Mavericks' comeback at Rockets falls just short, losing 108-102

The Dallas Mavericks returned home after beating the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night to play their rival Houston Rockets. It’s the first of a five-game homestand and Dallas wanted to keep the positive momentum going.

The Mavs started their usual five of Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. Houston started Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun.

It was another sloppy start for the Mavs. The Rockets hit their first two shots from deep to open a 10-3 lead after a pair of missed free throws by PJ Washington, a missed dunk by Daniel Gafford and a bad turnover in the backcourt with Doncic not turning around and looking for the ball. ball, and Houston took advantage. Kyrie Irving helped steady things a bit, but Houston’s physicality set the tone, allowing the Rockets to capitalize at the free throw line.

Luka Doncic again struggled early and even made a shot from the air, allowing the Rockets to open a 27-15 lead after another made three from Brooks. They carry that lead over to a 34-21 lead by the end of the quarter. Dallas just couldn’t get their offense to match Houston’s physicality.

Despite some shots from Kyrie Irving, that trend would continue in the second quarter. Dallas faced its largest deficit of the season — 19 points — during a period when Doncic had a scoreless trip to the free-throw line. Nothing went the Mavs’ way, even after an overturned foul call that would have resulted in free throws for Jaden Hardy was turned into an offensive foul.

A Doncic draw gave them some energy to tip away and cut the lead to 15, but Houston coach Ime Udoka quickly called a timeout to try to prevent the Mavs from gaining any momentum. That seemed to work, as Houston quickly got the lead to twenty. Closing defensive possessions with a rebound was an issue, with Houston grabbing eight offensive boards in the first half, leading to some obvious frustration from the Mavs. Dallas fell a little short, but Klay Thompson missed a three near the end of the half that would have cut the lead to 10, and Houston led 57–44 at halftime.

Houston didn’t set the world on fire early offensively, shooting just 21/47 (44.7%) from the floor and 4/15 (26.7%) from three, but they took advantage from the free throw line (11/14 ). ). Dallas wasn’t efficient anywhere early, shooting 16/39 (41%) from the field, 2/12 (16.7%) from three and 10/16 (62.5%) from the charity stripe. As they did a good job defensively, a quick burst of attack in the second half could get them right back into the game.

The first few minutes of the second half were just more of the same as the first half: too many fouls, not enough scoring and poor defensive rebounding from the Mavs. Sengun and Jabari Smith killed Dallas on the glass, leading to fouls. Lively and Gafford each picked up four fouls midway through the quarter, forcing Dwight Powell to get minutes against Sengun.

Dallas just couldn’t do anything right. The first three quarters could be summed up by an offensive rebound from Houston, a bad foul from the Mavs, and then an even worse foul on the other end from Dallas. For most of the game, Houston had as many offensive rebounds as Dallas had defensively. Houston broke open a lead as large as 23 with just a few minutes left in the third quarter. Heading into the 4th, Dallas found itself trailing 88-72 despite an Irving buzzer-beater to end the third.

However, a pair of quick baskets by Dallas early in the period cut the lead to 11, giving the AAC some life. Due to the foul trouble with their bigs, Dallas rolled out a small lineup of Doncic, Irving, Hardy, Naji Marshall and PJ Washington. Considering how poorly they were hit on the glass, this was a bold play by Jason Kidd. They eventually cut the lead to under ten on a hard shot from Doncic with about eight minutes to go, before Irving found a cutting Marshall to cut the lead to seven with seven minutes to go.

Jalen Green responded at that point with five quick points to push the lead back to 12. Klay Thompson hit his first three of the game a few possessions later to cut the lead to seven. Then he hit another three on a crazy feed from Irving for his 2,500th career shot from deep to cut the lead to four with four minutes left.

Green responded again with a nice driving layup to push the lead to six with about three minutes left, but Luka Doncic hit a patented step-back three to cut the lead to three with two minutes left to go. Dallas had a defensive stop, but Houston got another offensive rebound and Jalen Green hit a controversial three on Doncic to cut the lead to six with just over a minute left.

This rivalry has had some crazy endings in recent years, and this was almost yet another one. Doncic responded with a three on the next inbounds to make it another one-possession game. However, Amen Thompson hit a hard-fought midrange to cut the lead to five. Klay Thompson missed a three on the next possession and would eventually go out of bounds, and Dillon Brooks would ice the game with a turnaround mid-range bucket to go up seven with 18 seconds left. After playing the dirty game, Houston would win 108-102.

Dallas was so poor defensively and offensively in the first half that it prevented them from mounting an incredible comeback, and those are things they need to address for their next game. Houston grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and shot 27 free throws. If Dallas cuts this even by 15-20%, they’ll probably come out of there with a win.

Kyrie Irving was the best Maverick of the night, finishing with 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Luka Doncic beat him by 29, but Irving was the one who kept the offense afloat when the team needed it most. The only other Mav in double figures was Klay Thompson with 12. That’s not enough scoring output from the rest of the team. PJ Washington had a great game defensively, finishing with nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals, but they needed another scorer to step up.

Jalen Green led the Houston Rockets with 23 points, but added 12 rebounds. They also had five other players hit double figures: Alperen Sengun (17 points, 12 rebounds, six offensive boards), Dillon Brooks (17 points), Tari Eason (15 points), Jabari Smith Jr. (14 points, six rebounds, three offensive rebounds) and Amen Thompson (10 points).

Dallas needs to find a way to start games faster as slow starts are becoming a concerning trend for this team. Part of that is working in Klay Thompson, but the team is too talented to consistently start games slowly.

The Mavericks play at home again on Sunday evening against the Orlando Magic, who will be without their biggest star, Paolo Banchero.

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