action Wednesday with another game against the Clippers. Tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m. and will air on ESPN.