They say the NBA is about weathering storms.
If that’s the case, consider the Mavericks to be in the middle of a nasty one right now.
Coming back after a disappointing trip, the Mavericks fell behind by 18 points nearing the midpoint of the fourth quarter and could not recover, dropping a 120-116 decision to the Philadelphia 76ers, who were playing without arguably the best big man in the NBA, Joel Embiid.
The Mavericks made a furious rally down the stretch, but simply had too much ground to make up. They looked like a team that was playing its fourth game in 5 1/2 days as the Sixers took the victory at American Airlines Center.
It was easy for coach Jason Kidd to pinpoint what went wrong as the Mavericks were fighting from behind virtually all night after the momentum of a quick start after the jump ball abandoned them.
“Our offense is our defense,” Kidd said. “When we score, we’re going to be one of the best teams in this league.
“When we don’t score, we’re one of the worst teams. And so, when we struggle to score, we tend to not do anything on the defensive end. And we’re trying to find a way to score. We’re getting great looks. They’re just not falling for us.”
The Mavericks were down 103-85 with 7:30 left. They still were down by 14 points with 5 minutes left when Luka Dončić started the rally with two free throws and a three-pointer. They cut the lead to seven, then Kyrie Irving scored in the paint and the Mavericks were within 110-105 with 1:34 to go.
The Sixers, however, had an answer as Tobia Harris, who led them with 28 points, nailed a corner three-pointer with 1:11 left for a 113-105 advantage.
The Mavericks were in full scramble mode and got it back to 115-110 and thought they had a backcourt violation with 26.7 seconds left before the Sixers called timeout.
They eventually got two free throws with 25.1 seconds left to seal it. Kyrie Irving made a pair three-pointers, but the Mavericks had to foul and the sixers made their free throws.
The bright spot? Luka became just the fourth player in NBA history with three consecutive 30-point triple-doubles (joining Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and Russell Westbrook). He finished with 38 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Irving had 28 points and Derrick Jones Jr. had 21 off the bench.
All of that was of little solace as the Mavericks now have lost four of five since their seven-game winning streak and slipped to 34-27 in the tightly packed Western Conference standings.
The Sixers improved to 35-25.
Irving said it will be up to him and Dončić to get the Mavericks out of the doldrums in the remaining two games on this home stand (Indiana Tuesday, Miami Thursday).
How do they do that?
“By sharing the wisdom of experiences you’ve had in the past and also affirming that we’re going to be OK,” Irving said. “And that’s for everybody that’s watching. We’re going to be OK. We got to trust that we’ll be able to put the work in that’s necessary to get us these wins. We’ve shown it before. We took a little dip in these past few games, 1-3 on the road.
“(Then we) come back home and to not take care of home court, that’s on us. We got to take accountability for that as players. We got to bring the energy. No more excuses. We got 20-odd games left. We know the positioning we’re in now.”
And, just as importantly, he said the Mavericks know the pressure of reaching the postseason.
“We know what happened last year when we didn’t make it, how that feels to fail miserably,” Irving said. “And we know what it feels like to have external pressure, our fan base. It’s also new for some guys who have never dealt with having a target on your back.”
The Mavericks suffered 17 turnovers against the Sixers and had struggles with their shooting eyes. Tim Hardaway was just 1-of-8 and P.J. Washington was 3-of-10. After making their first three three-pointers, they went 7-for-26 the rest of the way through three quarters before heating up in their comeback.
The Mavericks looked like a tired team at times. But Luka discounted that.
“There’s 29 other teams that have probably the same schedule,” he said. “That’s not an excuse.”
However, he did say the Mavericks probably have some mental and physical fatigue.
“I think it’s a little bit of both,” he said. “We got to have energy from the first minute of the game. I can do better for sure. People follow me, so I got to do better.”
As for Hardaway’s struggles (he’s 15-of-53 in the last nine games, Luka said: “Keep staying positive. We all know he’s going to come back to being himself. It’s hard. Losing games is hard.”
Especially when you look like the sharper team at the start of the game. In the first quarter, the Mavericks were 5-of-10 on three-pointers. They were 2-of-10 on shots inside the arc.
That wasn’t the only oddity in the opening 12 minutes. The Mavericks went ahead 11-0. Then were outscored 32-11 over the final nine-plus minutes.
Game of runs, clearly. And the Mavericks couldn’t muster another one until it was too late.
X: @ESefko
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