The Mavericks were down by as many as 23 points late in the game, but Houston's domination of the glass kept them in control.
The Dallas Mavericks returned home after beating the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night to play their in-state rival Houston Rockets. It's the first of a five-game homestand and Dallas wanted to keep their positive momentum going.
Despite some shot-making by Kyrie Irving, that trend would continue in the second quarter. Dallas faced their biggest deficit of the season - 19 points - in a stretch that featured a scoreless trip to the free-throw line by Doncic. Nothing was going the Mavs' way, even having an overturned foul call that would've resulted in free throws for Jaden Hardy but was changed to an offensive foul.
Dallas just couldn't do anything right. The first three quarters could be summarized by an offensive rebound by Houston, a bad foul by the Mavs, and then an even worse offense on the other end for Dallas. For most of the game, Houston had as many offensive rebounds as Dallas did defensively. Houston broke open a lead as large as 23 with a few minutes left in the third quarter. Heading into the 4th, Dallas faced an 88-72 deficit despite a buzzer-beater by Irving to end the third.
Green once again responded with a nice driving layup to get the lead up to six with about three minutes remaining, but Luka Doncic hit a patented step-back three to get the lead down to three with two minutes left. Dallas had a defensive stop, but once again, Houston got an offensive rebound and Jalen Green hit a contested three over Doncic to push the lead back to six with just over a minute remaining.
Kyrie Irving was the best Maverick of the night, finishing with 28 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. Luka Doncic outscored him with 29, but Irving was the one that kept the offense afloat when the team needed it most. The only other Mav in double-figures was Klay Thompson with 12. That's not enough scoring output from the rest of the team.
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