SACRAMENTO – This wasn’t the scorched-earth kind of win like the Mavericks had Tuesday against the Sacramento Kings.
This one, actually, may have been sweeter.
The Mavericks had to grind out a hard-fought 107-103 victory over the Kings at Golden 1 Center, overcoming a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit behind Kyrie Irving’s hot hand and a clutch three-pointer from Dante Exum.
The Mavericks knew they’d get a tougher fight from the Kings than they did in a 36-point blowout win on Tuesday. They were right.
But they took the Kings’ best punch early, then came out swinging late.
Exum, who had missed three consecutive shots as the Kings were practically daring him to shoot late in the game, nailed a three-pointer with 28 seconds left to put the Mavericks up 106-103.
They then forced a missed Harrison Barnes three-pointer and after the Kings got the rebound, they turned the ball over with a backcourt violation. Luka Dončić made the second of two free throws with 4.1 seconds left to ice it.
Kyrie Irving had put the Mavericks in position to win with a monster fourth quarter. He would finish with 30 points. Dončić, who was hobbling with an assortment of leg problems, had 26 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds.
But it was Exum who provided the dagger. And the Mavericks never lost faith in him.
“Amazing and that speaks of the trust of our team,” Dončić said. “We know they’re going to double me and Kai a lot of times. That’s the trust we have, the whole team.
“That shows that our team is great. We’re having fun out there. I think we played terrible today and we still got the win. Outside of Kai, Kai was amazing. We missed a lot of open shots and we still got a win. So that’s amazing.”
It’s true that the Mavericks struggled for long stretches. But they had terrific execution down the stretch. They did not have a single fourth-quarter turnover.
They improved to 44-29 and strengthened their hold on sixth place in the Western Conference. The eighth-place Kings fell to 42-31. The season series ended up tied at two wins apiece, meaning the next tiebreaker will go to who has the better conference record.
The way they scratched out this win was impressive. Things did not go well for the longest time. The Kings had them on the ropes several times. But the positive vibes were evident throughout, coach Jason Kidd said.
“Exum, we trust,” he said. “Being able to get those wide-open looks, we believe that he can knock them down. He’s shooting 51 percent from three. Didn’t go down for him, but I thought the trust Luka and Kai had with him (was big), believing he would make the right play. And he did. He made a big three in the corner.”
And that trust was no mystery during the late portions of the game. When Exum missed a pair of three pointers and a layup in a 70-second span, it could have been a blow to anybody’s confidence.
“The biggest thing is everyone’s telling me: keep shooting, keep shooting,” Exum said. “(When I’m) open like that the whole game, they (the shots) are going to go up. Being on a team with Luka and Kai, late game, important game. Obviously, I’m shooting three shots. And I come to the bench and them two are the ones telling me: shoot the next one, shoot the next one.”
Which was music to Kidd’s ears.
“This group is tied together, trust on both ends,” he said. “We had good looks. We didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half and we were only down nine. They’re a good team. They pushed the lead up and everybody stayed confident.
“The trust was really tested when Exum was in the game late. He had great looks. No one was upset. Everyone was just wanting him to make them. But everyone trusted him with that last three. That’s the beauty of this team is that we know they’re going to take the ball out of Luka and Kai’s hands and someone else is going to have to step up.”
The Mavericks had trailed throughout and were down 92-82 before they got a jolt from Kyrie Irving, who triggered a 12-0 blitz that gave them their first lead of the night at 94-82.
Irving would score 14 of the Mavericks 21 points as they kept the pressure on the kings. With the game tied at 103, the Mavericks had the ball with 1:12 remaining.
After empty possessions by each side, it was Exum’s time. He made up for three consecutive missed shots. He took a pass from P.J. Washington and calmly buried his triple from near the left corner.
And the Mavericks had their 10th win in the last 11 games, not to mention six victories in a row.
“It’s exciting. It’s a joyful moment,” said Irving of Exum’s shot. “As a young kid when you’re first starting to play basketball, hopefully your coach has taught you how to celebrate other people’s success. Even to the professional ranks, encouraging someone positively goes a long way.
“He missed a few shots that were pretty wide-open. But he made the one that counted most and we needed most. I just love the way we came to the bench after he missed those two shots and we’re just looking at each other like: we’re going to be fine.”
The Mavericks also got some help earlier in the night as Phoenix, which started the night in seventh position, lost at Oklahoma City.
But the two teams directly above the Mavericks in the Western Conference standings, the Los Angeles Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans, both won to keep the heat turned up.
But regardless of what was happening around them in the standings, the Mavericks needed to tend to their business in the final matchup of the regular season with the Kings.
And it wasn’t easy.
They trailed by as much as 15 points in the second quarter and never led in the first half. But they cut the gap to seven on a couple occasions and eventually trailed 60-51 at the break.
The more concerning issue was Dončić’s health. He came up limping and holding his right leg around the back of the knee with scant seconds left in the first half.
He moved gingerly on the final couple possessions of the half.
But he returned for the third quarter and appeared to be moving OK. He shrugged off any problems postgame, even though the game was stopped briefly when he was bleeding through the white tights he was wearing.
“The left one was bleeding,” he said. “The right one, I fell on it twice and then on a step-back, I hurt it a little bit more. But it’ll be fine.”
X: @ESefko
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