For a second consecutive night, the Mavericks endured some pregame shuffling — needing to retool their plans with a short-handed group.
About a half-hour before beating the Wizards 109-87 on Saturday night, the Mavericks learned they’d be without three regular starters. Josh Richardson (left calf tightness) joined Kristaps Porizngis (right knee injury recovery) and Maxi Kleber (left leg contusion) on the bench.
One day after downing the Knicks with coach Rick Carlisle watching from his New York City hotel room following a false-positive COVID-19 test, the Mavericks again needed to be creative.
Good thing they have Luka Doncic, one of the NBA’s craftiest players.
Without his usual supporting cast, Doncic still finished with 28 points, eight rebounds and six assists, his league-leading 34th game this season with at least 20 points, five boards and five assists.
With six players scoring in double digits, including all five in their piecemeal starting lineup, the Mavericks finished their season-long five-game road trip with a fourth consecutive win.
“Thank you, Luka,” Boban Marjanovic said on Bally Sports Southwest after the game, fresh off recording a season-high 15 points and 12 rebounds. “Great passes. Continue to do that.”
Carlisle returned to the helm of the bench in Washington’s Capital One Arena after an unprecedented preceding 24 hours. He re-joined the team on the flight out of New York late Friday night after re-testing negative three times to negate his false-positive result on Friday afternoon.
“In my heart and my mind, I was pretty sure this was a false-positive,” Carlisle said, “and I’m grateful that it turned out that way.”
That meant Carlisle didn’t have to pivot Saturday to helping lead assistant Jamahl Mosley prepare to lead the team.
But his return to work wasn’t seamless by player availability standards.
The Mavericks’ starting lineup — Tim Hardaway Jr., Nicolo Melli and Marjanovic were alongside regulars Doncic and Dorian Finney-Smith — had never played all together this season.
Dallas appeared content to lean on Doncic and Marjanovic, who’s 7-4 height is an offensive matchup problem for any opponent. The two combined to score the Mavericks’ first 14 points of the game and their first nine out of halftime.
While Brunson added his usual steady burst off the bench — including 19 points on 6 of 12 from the field-goal attempts — the Mavericks struggled to consistently cushion their early leads against the Wizards, who played without All-Star Bradley Beal, the NBA’s leading scorer, for a fourth consecutive game.
Dallas shot 10 of 30 (33.3%) from 3; Washington, 5 of 25 (20%). Russell Westbrook (26 points) and Robin Lopez (18), the latter as a reserve, also challenged the Mavericks’ defense.
Perhaps the Mavericks’ most concerning moment came when Doncic landed awkwardly from a dunk attempt with about nine minutes remaining, his left leg bent underneath him. He grimaced upon hitting the court, but showed little sign of pain after the officials stopped play to review a foul on the play.
From there, the Mavericks finished the game on an 18-7 run with Hardaway (16 points), Finney-Smith (11) and Melli (10) adding to the balanced attack.
With a home game Monday against Western Conference-leading Utah, the Mavericks will return to Dallas with cautious optimism their makeshift rotation was a short-term blip.
Porzingis’ absence continued the Mavericks’ pattern of resting him for the back half of back-to-back games this season. The 25-year-old center has played both halves twice since returning in mid-January from his October right knee surgery, but not since Feb. 3-4.
Before Saturday, the Mavericks were 0-4 in games Porzingis missed for load management, though the latter two defeats also came without Doncic in the lineup, too.
