Dallas Mavericks blow 19-point lead, Luka Doncic’s 42 points in deflating Game 2 loss
.JPG "Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) shoots against Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA basketball playoffs Western Conference finals in San Francisco, Friday, May 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)")
If you think Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks were sick after their 112-87 blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors in the series opener, they probably needed a load of vomit bags for their flight home Friday night after they coughed up a 19-point lead and blew a golden opportunity to win Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.
The Mavs broke a team playoff record for 3s in a first half Friday night, going 15 of 27 in the first two quarters, but then simply went cold in the third quarter and never recovered as the Warriors ran by them for the 126-117 victory at the Chase Center and a 2-0 series lead.
Doncic scored a game-high 42 points and had eight assists, going 12-of-23 from the floor and 5-of-10 on 3s. Jalen Brunson added 31 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range.
But the Warriors had six scorers in double figures led by 32 points from Stephen Curry.
Golden State dominated Dallas in paint scoring by a 62-30 margin and got a surprising career-high 32 points from center Kevon Looney.
The Warriors outscored the Mavs 68-45 in the second half, including a 43-point outburst in the fourth quarter on 15-of-19 shooting.
When Mavs went cold, they defense left with them, which has been a season-long problem, coach Jason Kidd said.
“We play defense when we play offense, and we play no defense when we can’t score,” Kidd said. “That’s something that we have to get better at this time of the year.”
It wasn’t supposed to be this way, not after Doncic recovered from a horrible Wednesday night when he was throwing up and didn’t sleep at all.
And this was after the Mavs shot 11 of 48 from 3 and Doncic only scored 20 points, making 6 of 18 attempts.
He was better Thursday and cleared to play on Friday.
Doncic and the Mavs certainly looked like a rejuvenated team at the outset.
After making 3 of 19 3-pointers in the first quarter of Game 1, the Mavs opened 6 of 15. They led by as much 26-10 before taking a 32-25 lead after one.
Dallas kept the pressure on in the second quarter, twice leading by 19 points before going into the half up 72-58.
Doncic had 24 and Jalen Brunson had 20 to lead the way.
But the third quarter was a different story as Golden State made one of its patented runs after halftime and the Mavericks simply went cold, opening the period 1 of 9.
The Warriors outscored the Mavs 25-13 in the third quarter while Dallas shot 2 of 13 from 3.
“When you go 2-for-13 and you rely on the 3, you can die by the 3,” Kidd said. “And we died in the third quarter by shooting that many 3s and coming up with only two. If you make [3s], that’s great, but you just have to understand, if you miss four in a row, you can’t take the fifth. You’ve got to make it. That just puts too much stress on yourself and on your team because, if you’re not getting stops on the other end, it turns into a blowout.”
Dallas’ 13 points in the third quarter was its fewest in a quarter this postseason. Golden State actually scored more points in the paint (18) than the Mavs had total points in the quarter.
The deficit was whittled to 83-81 heading into the fourth quarter and when the Warriors took their first lead at 86-85 early in fourth, there was no looking back.
“You didn’t want to overreact, but also we got a lot better on the ball, just trying to keep bodies on Luka,” Curry said said of the Warriors second-half defense. “Close out to the shooters that we know are hot, and then rebound the ball so that that’s our best offense.”
Doncic, 23, actually did what he was supposed to do in notching the seventh 40-point playoff performance of his young career, tying Dirk Nowitzki for the most in franchise history.
But he echoed Kidd in saying the Mavs relied too much on the 3-point shot.
“We weren’t attacking the paint that much,” Doncic said. “But we got to attack the paint more, like they did. They attacked the paint a lot. They have two of the best shooters in the world, and they still attack the paint. So I think we’ve got to rely less on the 3.”
The series returns to Dallas at 8 p.m. Sunday at the American Airlines Center.
All hope is not lost, as the Mavs rallied from being down 2 games to 0 against the Phoenix Suns to win the Western Conference semifinals.
So they are not going to give up when they come back to Dallas.
But the Warriors are not the Suns. They have three titles on their resume and they don’t have a history of choking away 2-0 series leads.
Doncic this is the toughest situation the Mavs have been in.
“Yeah, man, it’s the worst,” Doncic said. “Like I said,they’re a championship team. We’ve got to adjust our defense. It’s very hard to stop them. But it’s a tough situation. We were up 20 or 19, so it’s a tough situation. We can’t look back. What happened happened, so we’ve got to move on.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2022 at 10:56 PM.
