After five straight wins, the Mavericks had fallen heavily against the Knicks (77-107). A hell of a comeback. “I have the impression that we had lost by 50 points, scoring only 20 points”confessed Jason Kidd, at the official franchise website.
The Texans therefore wanted to react in the Texas derby, against Houston. In order to move forward.
“We were focused on playing hard, bouncing back from our last performance, which was not good”explains Dwight Powell. ” It could happen “continues the coach, still in reference to this slap in the face of New York. “We can start again by saying that we have to defend and turn the ball. You have to know how to turn the page. “
After an average start, Luka Doncic and his teammates quickly dominated the Rockets. Dwight Powell was brilliant in the first period, with 22 points and 10 rebounds, often well served by Doncic. Dallas was 23 points ahead at the break, but Jason Kidd’s troops knew the game was not over yet.
“We started the second half well, being serious,” analyzes the coach. “We talked about that, that the match was not over. We played without looking at the score, we tried to do better. And this way of approaching the second period set the tone. “
“We keep our foot on the accelerator”
The night was going so well that Kidd felt like leaving Doncic and Powell, who had 56 points and 26 rebounds between them, on the bench in the final quarter. Except that Stephen Silas’ players started with a 12-2 and the Dallas coach was forced to revise his plans. Doncic, Powell and Spencer Dinwiddie then returned to the court and definitely made the difference.
“We learned from the way we played against the Knicks, especially knowing that we were approaching the end of the season”says Trey Burke. “It’s easy to be tired at the moment, especially since we are well placed for the playoffs. We stayed focused, we keep our foot on the accelerator. “
The Mavericks (41-26) are in fifth place in the West and are 3.5 wins ahead of seventh, the first synonymous with play-in. Above all, they now have their eyes glued to them because, with the Jazz’s defeat against the Spurs, they can now overtake Utah (41-25) and enter the Top 4 of their conference. This is the goal of the franchise.
“At the moment, we want at least fourth place to have home advantage”confirms Doncic. “We have to improve a little more in defense. It’s going to come by playing hard, and that’s what we’re going to do for our last 15 games of the season. “
We will indeed have to continue to play hard because Doncic and his band are moving to Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia in the coming days.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Luka Doncic | 50 | 35.6 | 45.2 | 33.4 | 73.8 | 1.0 | 8.3 | 9.2 | 8.7 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 28.0 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | 34 | 29.5 | 45.1 | 28.3 | 86.5 | 1.9 | 5.8 | 7.7 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 19.2 |
| Spencer Dinwiddie | 9 | 29.8 | 53.4 | 45.2 | 71.4 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 4.2 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 2.3 | 17.7 |
| Jalen Brunson | 64 | 32.1 | 50.0 | 37.9 | 82.1 | 0.5 | 3.2 | 3.7 | 5.2 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 16.0 |
| Tim Hardaway Jr. | 42 | 29.6 | 39.4 | 33.6 | 75.7 | 0.3 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 14.2 |
| Dorian Finney Smith | 65 | 33.1 | 45.7 | 38.3 | 67.1 | 1.6 | 3.3 | 4.9 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 10.6 |
| Brandon Knight | 3 | 18.2 | 45.0 | 30.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 10.0 |
| Reggie Bullock | 56 | 26.7 | 39.6 | 34.7 | 81.8 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 8.2 |
| Dwight Powell | 66 | 20.9 | 64.9 | 38.2 | 75.2 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 4.6 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 7.7 |
| Maxi Kléber | 47 | 25.2 | 41.0 | 35.1 | 70.9 | 1.2 | 4.6 | 5.9 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 7.6 |
| isaiah thomas | 1 | 13.3 | 37.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.0 |
| Trey Burke | 34 | 10.4 | 41.1 | 32.4 | 85.7 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 5.4 |
| Davis Bertans | 9 | 14.8 | 31.4 | 29.5 | 75.0 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 5.3 |
| Marquese Chriss | 23 | 11.1 | 47.5 | 33.3 | 63.2 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 5.0 |
| Boban Marjanovic | 18 | 5.4 | 63.2 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 4.5 |
| Josh Green | 51 | 14.7 | 51.4 | 32.6 | 69.2 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 4.4 |
| Frank Ntilikina | 48 | 12.4 | 37.5 | 34.0 | 95.8 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 4.2 |
| Sterling Brown | 42 | 13.0 | 39.3 | 32.9 | 90.9 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 3.2 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 3.4 |
| Moses Brown | 26 | 6.5 | 54.0 | 0.0 | 62.8 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 3.1 |
| Willie Cauley-stein | 18 | 9.8 | 45.7 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.9 |
| Theo Pinson | 16 | 7.5 | 28.1 | 24.0 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.8 |
| Eugene Omoruyi | 4 | 4.5 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.8 |
| Charlie Brown | 3 | 5.1 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| carlik jones | 3 | 6.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| george king | 4 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.2 |
| Jaquori McLaughlin | 4 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
