DALLAS _ Mavericks fans received the holiday wish they were seeking, and a national TNT audience wasn't complaining or seeking refunds, either. Luka Doncic took the floor for the first time since suffering an ankle injury 12 days ago. While neither the Mavs nor the Spurs were sharp for much of the night, Doncic performed in his usual fashion and Dallas crept a little closer to Houston in the Western Conference race.
Doncic finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in a 102-98 win over San Antonio. Head coach Rick Carlisle said the longer timeouts for the national telecast would keep him from needing to place a minutes restriction on Doncic. What really helped was some wild 3-point shooting from Dallas in the fourth quarter.
The Mavs' lead on San Antonio was a slim 79-74 after three quarters, and Doncic already was leading the cause with 22 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. You had to wonder how long Carlisle could afford to sit him at the start of the fourth when it's customary for star players to rest before making that final burst.
It must seem unfair to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to watch what took place as Dallas outscored the Spurs 21-11 by getting all their points on 3-pointers over a seven-minute span. Doncic didn't check back in until there was 4:35 to play with the Mavs holding a solid 100-85 lead. Kristaps Porzingis and Delon Wright each hit two of the seven 3-pointers Dallas made against the team that shoots the fewest 3-pointers in the league by a sizable margin.
In the first half, Doncic offered plenty of highlights. A two-handed tip of a Porzingis miss gave Dallas a 10-5 lead. He dunked off a great Seth Curry behind-the-back pass from inside the lane to make it 20-15. And while his first half was mostly about finding his own shot, Doncic collected his fifth assist when he escaped a double team to hit Porzingis for an open 3-pointer right at the first half buzzer.
With the win, Dallas got to 20-10, one half game behind Houston in the Southwest Division.
The Mavericks went 2-2 against the strongest teams in the Eastern Conference without Doncic although the record was 2-3 if you include the Miami game when he was injured just two minutes in. In those five contests Porzingis was at his best for the Mavericks this season. He averaged 22.4 points and 13.8 rebounds.
It seems incredible that in his time with the Knicks, Porzingis never had three straight games of 20 points and 10 rebounds. He had four in a row starting with the Miami game and it would have been five had he not finished with 19 points against Toronto Sunday.
"In the big picture, this is just more of the same for him," Carlisle said. "He certainly got a few more shots without Luka on the floor, but it's not just about points and rebounds. It's how he's moving, defending and absorbing the minutes. We look for more continued progress."
That didn't really happen Thursday as Porzingis couldn't find his shot from any distance until hitting back-to-back 3s in the fourth. Porzingis finished with 13 points and eight rebounds while going 4 for 15 from the field.
But neither team was particularly on top of its game. If you're an NBA team that doesn't play on Christmas Day (and this will be the last time the Mavs fall into that category for a long stretch), you end up with several days off. The Mavs practiced Tuesday but hadn't played since Sunday and it showed early. Dallas hit 44.7% from the floor and 27.8% from the arc while turning it over eight times in a sloppy opening half. The Mavs managed a five-point lead on the struggling Spurs because San Antonio was a hideous 2 for 14 from the 3-point line.
