DALLAS � You could see the buzzsaw rolling down the plains of Texas like a tornado.
The league's most efficient in Dallas had all of its horses present Monday while the rebuilding Wolves brought in the fourth-worst defense since remaking their roster at the trade deadline.
With Luka Doncic present after missing a game Saturday and Kristaps Porzingis also back in the lineup, the Mavericks chopped up the Wolves' defense in an 139-123 Wolves loss at American Airlines Center.
Doncic filled up the stat sheet as you might expect for the ascending star, as he finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in just 25 minutes. Tim Hardaway Jr. was able to exploit the Wolves defense to the tune of 23 points as Dallas opened up a 22-point lead in the first half and never looked back. The Wolves, who never led in the game, cut it to nine in the third quarter, 86-77, but the Mavericks regained control of the game from there. A three-pointer from Seth Curry, who finished with 19 points, brought the lead back to 22 with 9:43 to play in the fourth quarter to provide some symmetry in the route. Dallas had 19 second-chance points and 24 fast-break points.
The bright sport for the Wolves in this one was that at least offensively, they got their act together a bit after a herky-jerky first quarter.
D'Angelo Russell, returning from a day of planned rest, finished with 29 points. Malik Beasley added 21 while Jake Layman, who made his first appearance since Nov. 18, had five off the bench. James Johnson added 19.
Especially defensively, the Wolves are a work in progress, and watching them the rest of the season is going to require patience on the part of fans and even the players themselves. While there were moments of frustration on the floor at some of the easy baskets the Mavericks were getting, the Wolves tried to stay upbeat in the huddle, talking with each other during timeouts and the veteran Johnson taking the leadership reigns before coaches entered the huddle.
The Wolves had just nine players available in Sunday's loss to Denver. On Monday in Dallas they looked a little more like themselves Russell and Layman back in the fold.
Center Naz Reid again got the start in place of Karl-Anthony Towns (left wrist fracture) but Reid picked up two fouls in the first 1:13, leading to James Johnson coming off the bench early. Johnson was the one who kept the Wolves in the game initially on the offensive end, hitting 4 of his first 6 shots while teammates like Russell struggled to find their rhythm early. No other Wolves player had more than one field goal in the first quarter. They were within 28-25 after a Kelan Martin three-point play with 2:19 to play.
But the Mavericks took over from there, and put distance between them and the Wolves the Wolves would struggle to make up. It started with Dallas closing the first quarter on a 13-2 run to take a 41-27 lead. Dallas shot 58% for the quarter. The Mavericks didn't let up much in the second quarter in shooting 14 of 26. The bright spot for the Wolves in the second was at least they got going offensively, specifically Russell and Beasley.
After missing his first four shots of the night, Russell hit 5 of his next 6 to finish the first half with 13 points. Beasley got cooking in the second and hit five three-pointers for 17 points. The Wolves were 13 of 23 from the floor in the second, but defensively they were still leaky, and allowed the Mavericks to score another 40 points. Dallas led 81-65 at the half as Hardaway Jr. had 18, Doncic 15. The Wolves' best push came in the opening minutes of the third quarter. The opened the third on a 12-5 run to cut the Mavericks lead to nine. Russell even had an open look at a three to cut it to six, but he missed. Doncic took it the other way for a layup, the start of a 9-2 Dallas run that all but sealed the game from there.
