SAN ANTONIO, Texas – One of the NBA teams that played Wednesday night in AT&T Center has embarked on a season-long losing endeavor, more focused on top draft position than a deep playoff run.
Bad news for the Mavericks: It was hard to distinguish their play 13 games before the playoffs from the tanking Spurs for much of the game.
Dallas won 137-128 in overtime by erasing a nine-point deficit over the last 4:31 of regulation and then outlasting their series of gaffes that almost resulted in their worst loss of the season.
The victory allowed the Mavericks to avoid a 10th loss in their last 13 games and their second four-game losing streak of the season, which would’ve tied their longest stretch of defeats in coach Jason Kidd’s two-year tenure.
But the turnover- and mistake-riddled outing left the Mavericks with major concerns, regardless of victorious results.
Whew.
Rookie Jaden Hardy hit a 3-pointer with 1:52 remaining, and he and center Christian Wood combined to make four of five free throw attempts in the last minute-and-a-half to give the Mavericks a 121-117 lead inside the final 10 seconds.
Dallas trailed by nine points (114-105) after Tre Jones hit a layup with 4:31 remaining, appearing to stymie the Mavericks’ hopes of winning their first game without Luka Doncic since early February.
But then Hardy answered his sequence of four consecutive missed layups to drain a second-chance 3-pointer from the right wing to tie the game at 117 with 1:52 remaining. Spurs big man Sandro Mamukelashvili responded with a 3-pointer on the following possession, capitalizing on the Mavericks’ porous defensive effort.
Hardy and Wood combined to make five more foul shots to restore the Mavericks’ lead inside the final minute.
Clutch save for the shorthanded, superstar-less Mavericks, right? They still had plenty of time for gaffes.
Jones leaked past the Mavericks’ defense in the last 10 seconds and scored a layup in transition with 5.7 seconds remaining to cut the Mavericks’ lead to 120-119.
Hardy then made one of two free throws after the Spurs’ intentional foul and the Mavericks received extra luck when Keldon Johnson missed a pair of free throws he earned by drawing a foul at the rim against Maxi Kleber with 1.8 seconds left.
All Dallas likely needed to seal the win was a clean in-bound pass to either draw another foul or run out the final second.
Except Kleber tried to hit Wood for a cross-court pass and threw the ball out of bounds instead.
On San Antonio’s last play of regulation, Keldon Johnson cut to the rim for a game-tying dunk, forcing overtime.
Thanks to a 16-7 overtime scoring advantage, a pair of Reggie Bullock 3-pointers and perhaps the Spurs’ exhaustion on the second night of a back to back, the Mavericks pulled away in the extra five-minute period and restored their record to .500 (35-35) at the 70-game mark of the regular season.
Kidd and the Mavericks have pointed to injuries as the biggest factor in the Mavericks’ skid, but the team doesn’t appear to be nearing full health as the Los Angeles Lakers loom Friday in a clash crucial to the Mavericks’ play-in tournament standing.
Hours before missing a third consecutive game with right foot soreness, Kyrie Irving detailed the pain in his right big toe that started when he “took a wrong step” March 8 in New Orleans and “just felt like my knuckles cracked.”
“It’s going to take a little bit more time than I thought, Irving said. “It’s obviously still day to day, but just got to take more time.”
Irving is set to be a free agent this summer and referenced the importance of his health to his future -- and what’s likely to be a lucrative long-term contract.
“Just wanted to take precaution [at] this point in the season,” Irving said. “I make my whole entire living with my feet, so I’d rather be taking care of it now than be dealing with it when I’m 40 years old.”
Also inactive in San Antonio: Doncic (left thigh strain) for a third consecutive game, Hardaway Jr. (left calf contusion) after an in-game collision Monday, and Markieff Morris (left knee soreness) as a late addition to the injury report.
“It’s frustrating for any of us that are on the sideline, especially this time in the season,” Irving said. “This is where you want to be playing your best basketball and with us being such a newly developed team at this point in the season, things have to happen a lot sooner, and we’d love to be out there, including myself, but just got to get our health right first and then try to make a push to the end of the season.”
