Mavericks winning streak ends abruptly”>Luka Doncic, who was playing GoodI needed a match like this. One top even by their lofty standards. The Slovenian was a bit stuck, especially from the line of three, in his scoring role, although he was being the obvious axis of an excellent streak for the Mavericks and was being one more, which is very good news, in surely the best defensive version of the Texans since their arrival in the NBA. But the touch of magic was missing, the X factor. And it came (final 102-98) against the tough Raptors: 41 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists.
It’s Doncic’s highest scoring of the season, the first time he’s surpassed 30 points since Nov. 12. His tenth game of more than 40 in regular season and one with good percentages of three (4/10) and from a personnel line in which he has definitely improved: 10/11. And what is more important: Doncic pulled out the scalpel to get his team out of trouble. Fred VanVleet (18 points and 12 assists but 3/15 on 3s) put the Raptors ahead (95-96) with less than two minutes remaining. The next thing was a layup and a triple by Doncic (100-96), a lifeline for some Mavs who still had to escape from two failed triples followed by their rival, with 100-98 and in the final seconds. First VanVleet and, after an attacking rebound, Boucher (15+12) missed, and the Raptors lost (they are 21-21 now) the fourth game of the last five, a bad streak after one of six wins in a row.
For the Mavs it is a 26-19 that keeps them as an island in fifth position in the West, controlled by those who come from behind and increasingly closer to a Jazz in crisis. There are four wins in a row and, above all, ten in eleven games for a Mavs that have gone from 16-18 to 26-19, and that in this stretch they have received more than 100 points only three times. They left the Raptors at 38% in shots, the key finally to a lackluster and very sweaty victory.
But a very valuable one. in which Doncic recovered the tailcoat on a bad day in the shot of almost everyone else. “I needed it,” said the Slovenian, who visibly lifted a weight off his shoulders as his 3-pointers came in. The Mavs have the fourth-best defense in the NBA, a tremendous surprise, and their offense is stuck at times but does enough to win. Above all because he can count, when things get ugly, on the differential talent of Luka Doncic. The factor X, one more time.
