The Warriors lost in Atlanta and the Jazz in Charlotte. Out of the corner of their eye, the Mavs saw how Friday’s day was bending to their interests, perhaps the push they needed to turn their game around in Minneapolis. But no: it was not the night of the Texans either, that days after beating the Wolves by a hair they were overwhelmed (116-95 at the end, 102-78 midway through the fourth quarter) by a team on the rise and fighting to escape play in: 43-32 for the Denver Nuggets 43-31. millimeter
Loss has two readings for the Dallas Mavericks, depending on whether they want to look forward or backward: The Wolves are now 2 1/2 games away. An advantage over the playoff that should be enough with what remains… but that It forces them to keep an eye on the rearview mirror, which would have prevented them from winning this match. Ahead, they are still tied (45-29 both) with the Utah Jazz… and tomorrow a Mavs-Jazz is played in Dallas in which a good part of the options of having home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs will be aired and in what would now be that same duel in the initial series. The Nuggets and Wolves probably won’t catch up, and after tonight it’s a little more likely than yesterday that the Warriors will hold on to third place (48-26) despite the absence of Stephen Curry.
A victory in Minnesota It would have left the Mavs fourth, with the option of separating the Jazz tomorrow on their court and with the Warriors two games away. But it is that the victory didn’t appear for Jason Kidd’s men, not from a terrible third quarter (28-17) in which the rest adjustments that have so often been fundamental did not appear, nor was there fluidity in attack. The Wolves opened the gap (89-67 before the last quarter), moreover, when Karl-Anthony Towns committed the fourth foul, a factor that seemed to smile at the Mavs until it became clear that nothing would cheer the team’s gesture tonight: 39% in shots, 10/43 in triples, an issue that has been repeated in recent games. Luka Doncic finished with a 5/11 but between Dinwiddie, Finney-Smith, Kleber, Brunson and Bullock they stacked a 4/31. Thus, it is impossible. And there is no more.
Doncic finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the day and to top it off he got into a fight with Taurean Prince at the end of the third quarter and both were pointed out a technique. Doncic’s is number 15, so with one more he will have an automatic game suspension. After the matchup with the Jazz, the Mavs host the Lakers. The Slovenian doesn’t seem to work either singing songs to avoid constant trouble with the referees. And, to top it off, the always edgy (it’s his job) Patrick Beverley did the math after the game. If he had previously ensured that Doncic was the most difficult player to defend that he had faced in his entire career, then he made it clear to him that this season he had won if you looked hand in hand. In collective duels, it is a 2-2 between Mavs and Wolves.
Nobody in the Mavs accompanied too much. Dwight Powell did his usual job (13 points, 5 rebounds) in a team that continues to suffer from Maxi Kleber’s lack of confidence and aim in attackA variable plunger which has disappeared from the equation. The Wolves, a team that overwhelms when it flows in attack, it reached 116 points without any special brightness and with a balanced production: 20 points and 9 rebounds from Towns, 12+6 and 4 assists from Anthony Edwards, 15+5+8 from D’Angelo Russell…
Loss of the Jazz in Charlotte
The Jazz They weren’t good either before the direct duel, a face-to-face for fourth place, with the Mavs. They were worse than the Hornets (107-101), who are ninth in the East (38-36) with a game lead over the Hawks and one now from the Nets, in a dance in which the last three positions of the play in of the East (the first is between the Bulls, Cavaliers and Raptors).
It is the third loss in a row for some Jazz in a very little buoyant moment, far from the optimism of, for example, last regular season. Tomorrow’s game, in Dallas, seems especially important for the Salt Lake City team, who lost despite being ahead in the last quarter. Donovan Mitchell (26 points, 7 assists) missed a simple basket in the final moments, when he was looking for the overturn between points from Terry Rozier (25) and Miles Bridges (26). In addition, LaMelo Ball added 21 points and 5 assists. In the Jazz, 11 and 19 rebounds from Rudy Gobert, who lamented the 16 rebounds that the Hornets captured in attack, and good minutes from Juancho Hernangómez, who continues as a starter in the absence of Bogdanovic: 14+5 with a 4/6 in triples.