Despite Gafford’s career game, Hornets outlast Mavs, 110-105

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Center Daniel Gafford produced one of those games every NBA player dreams of. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Dallas Mavericks from suffering a 110-105 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Monday afternoon at Spectrum Center.

Gafford scored a career-high 31 points, grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, handed out three assists, blocked a game-high seven shots, and was an efficient 12-of-15 from the field. But the Mavs only scored five points over the game’s final six minutes, and that ultimately was their undoing.

“It’s pretty frustrating, but I don’t really want to be too selfish,” Gafford said, referring to losing on a day he had his best statistical game ever. “I felt like we did a lot of things great out there on the floor to put us in the position to win the game. They kind of executed down the stretch better than us.”

Charlotte guard LaMelo Ball converted a free throw with 13 seconds left to put the Hornets up, 108-105. However, Ball missed the second free throw, leaving the door open for the Mavs to at least tie the game and possibly send it into overtime.

But a three-pointer by Klay Thompson missed its mark with 3.1 seconds remaining, and former Mavs forward Josh Green collected the rebound. Maxi Kleber fouled Green, who buried two free throws with 1.2 seconds remaining to put this game on ice.

“I thought he had a great look,” coach Jason Kidd said of Thompson’s three-pointer. “We talked about where we were going to go.

“Klay had a good look – back rim. And I thought Maxi had a great look at getting the offensive rebound, but unfortunately it went through his hands, but a good look by Klay.”

Kyrie Irving led the Mavs with a game-best 33 points on 11-of-24 shooting, while P. J. Washington returned to his old stomping grounds and collected 13 points and nine rebounds.

Ball paced the Hornets with 23 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, Miles Bridges had 23 points, and Nick Smith Jr. added 19 points. Also, for Charlotte, Mark Williams finished with 13 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks.

A personal 12-0 run by Irving got the Mavs a 100-94 lead with 6:21 left in the game. But the offense went cold from there, and the Hornets finished the game on a 16-5 run.

Too many turnovers and not enough consistent block outs on the defensive boards helped do in the Mavs, who are 23-20 and will host Minnesota on Wednesday. In addition, the Hornets (11-28) helped their own cause by converting 17-of-39 three-pointers for 43.6 percent.

Thanks to the play of Irving and Gafford, the Mavs were cruising along with a comfortable lead in the second quarter. Then, Ball struck for back-to-back three-pointers as the two teams were tied at halftime at 55.

“He puts a lot of pressure on your defense,” Kidd said of Ball. “His range is right past half court.

“And then if he gets downhill, his ability — not just to attack the rim, but to play-make (is great). And he did both at a high level tonight.”

The Mavs only made 18.8 percent of their three-pointers (6-of-32).

“It’s the statistics of basketball,” said Irving, who was 3-of-8 from downtown. “If that basketball sometimes goes in, it feels good, and other times when you’re behind that three line it feels very far. I shot two air balls (from three-point range) tonight, so clearly I was one of the ones on the receiving end of the shock of the basketball not as feeling good.

“It’s just about all of us putting points on the board, staying aggressive, and that’s got to be our mentality. No matter what’s going on behind the three-point line, we’ve got to stay attacking.”

Gafford described it as “a tough battle” between him and Williams as the two centers displayed a lot of physicality.

Williams, the Hornets’ center, put his share of pressure on the Mavs around the rim. In fact, seven of the Hornets’ 17 offensive rebounds came from Williams.

“He’s a great player,” Gafford said. “He’s going to have a great career. He was making everything tough around the basket. It was just a good game from both of us, honestly.”

Kidd tipped his hat to the performance he got from Gafford, who played a season-high tying 34 minutes.

“He produced,” Kidd said. “We’ve gone to him of late and he has responded in a big way.

“He was big tonight. Offensively and defensively, he did it on both ends.”

It just wasn’t enough, as the offensive failures down the stretch got in the way of the Mavs trying to win their second game in a row.

“For whatever reasons we just didn’t make the right plays,” Kidd said. “We’ve got to do a better job of recognizing the situation.

“We talked about Kai needed to touch the ball. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get the ball to him. Guys tried to make plays, and they just went the other way, but we’ll learn from that and we’ll get better. But I thought Kai put us in a position to win tonight’s game.”

Irving’s 12-0 run breathed new life into a Mavs’ squad that trailed by as many as seven points and was struggling to find its way.

“We were expecting him to have a great day,” Gafford said of Irving. “(It was) just a great game from him. He was facilitating, hitting shots and just finishing around the rim.

“I wish they just would kind of respect him and get him a couple of more calls under the basket. He’s a great finisher around the rim, but he’s going to end up getting hurt because of how many guys put him on the floor.”

The three-point shooting of the Hornets kept the Mavs off-balanced and kept Charlotte hanging around the Mavs long enough for them to seize control of the game.

“We tried to make them drive as much as we possibly could,” Gafford said. “But they just hit the shots down the stretch that they needed to hit.”

It was one of those games that got away from the Mavs, who again were without so many of their key personnel due to injuries.

“Our late-game execution has to be better, and also we had a chance to at least go up one when I had that turnover (with 26.5 seconds left on a pass to Naji Marshall with the Mavs down 107-105),” Irving said. “I take my accountability for the majority of the game, just timely turnovers and trying to thread the needle. I just got to be a better leader out there for our guys so we can stay organized. Games like tonight is a good learning lesson. We had control of the game. We just got to keep our foot on the pedal.”

X: @DwainPrice