MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN — The top two defensive rated teams that feature two of the NBA’s superstars Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo lived up to the hype. The Mavericks have won 4 out of their last 5 and the Bucks have won their last 3 games and 6-1 since we crossed over into a new year.
Dallas was still without Jalen Brunson, Josh Richardson, Dwight Powell, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Maxi Kleber due to Covid 19 protocols, but the Mavericks have learned to roll with the players that are available. Dallas doesn’t want excuses to cloud the overall mission and that is to win basketball games. This game was going to come down to who wanted it more.
Dallas had a quick start and captured an early lead, but that lead slipped away 7 minutes into the 1st quarter and trailed most of the game. Milwaukee went on a 12-5 run and exploited the Mavericks interior and transition defense and created mismatches throughout the entire 1st quarter. Giannis Antetokounmpo finished the 1st quarter with 9 points hitting 4 out of 6 of his shots and really took over, and the Bucks game plan was clearly to keep Dallas’s best interior defenders out of the paint. It was effective which resulted in the Bucks leading the Mavs to end the 1st quarter.
What we know about the Mavericks this season is that they’ve only been able to flip a 1st quarter deficit into a win one time. Gaining a lead early is the formula to this team winning games.
The Bucks continued to do what was necessary to increase their lead and the Mavericks gave it all they could to overcome it.
Dallas enlisted a different approach on defense in the 2nd quarter. Instead of playing man on man the Mavericks played zone to slow the Bucks down and force them to convert shots from the perimeter. Instead of allowing easy shots in the paint, they wanted the Bucks to work for their points. Carlisle went deep into his rotation to do so and the bench helped the Mavericks keep the lead somewhat close and the Mavericks trailed the Bucks going into halftime 47-55
The Mavericks were able to get into rhythm going into the 3rd quarter as the Mavericks were able to bring their deficit to within 1 point after trailing by an 8 point margin in the 1st half. Dallas got a boost from Tim Hardaway Jr who has been on fire over the past few games hitting 5 out of 6 shots 3 of them coming from beyond the arc. Dallas outshot the Bucks 54% to 36% from the field and ended the 3rd quarter only trailing the Bucks by 3 points.
Dallas continued to do so in the 4th quarter and played their best quarter of the night knocking down 57% of their shots and Luka Doncic was a key to their offensive success. Luka scored on 63% of his shot attempts and helped the Mavericks capture their first lead since the 1st quarter after a big time three from James Johnson which came off a Luka Doncic assist with just over 3 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter.
Dallas’s momentum swing only lasted seconds after Khris Middleton hit two consecutive three pointers to give the Bucks the lead again leaving the Mavericks with limited time to make things happen in their favor. Luka in a last ditch effort was able to convert on a layup to bring the game within 2 points after he hit two back to back shots to bring the score to 109-111. The only choice the Mavericks had was to foul sending Brook Lopez to the line with 1.6 seconds. Lopez knocked down 1 of 2 but the Mavericks were out of timeouts. Luka heaved the ball towards the basket at the last second but it bounced off the backboard onto the hardwood handing the Mavericks their first loss in almost two weeks losing to the Bucks 112-109 snapping their 4 game winning streak.
The Mavericks are now 6-5 and have played 8 out of 10 road games so far this season and are set to host the 4-7 Bulls on Sunday.
