Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic lead Mavericks past Spurs

SAN ANTONIO – Kyrie Irving scored 28 points, Luka Doncic had 18 points, 16 assists, and 10 rebounds, and the Dallas Mavericks held off the San Antonio Spurs 113-107 on Tuesday night.

Doncic shot 6 of 27 from the field but still finished with his eighth triple-double in 10 games, helping Dallas win a game critical to its playoff hopes. It was just the sixth time in his career he’s shot worse than 25% while playing regular minutes.

“Yes, it does count as a ‘W,’” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “Not all wins are pretty.”

Dallas (40-29) trails Sacramento (39-28) by percentage points for sixth place in the Western Conference and the final automatic playoff berth.

Tre Jones scored 22 points and Devin Vassell added 19 points for San Antonio. Victor Wembanyama had 12 points, 11 rebounds, and six blocks for his 37th double-double.

“We made all kinds of mistakes, but so did they and they want to win a championship,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Our goal is to get better every game individually and team-wise, and they did that. I’m really proud of what they did.”

The Mavs swept their fourgame season series against the Spurs after winning the first three by an average of 18.3 points. Irving and Doncic were critical in the final minutes of the closely contested finale.

“For us not to shoot the ball well, we relied on our defense to help us get this win,” Kidd said. “San Antonio is a team that puts a lot of pressure on your defense. I thought the guys did a really good job on Victor and Vassell.”

After trailing by 13 points in the first half, San Antonio had 11-0 runs to open the third quarter as well as early in the fourth. The latter run gave the Spurs a 95-93 lead with 6:57 remaining. /