Luka Doncic Encouraged By Dallas Mavs' Effort Despite Loss to Golden State Warriors: 'We Never Give Up'

After being on the road for 10 days, the Dallas Mavericks ended their five-game road trip with a tough 104-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors, but Luka Doncic was encouraged by the way his fatigued team fought.

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Although the Dallas Mavericks ended a tough five-game road trip and a streak of seven consecutive wins with a 104-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, the team is still in prime position to control its own destiny for avoiding the Play-In Tournament with just seven games remaining.

With the loss, the Mavs fell to 45-30 on the season, which is the same record the New Orleans Pelicans currently have. However, due to owning the tiebreaker at this time, Dallas still sits in the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference standings, just one game ahead of the No. 7 seed Sacramento Kings and No. 8 seed Phoenix Suns.

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Now, the Mavs will return home to American Airlines Center for a much needed three-game homestand after having to travel so much over the last few weeks. Due to this last game against the Warriors being rescheduled from earlier this season, the Mavs ended up flying from Sacramento, to Houston, and then back to California to San Fransisco in just a four-day period.

“I mean, I’m human just like the rest of my teammates,” said Kyrie Irving, who finished with 27 points on 10-19 shooting in the close loss to Golden State. “So, 10 days on the road, definitely feeling it this last game. ... We wanted to get this one really bad, but we just didn’t do enough on the offensive end and defensive end and it showed tonight.”

Luka Doncic, who is making a late MVP push, didn't seem to have his best stuff on Tuesday night, and yet he still ended up posting a 30-point triple-double while shooting 50 percent from the field on tired legs. The soon-to-be five-time All-NBA First Teamer was encouraged by his team's fight at the end of a tough road trip against a team that has arguably been the best in the league over the last two months.

“We never give up,” Luka Doncic said. “I think we had three great looks (at the end). P.J. (Washington) had a catch-and-shoot, Kai had a catch-and-shoot, I had a catch-and-shoot, open catch-and-shoot three times.”

Now, the Mavs will watch and see how the Wednesday night NBA slate pans out as they wait to take on the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. Games of interest to Dallas tonight include: Los Angeles Lakers at Washington Wizards, Orlando Magic at New Orleans Pelicans and Cleveland Cavaliers at Phoenix Suns. As long as the Pelicans lose to the Magic, the Mavs will stay at No. 5 in the West, but even with the worst-case scenario, Dallas won't fall any lower than No. 6 tonight.