Kings Defeat Shorthanded Mavs Despite Doncic's Triple-Double

On the second night of back-to-back, Luka Doncic could not overcome the Kings while attempting to lead the shorthanded Mavs on Saturday night.

DALLAS — Coming off an exhilarating 148-143 victory over the Atlanta Hawks — led by a historic 73-point performance by Luka Doncic — the Dallas Mavericks (25-21) faced off against the Sacramento Kings (26-18) on Saturday night, losing 120-115. Doncic finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 17 assists, recording his ninth triple-double of the season. 

“I’m tired. I can’t wait to go to sleep, honestly,” Doncic said. “It’s hard. It was less than 24 hours. I played like 90 minutes. It was a lot. Obviously, I was questionable, but I wanted to play.”

Many important Mavs players faced uncertain injury statuses before the game, including Doncic (right ankle soreness) and Kyrie Irving (right thumb sprain). Doncic was considered questionable to play, but Irving was ruled out, along with Dante Exum, Derrick Jones Jr., and Dwight Powell.

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The Kings received strong performances from various key players, including all five starters scoring 15 or more points. De'Aaron Fox scored 34 points and dished out five assists. Domantas Sabonis racked up 17 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists despite fouling out after 36 minutes. Harrison Barnes totaled 20 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Kevin Huerter added 18 points, four rebounds, and five assists, while Keegan Murray scored 15. 

Grant Williams provided a spark, filling a significant role, totaling 27 points (career high), eight rebounds, and three steals. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 19 points off the bench despite a slow start. Dereck Lively II finished with 13 points and nine rebounds. Josh Green added 11 points, three rebounds, and five assists. 

“The group fought on the second night after a historic night last night,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “The energy was inconsistent, but that group at the end kept fighting. There’s a lot of character in that locker room.”

With Jaden Hardy dishing out an assist on the Mavs' first four made field goals, Dallas was off to a 10-2 advantage early. The Kings wasted little time rallying back and took a 14-13 lead with under eight minutes left in the first quarter. 

The Kings tried to hide Sabonis by deploying him on a wing often throughout the game while deploying a wing such as Barnes on Lively to switch ball screens. Sacramento was focused on not giving up too disadvantaged of matchups with switching while even being focused on sending early low men on Doncic's drives. It was a stark contrast from Atlanta's approach to the game prior. 

An emphatic Fox dunk put the Kings up 18-15 midway through the opening period, but Dallas answered. The Mavs used an and-one by Doncic attacking a loaded paint off two by getting Sabonis in the air before the finish, putting them up 19-18. A turnaround jumper in the paint resulted in Doncic's 10th point of the opening quarter before checking out. 

The Mavs struggled to convert on 3-pointers, with the Kings doubling Doncic often and pre-rotating help in the paint. Dallas began speeding up its approach to attack earlier before facing a set defense. Sacramento was executing out of doubles, even when the Mavs were deploying Stack pick-and-roll to apply more pressure on the backline of the defense.

Whether it was Fox in space or Sabonis in the paint, the Mavs could not consistently get stops. They failed to close out on Murray on the weak side after doubling Sabonis in the post possession, then gave up an offensive rebound and dunk. Dallas was down by 12 without recovering for the rest of the game.

Hardaway began to heat up from 3-point range with a pair of makes, followed by Doncic playing off two feet in the paint for a finish — cutting the Kings' lead to just five points. Sacramento closed the half on an 11-2 run, taking advantage of Dallas' struggles in executing double teams, leading 63-49 at halftime. 

Coming out of the half, the Mavs gave up two open 3-pointers and found themselves trailing by a 20-point margin — prompting the decision to call a timeout. Barnes attacked downhill for a floater to make it a 22-point game. 

The Mavs were focused on putting Sabonis into the action by having Green — Sabonis' man — set ball screens for Doncic. Sacramento packed the paint effectively early in the third quarter to prevent Dallas from gaining much advantage. The Mavs began to play out of double drag to get Doncic more options to attack. 

After going on a 14-1 run, the Mavs cut the Kings' lead to just 72-63. However, Dallas' inability to take pressure off Doncic against doubles and early low-man rotations, coupled with defensive shortcomings on the other end, helped Sacramento push its lead back up to being as significant as 22 points with a little over four minutes left in the third quarter.

Mavs' Luka Doncic Haunts Hawks with 73-Point Game: 'I Could Have Been Here'

Facing a 94-75 deficit to start the fourth quarter, the Mavs faced a significant challenge that proved too substantial to overcome. Dallas cut the Kings' lead to 13 at multiple points early in the fourth quarter, with Doncic finding teammates for high-quality shots, including a 3-pointer for Williams and a dunk for Lively. 

It wasn't Curry converted on a 3-point attempt on a dish from Doncic with 4:07 left to play that the Mavs finally cut Sacramento's lead to 10 points. A made 3-pointer from Williams made it a single-figure game with over two minutes remaining, then an alley-oop from Doncic to Lively cut it to 114-108. 

“I think we fought well,” Doncic said. “I’m proud of how this team fought. Obviously, we didn’t get the win, but I thought we fought well.”

There was a chance to make it a one-possession game in a clutch time when Hardaway had a clean look from the corner after the Mavs attacked a 4-on-3 with Doncic being blitzed with a chance to make it a single-figure game, but missed. Fox attacked the rim against Lively in isolation for a scoop finish to extend the Kings' lead to eight points. At that point, time was running out. 

Doncic made two out of three free throw attempts after being fouled on a 3-point attempt, then knocked down a 3-pointer to pull the Mavs back within five points. Malik Monk missed a pair of free throws after Dallas intentionally fouled, setting up a Maxi Kleber putback to make it 118-115. The Mavs still depended on playing the foul game to have a chance. Barnes made two free throws to ice the game.

While the Mavs split the back-to-back with a win and a loss, doing so occurred with Doncic totaling 91 minutes in 48 hours. Since the group managed to rally back late, the coaching staff felt it was worthwhile to have him finish the game to see if a comeback victory could be achieved. Regardless, that's a lot of minutes once again for the superstar guard as injuries to his supporting cast continue. 

“He’s out there trying to do it by himself,” Kidd said of Doncic. “That’s who he is. He loves to take on the world. Unfortunately, he didn’t shoot the ball like he did last night, but there in the last four minutes, we started to get our rhythm, and it became a two-possession game. To play him 46 minutes that’s something we talk about. 

"At some point, that game was out of hand almost," Kidd explained. "Those guys didn’t stop playing. They kept fighting. So his minutes got extended.”

Coming up, the Mavs will face the Orlando Magic on Monday night, completing the second of a two-game homestand.