Mavs Hold Off Magic 122-106 Behind Career-High Night From Kleber

The Dallas Mavericks got the second half of their season off to the right start on Friday, holding off the Magic 122-106 in Orlando

If any team needed the All-Star Break, it was the Dallas Mavericks. 

The then-injury-riddled Mavs limped down the pre-break stretch by losing three of their final five games heading into the break, while Luka Doncic attempted to recover from a re-aggravated ankle sprain. 

After almost more than a week off, Dallas looked refreshed in their first game back, holding off the Orlando Magic 122-106 at the Amway Center. 

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Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis both shined upon their return to the court together, with Doncic scoring 33 points to go along with 10 rebounds and eight assists while hitting 10-of-21 from the field and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. 

And, yes, this is record-setting-level stuff, as Per Elias Sports, in the last 50 years, only three duos have recorded 20-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and five-plus assists in consecutive games:

Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, 1995

LeBron James and Kevin Love, 2017

Luka Dončić and Kristaps Porzingis, 2020

Doncic put an exclamation point on the game with a long step-back three over Michael Carter-Williams with just 57.5 seconds to go in the game. 

Not to be outdone, Porzingis had a tremendous game of his own on both ends of the floor, scoring 24 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, with season-high-tying numbers in both blocks and assists with five apiece. 

While the fresh-legged European duo was undoubtedly, and perhaps unsurprisingly impressive, Maxi Kleber had an argument to be the Mavs MVP for the game, scoring a career-high 26 on 10-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. 

Kleber was also instrumental in holding off the Magic's second-half push, that saw the Mavs nearly hand away a once 18-point lead in the third quarter. 

“He definitely had fresh legs,” coach Rick Carlisle said of Kleber. “He’s been shooting the ball great in practice. The boost he and (Jalen) Brunson gave us at the beginning of the fourth was huge. Those guys made about five plays in a row and gave us some separation and allowed us to bring the game home.''

Tim Hardaway Jr. rounded out the double-digit scorers for Dallas, scoring 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with six rebounds in 32 minutes of action. 

Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier led the way for Orlando, scoring 27 and 28 points, respectively, while Terrance Ross added 19 points of his own off of the bench. 

The Mavs (34-22) will not have a lot of time to enjoy this one, however, as they head north for a matchup with Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night for the second leg of their back-to-back. 

After that, Dallas will return to the American Airlines Center for the first time in more than 10 days, when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves, who will be without Karl-Anthony Towns. 

"I think the break energizes everybody to a degree,'' said Carlisle, knowing it'll take that energy to keep up the pace for the rest of the weekend.