The Mavericks primed everybody for Halloween night with a little Luka Magic Sunday afternoon.
Luka Dončić provided a great treat for Mavericks’ fans in the fourth quarter of their 105-99 victory over Sacramento at American Airlines Center, also sending a reminder that there’s no need to worry about the superstar point guard’s shooting.
Dončić was having another garden-variety offensive game, by his lofty standards, but then produced one of those moments where you had to be there.
He was dribbling near midcourt with just over 4 minutes left and the Mavericks up 92-89. The Kings double-teamed him and Dončić dribbled the ball off a King’s foot and it rolled into the backcourt. With Sacramento coach Luke Walton hollering for a backcourt violation, the refs deemed the ball to have bounced off the Kings.
Dončić retrieved the ball, took a couple dribbles to get past the midcourt line, then with the shot clock about to expire let a shot fly from the edge of the Mavericks’ logo in the middle of the floor.
The shot was so pure, the net hardly moved.
It was credited as a 36-foot 3-pointer. Seemed farther than that. But regardless, it was a monumental momentum moment.
Tim Hardaway stole the ball on the ensuing Sacramento possession and that triggered a fast break and a Dorian Finney-Smith’s dunk and the Mavericks were up 97-89 and cruised to the win.
So how confident was Dončić when he pulled up at a spot where he needed a GPS to find the basket?
“More confident than in all my (other) threes,” he said. “I don’t understand. That shot goes in and all my normal shots can’t go in. So I got to work on those normal shots.”
Indeed, Dončić wasn’t great offensively. That 3-pointer was the only one he hit. (1-of-7). But he did finish with 23 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds as the Mavericks bounced back from the 31-point loss in Denver on Friday and improved their home record to 3-0 and their overall mark to 4-2.
They also stopped a three-game losing streak to the Kings, all of which were late last season.
Coach Jason Kidd said it was a much-needed shot when Luka found the net from the hinterlands.
“Great recovery,” Kidd said. “And then good offense by a good player. That was a big-time shot with the clock running down but I think we all know he has that kind of range.
“It was a big basket, too, because I think that was the only three he made. It was needed.”
Dončić said he watched film of the play after the game and the ball definitely was dribbled off a Sacramento player’s foot, not his own, which would have been a backcourt violation.
As for the shot, he said: “The more you practice them – not really practice, but just having fun a little bit – then you need a shot like I had today and you make it. I think that’s from that (repetition).”
The hope is that it was the sort of shot that can ignite a hotter shooting stretch. The Mavericks as a whole are not shooting well from 3-point range. Luka is a prime culprit at 23.8 percent from long range.
But Hardaway, who is one of the Mavericks who is shooting well early in the season, said seeing that Luka moment could be a good sign. As the season goes on, he said everybody is getting used to a new system and new rules, too, that are making it a little tougher on the offenses around the league.
“Luka’s coming into his own right now,” Hardaway said. “It’s always tough, especially with the new rules and new situations with how the game is played. It kind of reminds me of watching my dad play in the ‘90s. They never did call much.
“A lot of those ticky-tack fouls, the star players aren’t getting. So you . . . play through contact and fouls and I think that’s what he’s getting a nice feel for.”
Beating the Kings, who had won the first two games (at Phoenix and New Orleans) on this trip, wasn’t exactly a scary-good performance for the Mavericks. They never were secure with the win until the very end.
But they did correct one of their biggest flaws so far this season when they got off to a 20-5 lead in the first quarter.
It’s the first time in six games that they hadn’t trailed after 12 minutes.
“I thought, on Halloween, why not start off fast,” Kidd said. “And we started off great. Hopefully we can build on that. But again, our defense, to hold one of the top 10 teams on offense to 99 points is something those guys take pride in. Our defense can give us an opportunity to win (and did that) here at home against a team that can put up points in a hurry.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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