It didn’t take long for Seth Curry to relocate his jump shot.
One game after struggling mightily Friday night against the Houston Rockets, Curry poured in 16 points during Sunday’s 117-115 loss to the Phoenix Suns at the VISA Athletic Center inside the bubble in Orlando. It was a nice bounce-back game for Curry after he scored just three points and missed all four of his shots – he was 0-of-3 from 3-point range — while fouling out in the 153-149 overtime loss to the Rockets.
In addition, Curry uncharacteristically missed three free throws against the Rockets, including one which would have given the Mavs a four-point lead with 5.2 seconds left in regulation. But he pointed out what was the issue in the game against Houston.
“I felt fine,” Curry said. “If I can get real shots, still I expect to make them. The last game I just never really got in a rhythm.
“I was in foul trouble the whole game and I just wasn’t right. I was expecting to have a bounce-back game, and I try to move on to the next game.”
The Mavs led Phoenix, 79-70, with under eight minutes remaining in the third quarter. At that time, the Suns’ top two players – Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton — were on the bench, each with five fouls.
But instead of laying down the hammer and salting this game away, the Mavs missed a golden opportunity and found themselves trailing after the third quarter, 96-92.
“I wouldn’t say we let up off the gas,” said Curry, who tallied 14 of his points in the first half. “We just got distracted with some things. It’s been happening to us.
“We’ve been having big lulls in a lot of different games. We’ve got to figure it out.”
Those same lulls happened to the Mavs against Houston. The Mavs led the Rockets by 14 points at one point and by 131-120 with a little over seven minutes left in regulation. However, the Mavs scored just eight points in the final seven minutes of regulation.
Curry saw the same things happened to the Mavs against the Suns when they led by 15 points at one point and got outscored 36-19 in the third quarter.
“I would say we had some lulls offensively where we can’t score, and that haunts us,” Curry said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to play 48 minutes as a team.
“We looked great throughout certain periods of the game, and other periods we look terrible. I would say we’ve got to watch the film and figure it out.”
Well, at least Curry found his shooting stroke on a night when the Mavs clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2016 thanks to San Antonio beating Memphis earlier Sunday, 108-106.
“He played great,” point guard Luka Doncic said of Curry. “We need him every time. He’s going to get more and more comfortable in there and I think as a group we’re going to get better for sure.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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