'A Murderous Week': Mavs Lose Third Straight

The Dallas Mavericks dropped their third game in a row on Monday night, falling to the Toronto Raptors 116-93 in Tampa Bay.

The Dallas Mavericks lost their third consecutive game on Monday night when they were blown out by the Toronto Raptors 116-93 in Tampa Bay.

"This,'' coach Rick Carlisle said, "is a murderous week. Very, very difficult."

It was a struggle from the opening tip for the Mavericks, who entered the night on the second game of a back-to-back after an equally disappointing loss to the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon.

The issues began on the offensive end of the floor for Dallas, where they managed to score just 18 points in the first 12 minutes of action. Despite the slow start, however, Dallas was able to get back into the action in the second quarter, tying the game at 47 heading into the locker room for halftime. 

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Unfortunately for Dallas, things fell apart from there, as the Raptors outscored Dallas 34-25 in the third quarter, before slamming the door shut in the fourth with a dominant offensive run.

Kristaps Porzingis led the way for Dallas on that end of the floor, scoring 23 points, grabbing nine rebounds, and hitting eight of his 14 shots in 32 minutes of action. 

Luka Doncic, who had been on fire offensively as of late for the Mavs, had one of his most frustrating games of the young season to date, scoring just 15 points, to go along with seven rebounds and nine assists on 4-of-11 from the floor. 

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AS a team, Dallas hit just 38.3-percent from the field and 25.7-percent from three, while losing the rebounding battle to Toronto 46-38. 

On the other side, Kyle Lowry was the star of the day adding 23 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, while Pascal Siakam had 19 points in 34 minutes. Chris Boucher and Norman Powell both had big nights off of the bench as well, scoring 21 and 17 points, respectively. 

Following the loss, Dallas (6-7) will attempt to pick up the pieces and get back into the win column on Wednesday night, when they travel to Indianapolis to take on the Indiana Pacers in their third game in four nights. 

It will be the first matchup of the season between the two teams. It feels ... murderous.

But, said Jalen Brunson, who returned to the court from the COVID list, "We work way too hard as a team not to be confident in each other and not to be confident in ourselves. "We know what type of team we can be.''