The Dallas Mavericks are plenty accustomed to having a point guard from the 2018 draft class lift them in crunch time. On Wednesday, it was just a different point man delivering.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 points, including 13 of Dallas’ 15 in the final four-plus minutes to guide the Mavs to their fifth win of the season, and a bounce back from Tuesday’s loss to the Miami Heat, with a 109-108 victory over the Spurs in San Antonio on Wednesday night. After the game, Coach Jason Kidd noted that it was a testament to the commitment of Dallas star Luka Doncic, who had 23 points of his own, to the team that he noticed Brunson’s hot hand and kept feeding his draft-mate in the clutch.
“Brunson was great from start to finish…he gives us a second ball handler, a guy who can put the ball in the basket and is comfortable playing alongside Luka. There’s a lot of growth in tonight’s game, not just from Brunson but from Luka, understanding that Brunson was going, so he passed the baton, and Brunson took us home,” Coach Kidd said. “Luka trusted JB tonight. He trusts his teammates a lot of nights, it’s just there’s nights when he’s [hot] and he’s going to take us home. Tonight, on a back to back, he trusted JB. He could’ve easily asked for the ball down the stretch. But he made sure that JB had it and JB delivered.”
The Mavs entered the game in San Antonio reeling a bit. They’d lost two of three, including a couple of rough showings in losses to the Nuggets in Denver and Miami at home in Dallas. They were also without the services of several members of their front court rotation. Kristaps Porzingis and Maxi Kleber both missed the game, and Reggie Bullock was injured just seven minutes in and did not return.
That left Kidd a little shorthanded, but he relied heavily on the players he had in uniform, particularly Doncic and Brunson, who each had a double-double, Tim Hardaway Jr. (23 points) and reserve big man Boban Marjanovic, who played 15 minutes and scored 17 points on 8-of-10 from the field.
“It was a team effort. We’re down, not just bigs, but we lost Reggie there early in the game, so Boban stepped in,” Jason said. “We had him slated to play tonight and he delivered. He’s delivered every time he’s played. We’ve got to find time for him in that rotation. He was big.”
Marjanovic’s size came in handy in the closing second of the game, with San Antonio looking to get the ball in bounds for a final shot at the win. Coach Kidd put Boban on the ball, and his presence forced a tough inbound that allowed Dorian Finney-Smith to intercept the pass and close out the win.
“Everybody’s going to look at the points and stuff, but the last play of the game was huge for us, to put him on the ball and make the passes as difficult as possible…that last play, it was big for us,” J-Kidd said. “You have to win those close games.”
The win was Dallas’ fourth single-digit victory margin this year, and the team is 5-0 in games decided by 10 points or less. They’ll look to piece together a winning streak on Saturday when they return to their home court to host the Boston Celtics. Tip-off from American Airlines Center is slated for