Luka Doncic's Mavs Lose Against Embiid-Less Sixers Amid Flat Performance

The Mavs failed to bounce back from a blowout loss against the Celtics, resulting in a flat performance against the shorthanded Sixers.

DALLAS — Coming off a 1-3 end to a four-game Eastern Conference road trip, the Dallas Mavericks (34-27) sought to bounce back with a matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers (35-25) on Sunday, with a noon local tipoff. 

Instead of responding with a victory, the Mavs had a flat performance, losing 120-116 to the Sixers, marking the team's fourth loss in the last five games. 

"When you lose games, it’s hard," Mavs superstar Luka Doncic said. "In the NBA, you’ve got another game in one or two days, so just have to bring that energy.”

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Doncic recorded his third consecutive game with a 30-point triple-double, becoming the fourth NBA player to accomplish such a feat. He totaled 38 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, with an efficient shot profile, but turned it over seven times. Kyrie Irving added 28 points, five rebounds, and four assists, but as in Doncic's case, while his shooting results were efficient, Irving had four turnovers. 

Derrick Jones Jr. made all five 3-point attempts, totaling 21 points and seven rebounds. There wasn't much for positive impact in the Mavs' supporting cast beyond. Dereck Lively II had four points, three rebounds, and one block but had five fouls in 18 minutes. P.J. Washington, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Maxi Kleber struggled to convert on their shot attempts throughout the night, shooting a combined 4-20 from the floor and 1-15 from beyond the arc. 

There was a trio of scorers with 20 or more points for the Sixers, including Tobias Harris (28 points), Tyrese Maxey (24 points), and Kelly Oubre Jr. (21 points). Philadelphia only shot 29.7 percent from the perimeter, but the Mavs turned it over 17 times compared to eight by Philadelphia, resulting in a 12-point disparity in points off turnovers. 

The Mavs started hot, jumping to an 11-0 lead over the Sixers, with Donic's step-back 3-pointer prompting Philadelphia to call a timeout. The early surge did not last. Dallas allowed a 14-2 run immediately after, resulting in trailing for the first time. 

“We started pretty hot. We had three 3s out of transition, but I don’t know what changed," Doncic said. "We just let them do their own things, so we’ve got to get better at that.”

The momentum continued in the Sixers' favor, with Tyrese Maxey scoring 17 points in the opening period. After he converted on a step-back 3-pointer and converted a floater, Philadelphia went up 32-22 late to end the first quarter. Dallas went from making its first four shot attempts to closing the period shooting 3-16 from the floor the rest of the way. 

Doncic heated up to rally the Mavs back to open the second quarter, scoring six consecutive points. After receiving a pass on the trail from Doncic, Irving's finger roll cut the Sixers' lead to 34-32 with over 10 minutes before halftime. Dallas failed to build on this progress, getting outscored 12-5 and trailing 46-37, entering a timeout called midway through the second quarter. 

Doncic again attempted to create momentum for the Mavs, scoring six consecutive points using an and-one floater and a step-back 3-pointer. Dallas could not get defensive stops, resulting in a continued deficit, with a layup by Maxey through contact pushing Philadelphia to a 12-point lead. 

At halftime, the Sixers were up 56-51 on the Mavs, with various themes in their struggles. Dallas had 11 turnovers compared to one by Philadelphia, resulting in a 14-0 disadvantage in points off turnovers. The Mavs were outscored 30-16 in points in the paint, with an inability to contain the Sixers in drop coverage or out on the perimeter being a frequent source of problems. 

"We did have a lot of turnovers. When we are one-for-one in assists-to-turnovers, that's not going to be a recipe for success," Kidd said. "We have to be better. We're a team that doesn't turn the ball over. Here, of late, we've been having some turnovers. This afternoon, we had a lot of turnovers. If you're not getting shots, that's going to put a lot of pressure on your defense. We have to be better with the ball, and we'll be better on Tuesday [versus Indiana]."

Coming out of halftime, the Mavs were more focused on blitzing Maxey to make the Sixers play out of 4-on-3 situations. Hield converted on a pair of jumpers to push the Sixers back by double figures early in the third quarter; then Kyle Lowry hit a corner 3-pointer to push it to 13. Philadelphia has held a double-figure lead since that point. 

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With the Mavs continuing sluggish execution on both ends, Philadelphia led by as much as 17 points late in the third quarter. The lack of momentum carried into the fourth quarter, with the Sixers picking apart the Mavs in the half-court. 

After Kelly Oubre Jr. converted on a short-range jumper, the Sixers achieved an 18-point advantage with 8:32 remaining in regulation, prompting the Mavs to call a timeout. Later, a step-back 3-pointer from Doncic followed by a pair of made free throws from Irving resulted in the Mavs trailing by a seven-point margin, the closest they came since shortly after halftime. 

A short-range jumper from Nic Batum and a defensive stop nearly helped the Sixers stifle the Mavs' late rallying effort. Irving hit a pull-up jumper in the paint to bring Dallas within five points (110-105) with under two minutes left, but Harris converted on a corner 3-pointer to push Philadelphia up by eight. Dallas continued to make efforts to rally back with a much clearer sense of urgency. 

"You look at being desperate, understanding you have no room for error. I thought the guys in the fourth quarter played at a high level," Kidd said. "The execution defensively — a lot of our schemes we didn't do until the fourth, and when we did execute them, they went the way we thought." 

"Offensively, I've said this earlier in here: our offense is our defense. When we score, we're one of the best teams in this league," Kidd continued. "When we don't score, we're one of the worst teams. When we struggle to score, we tend to not do anything on the defensive end, and we're trying to find a way to score. We're getting great looks, but they're just not falling for us. In the fourth, we had a 40-point quarter, and it's one of our better defensive quarters of our games."

A putback by Washington made it a six-point game with under a minute left before Harris made a floater to answer. A made 3-pointer by Doncic once again brought the Mavs back within five points. Dallas nearly forced an 8-second violation but retained possession after a review. After a foul, Maxey made two free throws to push the Sixers up 117-110 with 25.1 seconds left. 

While playing the foul game to close it out, the Mavs came within three points after Irving's 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left to play but could not achieve a comeback. 

Irving shared a message in the locker room with reporters after the game, suggesting how the players need to take accountability for going 1-3 on their recent road trip and not protecting homecourt. 

"Just by sharing your wisdom of experiences that you’ve had in the past, and then also affirming that we’re going to be OK," Irving said. "That’s for everybody that’s watching at home: We’re going to be OK. We’ve got to trust that we’ll be able to put the work in that’s necessary to get us these wins. We’ve shown it before. 

"We took a little bit of a dip from the last few games, some tough ones on the road," Irving continued. "1-3 on the road. Come back home and not take care of home court, that’s on us. We’ve got to take accountability for that as players. Got to bring the energy and no more excuses. 

"We’ve got 20-some-odd games left, we know the positioning that we’re in right now, we know what happened last year when we didn’t make it," Irving concluded. "We know how that feels to fail miserably. And we know what it feels like to have the external pressure, too, of our fan base and media. This is also new for some guys who have never dealt with having that target on their back. Again, there’s no excuses. We just need to be there for one another and have some fun with this."

The Mavs will face the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, continuing a three-game homestand.