Changing of the guard? Luka leads Mavs over Spurs in potential conference-altering game
Before the Dallas Mavericks really start to make some hay again in the Western Conference, it stands to reason they must slay an old nemesis first.
The San Antonio Spurs, who have represented the pinnacle of Texas basketball for most of the past two decades, seem ripe to be slayed.
For the first time in what seems like several generations, the Spurs look more than fallible. The Mavericks’ 117-110 win over the Spurs Monday night at American Airlines Center sort of underlined the point.
It’s the Spurs’ sixth consecutive loss, their longest losing streak since 2011. More importantly, it’s the Mavs first win against the Spurs since Dec. 12, 2017. That was a six-point nail-biter.
Monday’s win was a dominant, changing of the guard type statement led by Luka Doncic. The Mavs’ budding superstar came out like a house on fire and finished with a career-high 42 points and his sixth triple-double of the season and 14th since January.
“He was phenomenal all night long,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s not surprising to me. This guy can do anything he wants to on a basketball court. He’s having one of those magical runs right now. it’s a phenomenal thing to watch, it’s a phenomenal thing to be a part of. We’re all just kind of along for the ride here.”
One win, of course, doesn’t necessarily change the trajectory of the both teams. Dallas, after all, has now beaten San Antonio just three times in the past 18 meetings. Perhaps coach Gregg Popovich still has some magic touches left in his Hall of Fame career. But what does seem certain is that the Mavericks are headed towards the top of the conference whether the Spurs are still there or not.
Doncic scored 17 in the first quarter (the second most in his career) and drilled a step-back 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining to give the Mavs a five-point lead. He joins LeBron James as the only player in NBA history to record a triple double that included 40 or more points. He had 11 rebounds and 12 assists and was 14 of 27 from the field.
“He’s a hell of a player,” the Spurs’ DeMar DeRozan said. “Got to give him credit. He’s special for a reason.”
The Spurs won five NBA championships in a remarkable stretch since 1999 but the last came six seasons ago. They haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs the previous two seasons and are currently a completely different team than they were three years ago when they last competed in the conference finals.
“We’re doing two things consistently,” said Popovich, whose team fell behind 18 in the first quarter. “We’re giving up 10 to 15 points a game to start and getting in a hole and then we’re doing a great job of digging ourselves out to get back into games.”
The Spurs put a scare into the Mavs late with four fourth-quarter 3-pointers, including two by Bryn Forbes. They cut it to a two-point deficit with under a minute remaining before Doncic’s 29-foot, step-back 3 pushed the lead back to five.
“Sometimes you have to hang on for dear life in these games,” Carlisle said. “San Antonio is a desperate team. They’re going through a tough stretch. We knew that coming in. These kinds of things are good for us. They test us. They keep us on what I would consider a steady learning curve of what I believe is trending upward.”
Dorian Finney-Smith scored a career-high 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting, including a clutch jumper as the shot clock expired with 1:14 left in the game that gave Dallas a five-point lead.
“The effort that goes into guarding a guy like DeMar DeRozan, plus being able to put up 22 points … congratulations to him,” Carlisle said. “This is a big win. It’s a division game … it has a lot of things attached to it with playoff aspirations.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 10:13 PM.
