DALLAS _ This Saturday evening began, compellingly enough, with Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle venting about opposing teams "beating the (expletive)" out of Luka Doncic.
The intrigue continued with J.J. Barea starting his second straight game, but, thereafter, the Charlotte Hornets made things far too interesting for the Mavericks and American Airlines Center fans.
The Hornets (14-24) took as much as a 20-point first-half lead. Doncic led a second-half rally that carried Dallas to a 12-point fourth-quarter advantage, but the Hornets forced overtime and pulled out a 123-120 victory over a Dallas team that is a perplexing 10-8 at home.
Entering Saturday, Charlotte was just 1-12 against teams that currently are .500 or better. Make it 2-12.
Doncic finished with 39 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his franchise-record 10th triple-double of the season, breaking the previous mark held by Jason Kidd. Doncic's 18 career triple-doubles are three shy of Kidd's franchise record.
Maxi Kleber scored a career-high 24 points and Dorian Finney-Smith added 10 as the Mavericks (23-13) played their third straight game without Kristaps Porzingis (sore right knee) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (left hamstring strain).
On a night when the franchise celebrated the 20th anniversary of Mark Cuban's ownership, Dallas fell to 981-648 in the Cuban Era, compared to 613-943 pre-Cuban, despite the latest Doncic masterpiece.
"You've got to make him work and your hope is that you can wear him down over time," Charlotte coach James Borrego said. "Through a 48-minute game, you just hope you can wear him down, throw different bodies at him. You don't want him to just to run around there comfortable.
"But I think one way you can exploit is just trying to be physical with him on the offensive end and then on the defensive end trying to make him work as much as possible."
The Hornets became the latest team to use a physical approach to attempt to slow Doncic, who entered the game No. 3 in the NBA in both average points (29.1) and assists (8.9). The Hornets weren't as physical as some opponents have been, but clearly it was part of their strategy.
"Look, he's a great player, so people are going to go after him," Carlisle said. "It doesn't mean that a lot of the stuff is right or in the spirit of what the game should look like."
Doncic's frustration level with what he perceives as a lack of calls varies from game-to-game. Carlisle obviously believed it was time to publicly come to his 20-year-old point guard's defense.
Carlisle compared opposing teams' physicality against Doncic with the way teams defended Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, who retired last April.
"He's handling it well," Carlisle said of Doncic. "But teams are taking liberties on him. Look, we saw it with Dirk for 20 years here, my 11 years, all the time, taking physical liberties on him, trying to knock him down and beat him up, stuff like that.
"It's not good. He's handling it very well, but it's happening every game."
One of the reasons Carlisle started Barea the past two games, besides Hardaway's absence, is to give Doncic an occasional break from ball-handling duties.
For the second straight game, Carlisle substituted for Doncic midway through the first and third quarters, in theory so that Doncic would be more rested for the fourth quarter.
"He wants the ball," Barea said, "but if he could be away from the ball a little bit, I think it's good for him for the end of the game."
On the physicality issue, Carlisle says he speaks to referees on many game nights, "when it's happening. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens a lot. It's happening more frequently as the season is going along."
Doncic's average of 9.23 free-throw attempts per game is the fourth-highest average in the NBA _ behind James Harden (12.32), Giannis Antetokounmpo (10.12) and Jimmy Butler (9.71) _ but there are nights when Carlisle and the Mavericks believe opponents are crossing the line with hard fouls on Doncic.
Last Sunday against the Lakers at Staples Center, Doncic drove into the lane with about two minutes left in the first half, leaped to attempt a shot and was knocked down by Lakers center Dwight Howard.
Doncic landed on his back and hit his head on the court. He was placed into the concussion protocol at halftime, passed the tests and played in the second half.
Two days later against Oklahoma City, Doncic was listed as questionable due to, according to the injury report, "thigh contusion, back contusion" and "sore left wrist." He wound up playing 40 minutes against the Thunder.
"We've just got to make the officials aware of it constantly," Carlisle said. "What happens is teams will come in, they'll set a level of aggressiveness to where there's a level where it's so physical that they only call a certain number of fouls.
"We've got to be able to play like that; we've got an aggressive team. But taking liberties is not good. He's got scratches all over his arms all the time and stuff like that."
.jpg?w=600)
