WASHINGTON – The best habit the Mavericks have developed this season is how to work up a good, healthy anger and then channel that aggravation the right way.
They’ve lost three times in their first 12 games. And all three times they’ve come back firing.
On Wednesday, it was with a 130-117 strumming of the woeful Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena, quickly washing out that nasty taste of Tuesday’s blowout loss in New Orleans.
“Last year, the way it ended, plays a big part in how we’re doing things this year – after a loss, trying to do the best we can not to lose two in a row and not let it have an affect on us the next game,” said Tim Hardaway Jr.
“What we did today is winning basketball. Get punched in the mouth the day before and you come back and see what your true colors are.”
What they showed was that they could jump on a struggling 2-9 Washington team early, build a comfortable lead and basically cruise through the second half without any drama.
Well, at least until Hardaway took a hard fall and came up favoring his right leg. He said afterward he was fine, just that he couldn’t get out of the way fast enough when a Wizard was driving to the rim.
Before that, Hardaway was on a serious roll. He had a team-best and season-high 31 points. He connected on seven of 11 three-pointers. He outscored the second-leading scorer in the NBA, Luka Dončić, who had 26 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, showing great resilience after a forgettable game in New Orleans.
With their bounce-back, the Mavericks now are 9-3. And while their schedule so far has been relatively soft, they are taking care of business. Of their nine victories, only one of them has been against a team with a winning record (Brooklyn).
But they can only play the teams that are on the schedule.
And clearly, playing angry agrees with them. Being really ticked off was a hot topic before they played the Wizards.
“Everyone’s (mad) when they lose,” said coach Jason Kidd before the game. “We’re (mad), too, that we lost (in New Orleans). We’ll see how it goes.”
To say the least, it went fine as the Mavericks jumped hard on the Wizards in the early going and never stopped venting their nasty frustrations from the night before.
“We’re obviously going to see some more challenges, but we’re playing well,” said Seth Curry, who had 15 points on six-of-six shooting, including a four-point play that put the Mavericks up 114-90. “It’s not just winning. It’s the way you win, the way you’re playing. The attitudes in the locker room. We’re getting better as the weeks go along.
“You got to go out there and play the schedule. And there’s so much talent out there, any team is capable every night.”
But not in two games in a row, at least not yet. The Mavericks also improved to 2-0 on the second night of back-to-back games. Earlier, they had a home game followed by a visit to Orlando and beat the Magic.
It was believed this would be a difficult back-to-back situation. With the time-zone change, the Mavericks didn’t get into their Washington hotel rooms until about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
But fatigue clearly was not a problem. Dončić rebounded from his worst game of the season with one of his best. He and Hardaway combined for 43 points in the first half.
Hardaway had his highest scoring half of the season and Luka had his NBA-best sixth 20-point half through only 12 games.
For Hardaway, it was an extension of what has been a terrific start to the season as he has become an early contender for sixth man of the year.
“He’s been great as we talk about the sixth man,” Kidd said. “Understanding what he means to us. We all know he can start. But what he does coming off the bench for us on both ends, he’s done it for us here early in the season and we’re going to need him to continue to do that. I think he’s very comfortable in what we’ve asked him to do and he’s doing it at a high level.”
The Mavericks played without Kyrie Irving on this second night of back-to-back games and it didn’t seem to bother the Mavericks in the slightest.
“His left foot’s bothering him,” Kidd said. “It’s sore. We’re just not going to take any chances.”
With Irving’s 33 minutes up for grabs, Josh Green got the start alongside Dončić in the backcourt. And the Mavericks leaned more on Dante Exum. And rookie O-Max Prosper also saw meaningful minutes.
And it wasn’t like Washington didn’t have its own reasons to be a little irritated with life in general. They had lost three consecutive games in which they led in the fourth quarter. And on Monday, they were outscored 21-1 in the final 7:25 to lose 111-107.
Somehow, they weren’t nearly as ticked-off as the Mavericks, who went up by 25 points in the second quarter and had a 71-51 lead at halftime.
X: @ESefko
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