Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks were unable to overcome the absence of rookie starting center Dereck Lively II in a tough home loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Although the Dallas Mavericks came into Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors winners in six of their first seven contests of the season, all of those wins came in clutch situations, and the last two were 15-point comebacks. Playing from behind finally caught up with the Mavs tonight, as they ended up losing 127-116 at American Airlines Center.
Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving led the way for the Mavs, scoring 31 and 22 points, respectively, but it wasn’t enough to make up for Dallas’ porous defense with rookie big man Dereck Lively II out with an illness. Toronto had the sixth-worst offense heading into this matchup, but it certainly didn’t look like it at AAC. Doncic finished the night shooting just 11-26 overall and 2-10 from deep while also adding seven rebounds, eight assists and four steals. Irving shot 8-19 and dished out five assists.
Raptors star forward Pascal Siakam, who has been the subject of several trade rumors stretching back to last year, had struggled so far this season before playing against the Mavs. He gave Dallas fits from the opening tip throughout the end of the game and ended up with a season-high 31 points on 15-25 shooting.
The biggest takeaway from this game is that the Mavs aren’t going to be able to afford Lively missing many games this season. He missed the first game of his young career on Wednesday, and the Mavs got beat on the boards 50-38 and in the paint 72-40 as a result. Hopefully Lively will be feeling better by Friday, because a center rotation of Dwight Powell, Maxi Kleber and Richaun Holmes just isn’t going to get it done for the Mavs … especially against teams with elite length like the Raptors.
The Mavs didn’t do themselves any favors from the charity stripe either, as they went 19-31 on free throws. Losing by 11 points will hurt even worse when Dallas looks back and realizes it left 12 freebies on the table.
Next up, the Mavs take on the new-look Los Angeles Clippers at AAC on Friday in what will be their second In-Season Tournament game. The Clippers recently traded for star shooting guard James Harden to form a Big 3 with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, so Dallas’ defense will have its hands full. It will be the Mavs’ final home game before going on a four-game road trip, starting in New Orleans against the Pelicans on Sunday.
