Through nine games this season, the Dallas Mavericks have played a bunch of nail biters resulting in wins, and been on the wrong side of a few long scores. On Monday night at home against the last place Pelicans, the Mavs finally flipped the script.
Coach Jason Kidd got court time for all but one of his active players, and a little bit of rest time for his starts ahead of a midweek road trip, and five Dallas players scored in double figures, as they topped New Orleans (1-10) 108-92 at American Airlines Center to move to 7-3 on the season.
“It’s hard to beat NBA teams. Everybody participated,” Jason said after the game. “We held a team under 100 points. That’s not easy to do. And we found a way to win…our defense won this game for us.”
It wasn’t so easy at the outset for the Mavs, as the Pelicans came in ready to play, building an 11-point lead late in the first quarter before Dallas battled back. However, back-to-back threes by Kristaps Porzingis trimmed the deficit down to six at the end of the first, and the Mavericks just kept coming from there. Luka Doncic scored nine of his game-high 25 points in the second and by halftime Dallas held a 51-47 lead.
Dallas buckled down even further in the second half on the defensive end, and at two different points in the fourth quarter held a lead of 22 points, but they let their foot off the gas with under eight minutes to go and New Orleans used a 17-3 run to claw back within single digits. Porzingis hit a three to push the lead back to 11, and Doncic followed with back-to-back buckets, before both players bowed out of the game to an ovation from the home crowd.
“KP made a big three to kind of end the game,” J-Kidd said. “You can tell he’s moving well. He’s putting the ball on the floor. He’s not afraid to make a move. He had some great looks there early and then he started to get in a groove. We need that from him. Guys are playing [well] finding the open guy, we’re knocking down shots.”
Porzingis finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, and the Mavs also got huge contributions from their bench. Jalen Brunson scored 17 points, Reggie Bullock had 12 and Frank Ntilikina added nine points.
“[Depth is] one of our strengths,” Jason said. “When you look at Frank, Brunson, Sterling, and those guys coming off the bench, they all can provide something different, starting on the defensive end. I really believe our bench is a big part of our success.”
The Mavs begin a two-game road trip on Wednesday in Chicago against the upstart Bulls (7-3). Tip-off is slate for 7 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on Bally Sports Southwest.