HOUSTON – After the injury report was released and everyone saw who was not going to play Friday for the Mavericks against
the Houston Rockets, this had the makings of being arguably one of the toughest challenges this season.
Final score: Rockets 122, Mavs 96.
The Mavs were without Luka Doncic (left quad strain), Kyrie Irving (right heel contusion), center Dereck Lively II (left ankle sprain), guard Dante Exum (left lower leg contusion), guard Josh Green (right elbow sprain) and forward lineup Maxi Kleber (right small toe dislocation). In other words, they were without a starting lineup – plus one.
Needless to say, with so many key players on the mend, it became increasingly difficult for the Mavs to match up with the Rockets, who won at home for the 12th time in their past 13 outings and improved to 14-12 overall. The Mavs, who have now lost three straight and dropped to 16-12, will try and bounce back when they host the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center.
Rookies Olivier-Maxence Prosper (20 points, six rebounds) and Dexter Dennis (18 points, five rebounds, a team-high tying four assists) led the Mavs, along with Richaun Holmes (16 points, eight boards) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (16 points). It was a career-high in points for Prosper, who had scored a total of just 17 combined points during brief minutes in his past seven games.
“The guys are doing everything they can do to try to win,” coach Jason Kidd said. “You can call it short-handed, but that’s why you have 18 guys.”
Still, with one-third of the Mavs’ roster on the mend, this was a very challenging game for the visitors. The absence of Doncic for just the second time this season made the task even more difficult.
“Luka is Luka,” said Dennis, who was 8-of-11 from the floor. “He’s really, really a special talent. He draws a lot of attention. I think us being able to play off of that, I think that’s how it really, really works well together.
“When you don’t have that, the defense is a little different. We’ve got one guy who’s got possibly 10 eyes on him – 12 including the other team’s coach – so it’s like everybody’s paying attention to him and that’s what we kind of feed off of.”
The Rockets took advantage of the short-handed Mavs, using a 17-3 run to move ahead, 85-47, with 4:42 remaining in the third quarter.
Finding the basket was one of the biggest issues for the Mavs. They shot 34.7 percent from the field (34-of-101) and just 17.5 percent from three-point land (7-of-40).
At one point late in the second quarter the Mavs were just 8-of-39 from the field, including only 1-of-20 from beyond the three-point arc. It was just
one of those un-even games for the Mavs that they would rather just forget.
Midway through the fourth quarter Dennis provided a spark when he flew in from the right side and threw down a hammer dunk, and Holmes followed with a dunk as the Mavs inched to within 102-76 of the Rockets.
“You look at the group at the end, they played hard, played together,” Kidd said. “They did a lot of good things. That’s a positive.”
But as a whole, Kidd said: “Just understanding that if we can’t put the ball in the basket, we need to find a way to get stops and we just didn’t do that tonight.”
Prosper, meanwhile, was delighted he was able to string together a career-high in points, but obviously was dejected that it didn’t translate into a win for the Mavs.
“It always feels good to go be out there and play,” Prosper said. “Coming into the game knowing that I was going to need to be aggressive today with a lot of guys out, I was just going to play as hard as I can and let the results be.”
However, trying to stay afloat sans one of the best one-two combinations in the league in Doncic and Irving sort of put the Mavs behind the proverbial 
eight ball.
“Those guys are irreplaceable,” Prosper said. “Just to not have them, it definitely showed, because they’re such a big part in what we do.”
But the Mavs had to go to battle without their top weapons, and the results weren’t kind.
“Today was a big learning experience for the young guys,” Prosper said. “We were able to get experience.
“Obviously, we didn’t get the results we wanted at all. But we’re going learn from this and we’re going to move on to the next game.”
The Rockets held a 23-17 lead after a first quarter that saw the Mavs make just 6-of-24 shots, including only 1-of-14 baskets from beyond the three-point arc. The Mavs were outrebounding the Rockets, 15-13, after the first quarter. But in the end, Houston won the rebounding game by a sizeable 63-47 margin.
“When we did get the rebound and play in space and with pace, good things happened,” Kidd said. “Again, we’re short-handed and it just puts things
in perspective of how important Luka is to the team and the things that he creates for everyone.
“If he can’t go tomorrow we’ve got to find a way to make shots. In that first half I thought we got some great looks – they just didn’t go down for us. Not just the backcourt, but our starters were 11-for-50 (from the field). That’s not good, so we’ve got to be better.”
Alperen Sengun (22 points, 15 rebounds), Jabari Smith Jr. (21 points, eight boards) and Jalen Green (17 points, six rebounds) led the Rockets as Houston’s starters outscored the Mavs’ starters 80-31.
Prosper knows what the Mavs must do in order to flush this game out of their system and get ready for the Spurs as center Victor Wembanyama — the No. 1 overall pick of this past summer’s NBA Draft – makes his first appearance at American Airlines Center.
“The biggest thing is to rest up, get a good night’s sleep and get back in-tuned with the guys that are coming back and playing tomorrow, and just learning from this and being ready,” he said. “The NBA has a lot of games, so you can’t dwell on this one. Watch the tape, get some rest and be ready to bounce back with the guys that are coming back.”
X: @DwainPrice
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