Mavs' 7-Game Win Streak Ends with Blowout Loss to Celtics

After stringing together the most consecutive wins the franchise has had since 2011, the Dallas Mavericks saw their steak end at the hands of the Boston Celtics on Thursday night. Luka Doncic and the rest of the Mavs' crew couldn't overcome an off shooting night from deep.

Dalton Trigg | Jan 5, 2023

All good things must come to an end at some point, and unfortunately for the Dallas Mavericks, that time arrived on Thursday night as they had their seven-game win streak snapped by the Boston Celtics.

The Eastern Conference-leading Celtics, who came into American Airlines Center looking to avoid a three-game skid, took advantage of the Mavs being without their three of their best defenders in Josh Green, Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber. Despite a late push by the Mavs' reserves, the Celtics ultimately won the game, 124-95.

Luka Doncic, who was hobbled for most of the night, had an off game by his standards by finishing with a team-high 23 points on 7-23 shooting from the field, including 0-6 from deep. Doncic also grabbed nine boards and dished out three assists on the night. He didn't play in the fourth quarter due to the game being out of reach.

Spencer Dinwiddie and Christian Wood joined Doncic as the only other starters to score in double-figures with 18 and 12 points respectively. The duo shot just 11-27 from the field and 2-8 from deep.

The Mavs' defense couldn't contain Celtics' MVP candidate Jayson Tatum, who finished with a game-high 29 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, but Dallas' poor shooting was the biggest reason for the blowout loss.

Dallas shot just 37.8 percent from the field and 21.9 percent from deep as a team. Those numbers will result in a blowout loss on most nights in the NBA.

One bright spot for the Mavs was the play of 20-year-old rookie Jaden Hardy, who gave the team a spark in the fourth quarter and put up 15 points, two rebounds and two assists in just 15 minutes of action. He shot 5-8 from the field, including a perfect 3-3 from deep. Given how depleted the Mavs' roster has been due to injuries, it would make sense for Hardy to get more run going forward.

Next up, the Mavs will take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night to finish up their brief two-game homestand. Zion Williamson will miss that matchup due to a hamstring injury.

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Published Jan 5, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.