Why Dallas Mavericks win in Milwaukee should have you genuinely excited about this season
Just when you thought you could take your eye off the Dallas Mavericks.
North Texas sports fans, take notice. Your Mavericks are pretty darn good. How good? They just beat the best team in the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks 120-116, on the road Monday night. And they did it without their best player, Luka Doncic.
Doncic, who sprained his right ankle early in Sunday’s game, isn’t expected back this week. But that didn’t stop the Mavs from shocking the Bucks, who saw their 18-game winning streak snapped. Milwaukee is 24-4. The Los Angeles Lakers lead the Western Conference at 24-3.
Dallas is the only team in the league to beat them both and they won them on the road.
The 18-game win streak the plucky Mavs broke is the longest in franchise history. The previous was high was in 2010 when the Mavs snapped 12-game win streaks by Miami and Sacramento. When Dallas beat the Lakers in LA, the Lakers were riding a 10-game win streak.
How did they do it? Especially with the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo scoring 48 points?
The Mavs shot out to a 14-point lead after the first quarter and held off the Bucks
Kristaps Porzingis and Seth Curry led the team with 26 points each. Porzingis also had 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Both were 4 of 8 on 3-pointers. Jalen Brunson had a season-high 11 assists to go with 13 points. Dorian Finney-Smith, Delon Wright and Maxi Kleber also scored in double-figures.
After the Bucks cut the Mavs’ lead to seven early in the fourth quarter, Porzingis hit consecutive long-range 3s. Dallas led comfortably for most of the fourth quarter until the final minute.
“I hit those two deep 3s but even then, Giannis was right there in front of me,’‘ Porzingis told the Associated Press. ‘‘They know we are a pretty good shooting team. But we have so many weapons and anybody on any given night can score 20-plus points. That’s the dangerous thing about us. Tonight, Seth played great. It’s kind of hard to play against a team that has so many options.”
Doncic, who stayed in Dallas to get treatment on his ankle, posted his thoughts during the game on Twitter and after the victory was secure, posted “Great W!!”
