Luka Doncic's Dallas Mavs Open In-Season Tournament With Loss Against Nikola Jokic's Denver Nuggets

In the Mavs' first-ever NBA in-season tournament game, they lost to the reigning NBA champion Nuggets at Ball Arena.

DENVER — In the first of four games with NBA in-season tournament implications, the Dallas Mavericks were defeated 125-114 by the Denver Nuggets. The Mavs fell to 4-1 on the season, marking the first loss of their 2023-24 campaign. With the victory, the Nuggets improved to 5-1.

The Mavs played without head coach Jason Kidd, as he did not travel with the team to Denver due to a non-COVID illness. The responsibility of taking over the front of the bench was held by Sean Sweeney, who had a 3-1 record as an acting head coach with the Mavs in previous situations. 

Kyrie Irving returned to the lineup after being sidelined for two games due to a left foot sprain. Maxi Kleber was sidelined after suffering a right small toe dislocation against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday. 

"I felt rusty to begin the game. We are in Denver, a mile above sea level, so I knew it would be interesting tonight, going against a well-oiled machine," Irving said. "They're the champions of the league. They showed they're great in their intensity and a lot of effort plays tonight."

The Nuggets comfortably created an advantage early on, establishing a 33-19 lead after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leaked out in transition for a layup. Denver's Nikola Jokic-led attack continued to pose problems for the Mavs on both ends, creating a 40-24 lead at the end of the opening period. 

"They showed they're great in their intensity and a lot of effort plays tonight," Irving said. "I think we can take this kind of butt-whooping that we took in the first half and really learn some things."

Regardless of what the Mavs attempted to do defensively against Jokic, the Nuggets' offense picked them apart. Dallas tried to mix it up but began the game with Williams guarding Jokic while attempting to shrink the floor with Dereck Lively II sagging off Aaron Gordon. With how much movement, screening, and passing Denver utilizes, it's easy to get put into disadvantaged situations using such an approach.

There were times when the Mavs tried to have Williams guard Jokic or attempted to switch while sending a double team to get the ball out of his hands. The Nuggets' shooting threats and bigger options on the wing punished Dallas as plays developed. When a big guarded Jokic straight up, it didn't prove viable, either. 

Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic versus the Dallas Mavericks / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

By outscoring the Nuggets 31-30 in the second quarter, the Mavs produced a positive scoring differential but failed to capture the momentum meaningfully. Grant Williams cut it to seven with 3:05 remaining in the half by converting from beyond the arc, but the Nuggets closed the half outscoring Dallas 14-6 to hold a 70-55 advantage at the break. Dallas' struggled with turnovers and giving up offensive rebounds, fueling what became a slow start to the game.

"We started slow, but I think there are a lot of positive things to look at. I think what lost us the game was my turnovers and [giving up] some offensive rebounds, Doncic said. "If this were last year, we would have lost by 30. So I think there's a lot of positive things to look at."

The Mavs' defense struggled to finish plays even after forcing missed shots. The younger defenders could not handle off-ball responsibilities and establish quality rebounding positioning. While the Mavs' size-disadvantaged veteran wing players generally failed to box out against larger matchups. Ultimately, Denver hauled in 19 offensive rebounds on the night. 

"Defensive rebounding tonight, we struggled with that to finish the possession," Sweeney said. "We did in the second half especially, a very good job of putting them in positions to take tough shots, then just securing the basketball. At the end of the possession, [Michael] Porter Jr. had five, [Nikola] Jokic with seven [offensive rebounds[, Gordon was active on the boards as well. Then their second unit, when those guys came in, their perimeter guys were crashing."

There were frequent struggles with turnovers for the Mavs, often resulting in failed transition defense due to creating a disadvantage. The Nuggets finished with a 21-9 advantage in transition scoring on the night while scoring 21 points off turnovers.

"Transition defense, 10 turnovers in the first half with a number of live ball ones in the first quarter," Sweeney said. "That helped them get out and transition for the 21 fast break points. It was tough for us, but I thought overall the guys battled and played really hard."

It wasn't until late in the third quarter that Dallas got assertive, deploying Donic and Irving in ball-screening actions. The two created advantages playing out of that, with Irving getting more opportunities to attack. The Nuggets led by as many as 20 in the third quarter. Denver already scored 102 points through the end of the third quarter, leading by a 15-point margin. 

There was positive momentum in the Mavs' favor by continuing to play through Doncic and Irving in the two-man game. Jaden Hardy even cut the deficit to nine points after a made corner 3, but again, Dallas failed to sustain it by giving up sequences that compounded into a growing deficit. 

The Nuggets generally had more success following their core identity while exploiting the Mavs' weaknesses. Dever even made it challenging on Doncic in the half-court by sending late doubles when he had switched and forcing him to the outside driving lane while shading down on the weak side to take away the spray-out pass. A similar approach was used when Irving was the lone superstar on the floor in plug-and-play lineups. When Irving was on the floor with Doncic, it took too long in the game to fully activate each of them to create advantages. 

Using a hot stretch of perimeter shooting from Doncic, the Mavs appeared to be starting a run, capped off by the Slovenian superstar making a spray-out pass to Irving in the corner for 3. Dallas reduced the deficit to 115-107 with 3:43 remaining in regulation. However, a failure to get a stop brought it back to being a 10-point game, ultimately proving too much to overcome. 

Doncic finished with 34 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists but had nine turnovers. Irving, in his return, totaled 22 points, seven assists, four steals, and two blocks. Beyond that, Denver had more impact performances than Dallas, with Grant Williams and Josh Green providing 13 points as the team's next leading scorer.

It was another remarkable game for Jokic, as he finished with 33 points, 14 rebounds, and nine assists. He did have four turnovers but shot 14-16 from the floor. Michael Porter Jr. contributed 24 points and nine rebounds, with Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray each scoring 18 points. Murray added 13 assists, and Gordon chipped in eight rebounds, six assists, and two steals. 

The Mavs return to action on Sunday when they face the Charlotte Hornets at American Airlines Center, marking the first night of a home-away back-to-back series, ending against the Orlando Magic at Amway Center.