Dallas Basketball

Josh Green's Career Night Not Enough as Mavs Fall to Depleted Nuggets

The Dallas Mavericks got a big performance from Josh Green on Sunday night in addition to Luka Doncic's big numbers. The result was a loss to the Denver Nuggets, though, unfortunately.

Dalton Trigg

The Dallas Mavericks entered Sunday night's matchup with the Denver Nuggets looking for similar results to Friday night, where Dallas blew out Denver 127-99. Despite being without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon for a second straight game, the depleted Nuggets put up much more of a fight at American Airlines Center this time around.

After a seesaw fourth quarter, the Nuggets shocked the Mavs by pulling away with a 98-97 victory as Luka Doncic's last-second heave from deep hit off the iron. The Mavs fall to 9-7 on the year, and the Nuggets improved to 10-6.

It wasn't a pleasant night for Doncic, as he finished with just 22 points on 7-16 shooting in 36 minutes. He was frustrated when he wasn't getting a whistle, and that seemed to affect his performance throughout most of the game. Doncic also had nine rebounds, eight assists and a steal.

In a surprising turn of events, Josh Green led the Mavs in scoring with a career-high 23 points off the bench on 8-9 shooting, including 6-7 from deep. He was a +13 on the night while bringing the constant energy every time Dallas needed it.

Davis Bertans had himself a nice game as well, as he finished with 15 points and two assists in 14 minutes off the bench while shooting 5-7 overall and 4-5 from deep. Bertans has hit the ground running since coming back from his knee effusion injury that kept him sidelined at the start of the season.

Dallas had no answer for Denver guard Bones Hyland, who led all scorers with 29 points on 10-21 shooting and six assists. Although Michael Porter Jr. only scored 14 points on the night, he hit the go-ahead 3-pointer for the Nuggets in the final minute that essentially sealed the game.

An odd situation occurred at AAC on Sunday, as Doncic nailed a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to put the Mavs up 59-52 ... or so we thought. After further review, Doncic apparently stepped out of bounds, so Denver got two seconds before officially starting the third quarter. Vlatko Cancer made the most of those two seconds, as he hit a desperation half-court 3-pointer to change the momentum of the game.

It was truly one of the more odd situations we've ever witnessed in an NBA game. ... and in the big picture, it ended up hurting the Mavs deeply. Dallas will also look back at the nine free throws it missed (12-21) in a one-point loss.

To add insult to injury – quite literally – the Mavs lost Spencer Dinwiddie late in the game to a shoulder injury that forced him to sub out. Stay tuned for updates on his situation as we find out more information.

Next up, the Mavs will head out on a tough three-game road trip against the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.

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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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