The Dallas Mavericks (8-13) suffered a tragic 109-108 loss to the Phoenix Suns (11-8) due to the heroics of Devin Booker, rising up and drilling a three-pointer with Josh Richardson’s hand in his face as the clock ticked down to 1.5 seconds remaining.
đź‘€ EVERY ANGLE of CP3 finding Devin Booker for the @Suns GAME-WINNER! pic.twitter.com/TYkAkMB6EI
— NBA (@NBA) February 2, 2021
The Mavs had a chance with plenty of time remaining to hoist a shot and owned a timeout to advance the ball up court.
It resulted in a broken play, as Kristaps Porzingis delivered a solid screen on Mikal Bridges trailing Tim Hardaway Jr., but completely whiffed on freeing up Luka Doncic in his next attempt to wall off Cam Johnson.
It resulted in a contested deep three while being closed out by two defenders that clanked off the back iron.
The Mavs played their tails off tonight, highlighted by a season-high 22 points and constant energy by Josh Richardson in his fourth game back due to health and safety protocols, and by no means looked like a team that was just handed its sixth loss in a row.
Chalk that up to good shot-making by the Suns, poor inbounds play design/execution on the last play or bad luck on the jump-ball in the waning moments, whether Derek Harper jinxed it or not.
KP showed up when called upon
Kristaps Porzingis has been under a lot of scrutiny during the six-game losing-streak, and much of it has been justified, as Dallas struggles when his shot isn’t falling to open up lanes for drivers and cutters.
He wasn’t wildly efficient tonight by any stretch, shooting 6/15 from the floor, but also shot 3/7 from downtown and was perfect on all four free-throw attempts, finishing with 19 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
While a consistently efficient KP is eagerly desired, crunch-time KP is also welcome.
In the final quarter Porzingis poured in 10 points, hitting 2/3 from deep, and stonewalled DeAndre Ayton with an almost game-saving block at the rim with 11 seconds remaining.
His overall shooting once again left much to be desired, but KP’s play turned up a notch when it mattered most, giving tonight at least some sort of silver lining.
J-Rich rounding into form
Much has come of the J-Rich for Seth Curry swap this past offseason.
Fans and media outlets across the board have pointed to the Mavs’ shooting woes as a possible result of waving goodbye to one of the game’s most accurate active snipers.
Tonight Richardson showed the talent he has to offer and why the Mavs gave up a clearly integral member of the team in his second stint with the organization.Â
Richardson shot an efficient 9/16 from the floor, 2/6 from distance and connected on all four free-throw attempts, including two on the final minute of the game, for 22 points while also contributing five boards, four assists and two steals.
His stat line shows his versatility, but nothing summed up his fire on both ends of the floor better than his highlight putback poster as Luka threw up a prayer of a shot while being bodied out of bounds on a no-call late in the fourth.
Dallas has options again
Luka averaged a triple-double in January, a tremendous feat done by only one other player, Russell Westbrook.
Many who watched the KD and Harden-less Thunder understand how little Russ had to work with and routinely did most of the heavy lifting, seeing how it didn’t translate to real team success.
While it’s awesome Luka can do such unimaginable things so early on in his career, the man needs some help, otherwise teams don’t have to defend anybody but him.
Everyone knows that Luka is at the head of the scoring hierarchy, with KP in line behind, then THJ and J-Rich falling in line as 3A and 3B options depending on the night.
As Porzingis continues to struggle shooting, it will be pertinent that the supporting players can chip in where necessary for the Mavs to continue showing the fight they had tonight.
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