For the first time, 40 days and 21 games into the season, the Mavericks took the court with their full complement of players.
But Monday night’s result, a 109-108 Phoenix victory at American Airlines Center, was a virtualy carbon-copy of when these teams met two nights earlier on the same court.
Devin Booker’s 25-foot 3-pointer gave the Suns the one-point led with 1.5 seconds left, and when Luka Doncic’s hurried 28-footer bounced off the rim, Dallas’ losing streak had stretched to six games – tying the third-longest of coach Rick Carlisle’s 13-season tenure.
Despite the return of Maxi Kleber and 24 points apiece from Doncic and Josh Richardson, the Suns completed a 3-0 sweep of the Mavericks (8-13), who fell to 2-6 at home.
Richardson gave Dallas a 108-106 lead with a pair of free-throws with 54 seconds left. Deandre Ayton had a layup blocked by Kristaps Porzingis, but on an ensuing jump ball Porzingis tapped the ball too hard, off Kleber’s hand and out of bounds, setting up Booker’s winning shot.
Much like two nights earlier, when the Mavericks led by as many as 15 points midway through the third quarter, the Mavericks on this night led by 11 with 4:27 left in the third.
Exactly like two nights earlier, the Mavericks led 82-77 entering the fourth quarter – only to watch Chris Paul (34 points) propel the Suns into the lead.
Monday’s game was the second of a 13-game stretch in which the Mavericks will play 11 times at home. After Wednesday’s game in Atlanta, the Mavericks will play seven straight games at home, as well as nine of their next 10.
During that latter 19-day stretch the Mavericks won’t leave Texas – their lone road game is at Houston. But if they can’t gain better traction at home than what they have shown the past two seasons, what will playing a bunch of home games matter?
Before Monday’s game, Carlisle didn’t want to hear about how difficult January’s schedule and the Mavericks’ COVID-related issues were.
“Nobody gives a [expletive] about how hard it was,” he said. “There’s no point in talking about it. We’re at a point now where we’ve just got to focus minute to minute, hour to hour, whistle to whistle, do our very best to work on our chemistry, our togetherness, our collective will. And we’ve got to grind. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
Nor did Carlisle want to discuss the upcoming stretch of home games.
“I think it’s important to stay in the present and look slightly ahead, like maybe to if it’s 10 in the morning, then maybe you’re looking toward lunch, type of thing,” he said.
Monday marked the return of Kleber from an 11-game absence after contracting COVID-19. Kleber was one of four Mavericks who got the virus in the first week of January and was the last to return to action.
Matter of fact, according to the Mavericks media relations department, Monday was the first time in 425 days, dating to Dec. 4, 2019, that Dallas entered a game without any injury designations.
In his first four minutes of court time, Kleber had two points on a rebound and follow, one assist and one of his familiar weakside help blocks of a Deandre Ayton layup.
Yes, he’s been missed.
“As much as we’ve talked about being a better defensive team this year, he’s one of our better defenders,” Carlisle said.
Before the game, Carlisle hinted that Kleber’s early games back might go more smoothly than those of fellow coronavirus victims Richardson, Finney-Smith and Dwight Powell, whose first two games back were in 4,300-foot-altitude Salt Lake City.
“Maxi’s situation is slightly different than the other three,” Carlisle said. “He’s had a little bit more of a runway since being cleared than the other guys had in terms of he maybe had one extra day to workout and probably was able to ramp things up individually just a little bit more than the other guys, so he may be in a slightly better place than they were.”
