The Toronto Raptors have lost their last contest on a five-game through the West. Luka Doncic and his Dallas Mavericks were better, handing the fourth loss of the season to the champs, 110-102.
Doncic was just too much for the tired guests, who didn’t have the energy to stop him. The reigning Rookie of the Year scored 26 points, had 15 boards and 7 assists.
“(Doncic) can do it all,” said Fred VanVleet. “He’s a threat at every level, mid-range and 3, and kicking out to his teammates. Thought we did a good job on him tonight, just couldn’t keep him off the free-throw line.
Meanwhile, Nick Nurse wasn’t happy with the officiating criteria mand he was pretty straightforward once explaining why.
“I thought that he got all his points from the foul line. I thought he was treated very well tonight,” Nurse told the reporters.
Indeed, Doncic visited the free-throw line 19 times tonight, hitting the basket on 15 occasions.
The guests opened the game better, creating a 10-3 lead early on. But it didn’t last for too long, with hosts waking up and starting to pound. They reached a double-digit lead at the end of the first and kept it until the midway of the same period.
A 10-0 run of the Raptors leveled the score, and soon after that, the champions were the ones who held the lead. The result at the halftime break was 60-53. For the second time in this game, Nurse’s team quickly lost the edge, due to Mavs’ superb start of the second half. Hosts made a 13-2 run and the game became close in those moments, with teams trading buckets. Dallas had a one-point lead coming into the final quarter, which they’ve extended to 7 in no time. For more than three minutes, the guests were on a scoring drought, allowing the Mavs to get away to 98-84. But even despite this situation, they had a chance to come back.
When Norman Powell scored a two-pointer with 2:08 to go, Raptors came down to 102-100. However, in the next minute and a half, Dallas posted 8 unanswered points, to seal this event.
One of the reasons for this loss was Pascal Siakam’s under-average performance. The Raptors’ forward had just 15 points shooting 6 for 24 from the field, 2 for 10 behind the three-point line. He was more oriented to assisting his teammates and recorded 7 dimes.
According to Doncic, this was all because of Maxi Kleber, who guarded the Most Improved Player of 2019.
“We did a great job on Pascal Siakam. Maxi did a great job, especially.”
Powell had 26 points and 6 boards, shooting threes 6 for 8, while VanVleet added 24 with 7 assists.
For the hosts, besides Luka, Kristaps Porzingis had an excellent evening with 20 buckets and 15 boards. Seth curry had 15, same as Delon Wright coming off the bench.
Up next, the Mavs are hosting the San Antonio Spurs this Monday, while on the other side, the Raptors are finally heading back home after a long journey. They will play against the Charlotte Hornets on Monday also.
