For the fourth straight game, the Dallas Mavericks had a chance to either win or tie the score at the buzzer. And for the fourth straight game, they missed.
This time it was Naji Marshall’s corner 3-pointer sailing long (it will be interesting if the Last Two Minute Report says he got fouled; it looked close) as the Mavericks fell to the Utah Jazz 115-113 on Thursday night.
With Kyrie Irving sidelined, Luka Doncic tried to carry Dallas out of its three-game skid (now four) with 37 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, but he wasn’t quite as good as that line would indicate. As has been the case all season he struggled from 3-point range, making just four of his 13 triples to drop below 32% for the season.
He also fell asleep at the worst possible time on the defensive end, allowing John Collins to slip behind him as his back was turned to the play for what proved to be the game-winning dunk for the Jazz, who are now 3-8.
As mentioned, these last-second losses are becoming an all-too-familiar result for the 5-7 Mavericks.
On Tuesday, Doncic had a shot to tie the game vs. the Warriors with a 3-pointer at the buzzer but missed wide right. Two days before that, Irving missed what would’ve been the game-winning triple from the left wing as Dallas went down in Denver 122-120. And two days before that, Doncic’s last-second heave against Phoenix was directly on line but came up short as the Mavericks lost 114-113.
Do the math, and that’s four losses by a total of eight points. The Mavericks own a top 10 point-differential and are a plus team in the fourth quarter. Where they’re losing is in the clutch — the final five minutes when a game is within five points. Only four teams are posting a worse point differential than Dallas.
If this sounds strange for a team with two of the greatest individual creators in NBA history, it is. And it likely won’t continue. Irving has done his part down the stretch of tight games, but Doncic was under 40% from the field in clutch situations entering Thursday. Worse, the Mavericks came in with the second-worst clutch defense in the league.
It the percentages even out, the Mavericks will get some of these close wins to swing their way as the season progresses. But right now, they can’t catch break in these one-possession defeats.
