Dallas Basketball

No Rest, No Problem: Doncic, Finney-Smith Star in Mavs Win Over Cavs

The Dallas Mavericks began their final regular-season road trip in Cleveland on Wednesday night.

Dalton Trigg

After blowing out the LeBron James-less Los Angeles Lakers the night before, the Dallas Mavericks took on the Cleveland Cavaliers on the second night of a back-to-back at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in hopes of extending their win streak to three games.

Although the game started out sluggish on the defensive end, the Mavs put it all together in the second half, as they pulled out a 120-112 Wednesday win in Cleveland. 

Dallas has now won three in a row and improved its record to 48-29. The Cavs fell to 42-34.

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© David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Luka Doncic takes on Kevin Love.

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© David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Dorian Finney-Smith soars for a big dunk over former Mavs center Moses Brown.

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© David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Doncic shows passion in the Mavs' showdown with the Cavs.

Luka Doncic, who put up a historic 34-point triple-double in just three quarters the night before, one-upped himself on Wednesday by putting up 35 points, nine rebounds, 13 assists, two blocks and one steal while shooting 14-of-26 from the field.

Dorian Finney-Smith filled the role of being Doncic's co-star and spearheaded the Mavs' second-half surge by finishing with a career-high 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and 6-of-12 shooting from 3-point range. Finney-Smith was also a team-high +16 in the box score plus-minus.

Caris LeVert and Darius Garland led the way for the Cavs, finishing with 32 and 25 points respectively on a combined 21-of-36 shooting from the field. Although LeVert led Cleveland in scoring, he was a team-worst -18 in the box score plus-minus.

With the win, the Mavs move to within a half-game of the Golden State Warriors for the third seed in the Western Conference standings. If the Warriors lose to the Phoenix Suns later tonight, Dallas will officially move up into that third spot.

Thanks to a Minnesota Timberwolves loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, the Mavs have now officially clinched a playoff spot and avoided the Play-In Tournament.

"I'm not worried about Minnesota losing, or Denver losing, or Golden State Losing," said coach Jason Kidd. "We're just trying to take care of what's in front of us right now, and that was Cleveland [tonight]. ... We can't start watching the scoreboard and seeing who's winning and who's losing."

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© David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Doncic looks over the Cavs' defense.

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© David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Reggie Bullock seems to have found his shooting stroke against as the playoffs near.

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© David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Jalen Brunson skies for a rebound over the much-taller Lauri Markkanen.

Next up, the Mavs will travel to the nation's capital to take on the Washington Wizards for the first time since trading Kristaps Porzingis at the trade deadline. In 12 games for the Wizards, Porzingis has averaged 20.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.6 blocks per game while shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 28.3 percent from deep. Washington is just 4-8 during that 12-game span.

If you haven't been paying close attention to what the Mavs have been doing in 2022, you should probably start focusing in now with the playoffs on the horizon. Don't take our word for it, though. Just ask the greatest Maverick of all-time how good this team is.

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Dalton Trigg
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.

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