DALLAS — At the risk of sounding repetitive, Jason Kidd lamented the heavy offensive load that Luka Doncic is carrying, the lack of help from teammates and an overdue need to get Doncic a game off.
But with Western Conference-leading Portland visiting American Airlines Center on Saturday night and the Mavericks riding a two-game losing streak, Kidd could ill-afford to rest Doncic.
“How can we get help? Who can help take some of the stress away?” Kidd wondered.
At least for this night, as the Mavericks rallied for a frenetic 117-112 victory, the answers to Kidd’s question were Spencer Dinwiddie, Christian Wood and Tim Hardaway Jr.
Once again it was Doncic leading the way. If his gas tank was near empty entering the game, it didn’t show as he roared to a 42-point, 13-assist, 10-rebound triple-double.
But with Portland leading 106-103 after a Damian Lillard 3-pointer with 2:50 left, it was Dinwiddie who drained three 3-pointers in the next 1:14 to give Dallas a 112-108 lead. A Dorian Finney-Smith 3-pointer with 52 seconds all but put the game out of reach.
“There’s a trust we have in each other,” said Doncic, who became the sixth player in NBA history to record four career triple-doubles of 40 or more points.
“I think it was Reggie who had an open shot,” Doncic added of Finney-Smith’s clinching trey, “but he saw that Doe-Doe was more open so we went from a great shot to a better shot. That’s the trust we’ve got to have every game.”
Off the bench, the Mavericks got 19 points from Wood in his first game back from a two-game injury absence (left knee sprain) and 16 points and five assists from Tim Hardaway Jr.
“Spencer was big,” Kidd said. “He was going there. Those were some big shots there, so a lot of good things that we learned from that road trip.”
The 0-2 trip, with losses to Orlando and Washington, had the Mavericks and their coaches doing some soul-searching, looking for ways to help Doncic. Kidd said there was discussion about giving Doncic Saturday off, but that Doncic wanted to play and “He’ll tell me when he needs a break.”
That break might come when the Mavericks host the Clippers on Tuesday or when they host Houston the following night, but Dallas needed all of Doncic’s 37 minutes and help from his friends to earn a quality win against Portland (9-4), which was playing the last game of a six-game trip.
It was far from easy, as Dallas lost a 16-point first-half lead and trailed by as much as seven points. Instead of falling to an uncharacteristic 4-5 when taking a double-digit lead, the Mavericks played one of their best fourth quarters of the season.
For about 45 minutes, it looked like the Mavericks were going to fall short in the “help Luka” department, but then Dinwiddie caught fire.
“They trapped Luka,” Dinwiddie said. “Luka does a phenomenal job of becoming a problem for their defense, whether it’s back-downs or pick-and-rolls. He just swing the ball, he obviously makes the right read and right pass.
“And then we were just swing, swing and it fell on me and I was able to hit a couple of shots.”
Wood entered with 4:23 left in the first quarter and the Mavericks trailing 23-20. It took Wood just 13 seconds to score his first basket, a dunk on an alley-oop from Doncic.
Just 26 seconds later, sank a 19-foot jumper. Believe it or not it took just 2:50 of court time for Wood to pour in 10 points, leading a 15-2 Dallas run that took a mere 3:18.
The Mavericks extended their lead to as much as 49-33 with 7:55 left in the first half. The Blazers appeared to be wobbled and open to a knockout blow from Dallas.
Wrong. Portland closed the second quarter with a flourish, becoming the latest Dallas opponent to wipe out a double-digit margin, pulling to within 59-57 at halftime.
The game see-sawed through much of the third quarter. Even when Dallas rallied to take a 101-98 lead, it experienced adversity when Wood fouled out with 4:20 left.
Fortunately for Dallas, though, it still had Doncic — and for a change, plenty of other help.
“He’s the toughest cover in the league,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said of Doncic. “You can prepare for scorers, prepare for bigs. He’s all of those things in one. He’s a tough prep and he keeps you up at night with some of the things he does out there.
“But his usage, you know he’s going to have the ball the whole time, the whole shot clock pretty much. So yeah, he’s definitely a tough cover.”
