DALLAS — When Luka Doncic plays for the Mavericks, it’s easy to recognize his individual dominance and the way he sets up teammates with elite passing and by commanding attention from every defender.
But when Doncic isn’t on the court, as was the case Friday night in the Mavericks’ 109-92 loss to the Pacers, his impact, or lack thereof, is perhaps even more evident.
With Doncic out against Indiana because of tightness in his lower back, the Mavericks struggled to find a rhythm while the hot-shooting Pacers cruised in the American Airlines Center.
Kristaps Porzingis tallied his second-highest scoring total of the season (31 points on 12 of 28 from the field) and added a season-high 18 rebounds, but after the Mavericks cut their deficit to four points with about 10 minutes remaining, the Pacers closed the game on a 25-12 run.
Dallas fell to 1-3 without Doncic this season and will have little time to regroup with the second night of a back-to-back looming Saturday in New Orleans, the first in a five-game, week-long road trip.
A silver lining for the Mavericks entering the hectic stretch: Doncic will travel with the team to New Orleans and hopes to play Saturday.
“It’s been a next-man-up situation,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “That’s the attitude, and if you’re looking for a kind of strength that we’ve developed or a resilience we’ve developed [this season], I think that’s what it is.”
Doncic received treatment on his back Friday for the same ailment that kept him out of the Mavericks’ March 3 win over the Thunder. His back has hampered him at least since the eight-day stretch in mid-February when the Mavericks practiced but didn’t play games, during Texas’ historic winter storm and power outages.
The Mavericks, facing five games in the next eight days, will need Doncic as close to full strength as possible, as soon as possible.
They struggled to sustain a balanced offense with consistent ball movement without their 22-year-old All-Star’s direction and command.
Indiana outscored the Mavericks 33-12 in a nine-minute stretch, starting late in the first quarter, to build a lead they never relinquished. They shot 42.5% from 3 (20 of 47), which made the Mavericks’ 8-of-35 performance from deep all the more glaring.
The lapses marred a second consecutive strong showing from Porzingis, who played a season-high 37 minutes. With 15 points and 13 rebounds by halftime, the 25-year-old recorded the first single-half double-double of his career.
The Pacers’ first-half surge came in part during the only four minutes Porzingis rested in the first half.
In an eight-point loss to the Thunder on March 11, the Mavericks, then without Doncic and Porzingis, had trailed by as many as 21 points before a too-little-too-late rally.
The Mavericks appeared primed to reverse their latest Doncic-less fortune in the fourth quarter Friday after trailing by as many as 17 points in the third.
Dallas cut Indiana’s lead to 84-80 on a Jalen Brunson jumper from the high post with 10:15 left, but the Pacers responded with a 17-4 run to cushion their advantage instead.
Doncic, in street clothes on the bench, could only watch.
