Even with Luka Doncic out the past three games, the Dallas Mavericks have figured out a way forward and figure to be comfortable with whatever options they have available on a visit to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
The Mavericks have won two of the three games Doncic missed with a sprained right ankle, including a 125-120 victory at home Monday over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Doncic has been upgraded to questionable for Wednesday’s game.
Kyrie Irving has averaged 39.7 points in the three games without Doncic, and on Monday, he worked with a new scoring partner. Not only did Irving deliver 42 points, Tim Hardaway Jr. added 41 as Dallas had two players with at least 40 in a game for the second time in its history.
The only other time the Mavericks pulled off the 40-40 feat was in March of last season when Irving paired with Doncic.
“Timmy was huge for us, he kept us in there, he made some big shots, but Ky was steady the whole afternoon,” coach Jason Kidd said. “(Irving) just took what the defense gave him. He’s been leading us and guys are following and he puts us in a position to win.”
Hardaway has just a handful of starts this season, with three of them coming in place of the injured Doncic.
“He’s the substitute teacher right now in the starting lineup and he’s being a pro about it,” Kidd said. “(Monday) was a perfect example of that.”
Dallas went 5-2 on an extended home stretch and now hits the road for a quick, two-game trip.
After a rough December since winning the NBA in-season tournament, the Lakers are starting to emerge again. Los Angeles was just 3-10 in a stretch that ended Jan. 5 but is 3-2 since — including victories over two of the top teams in the West, the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
In Monday’s 112-105 victory over the Thunder, the Lakers found some success while returning to the starting lineup they had at the beginning of the season. That meant a pairing of D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves in the backcourt.
While Anthony Davis led the Los Angeles charge with 27 points and 15 rebounds, Russell had 14 points with six assists and Reaves had 15 points with a team-high seven assists. The Lakers shot 52.4 percent from the field and the active backcourt held the Thunder 30.6 percent from 3-point range on a whopping 49 attempts.
“Just wanted to put as much skill and shot-making on the floor around our two captains,” said Lakers coach Darvin Ham, who also had Taurean Prince start alongside stars Davis and LeBron James.
“Those five, they’ve been pretty much our most consistent guys. … For the foreseeable future, that’s gonna be our lineup, barring any type of injury.”
With the starters apparently settled, the Lakers now will work on bagging as many victories as they can with six consecutive games in Los Angeles. The team is 1-0 in that stretch that leads into a six-game road trip when the Grammy Awards take over their building.
“This was a huge game for us to win,” Russell said. “And the next few that are coming up, big wins for us to get, to just go into that road trip with some rhythm and flow.”
–Field Level Media