PHILADELPHIA – The Dallas Mavericks always knew their ship would start sailing a lot smoother once Kyrie Irving returned to the lineup.
And they proved that in the last three quarters on Monday night.
Irving scored a game-high 23 points and added five rebounds, eight assists and two steals as the Mavs used a surge in the final thee quarters to gut out a 118-102 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. In the 50th game of the season, the Mavs improved to 27-23 going into Tuesday night’s game in Brooklyn.
Back in the lineup after missing six games with a sprained right thumb, Irving put on a masterpiece of a game while making life miserable for the Sixers. He was particularly at his phenomenal best in the third quarter when he scored 10 of the Mavs’ 24 points at a time when they took complete control of the game.
“I thought Kai just let the game come to him,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “He didn’t force anything. He got good looks early and just started to get into a rhythm there.
“And you could see that he was starting to be aggressive. His mid-range was something that he was comfortable with tonight, and also getting to the basket.”
Irving hadn’t played since he was injured in the game on Jan. 22 against the Boston Celtics. He played 35 minutes Monday and was 10-of-17 from the field, including 2-of-3 from beyond the three-point arc.
“It feels good to get that game out the way,” Irving said. “I got hit (on his right thumb) a few times, but that’s what comes with being out there ready to battle with guys.
“It felt good to just get a rhythm, get a win, get this road trip started and get prepared for Brooklyn tomorrow.”
Following a slow start that saw the Sixers lead, 33-26, after the first quarter, the Mavs stepped on the gas in the second quarter and only trailed, 57-53, at halftime. Then, they grabbed the game by the throat in the third quarter when they outscored Philadelphia, 24-17, and kept applying more pressure in the fourth quarter that saw their lead balloon to as much as 22 points.
It was still a tight game after Luka Doncic buried a three-pointer to put the Mavs up for good at 72-70 with 3:52 remaining in the third quarter. That was the beginning of a back-breaking 23-7 run by the Mavs that gave Dallas a 92-77 lead with 8:20 left in the game following a three-pointer by Jaden Hardy.
“Kai and Luka are doing all the work,” said Maxi Kleber, who finished with 14 points and five assists. “So, we just got to spot up and be ready to take the shots and when they get double-teamed make the right reads at the very end.”
Kleber, who was 6-of-8 from the field, lauded the play of Irving and noted how much the Mavs really missed him over the past two weeks.
“We all know what he can do,” Kleber said. “Especially when Luka’s getting trapped all the time, it helps us having a guy like him who can attack the basket like that, so it’s big-time for us to have him back.”
The presence of Irving and Doncic opened up major holes for Josh Green (20 points, six rebounds), Hardy (17 points) and Grant Williams (14 points, seven boards). And when the Mavs’ shots started falling, the floodgates comfortably opened up and the Sixers found themselves treading water.
“I think their whole game plan was kind of to muck up (the game) with Kyrie and Luka and trying to do full denials,” said Green, who was 6-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-7 from three-point territory. “I think it was a good lesson for us to be able to learn how to play when teams defend us like that.
“So, I think overall we responded to it well and we did a good job at doing what we needed to do to score.”
In the end it was – by his lofty standards – a pedestrian-like game for Doncic, who was just 6-of-16 from the field, including 4-of-10 from beyond the three-point arc. And all of that came in the face of the Sixers constantly sending two players at him to get the ball out of his hands.
“He showed his patience, because it’s easy to get frustrated, and then you start to take tough shots or bad shots,” Kidd said. “I thought he stayed the course tonight and that’s what our best player is all about is just trusting his teammates, and he did that tonight.”
On the flip side, the Mavs put on a huge defensive stance in the second half by holding the Sixers to just 45 points, including only 17 points in the third quarter. Overall, in the second half the Sixers made just 17 of their 46 field goals.
The Mavs also put handcuffs on Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey, holding the South Garland High School product to just 15 points on 6-of-16 shots.
“I thought the guys did a great job of corralling him and keeping him in front,” Kidd said. “His speed is un-guardable when he gets going and gets downhill.
“The way he finishes at a high rate you’ve got to stop him before he gets going. I thought (Dwight Powell) and Maxi did a really good job of corralling him, and I thought the guards that were on him just kept coming to make it tough.”
It didn’t help that Maxey picked up three fouls less than seven minutes into the game. It also didn’t help the Sixers’ cause that they were without All-Star center Joel Embiid, who is slated to undergo a procedure this week to address a left meniscus injury sustained last week against the Golden State Warriors.
All in all, the Mavs got themselves off the mat and did what they had to do in a game they knew they needed to win before taking on Brooklyn in less than 24 hours.
“We just weren’t shooting the ball straight from the start,” Kidd said. “We talked about it at halftime and just continued to keep playing defense. The shots weren’t falling. We were getting great looks.
“I thought (Doncic’s) patience to let his teammates play, and then the ball finally got to him in the second half and he took advantage of the catch-and-shoot situations.”
The return of Irving also helped exponentially.
“We just took what the defense gave us,” Irving said. “I felt like we made great decisions out of the double teams.
“We accepted the double teams and we allowed our selflessness to carry us to a lead in that fourth quarter.”
X: @DwainPrice
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