Mavericks halt streaking Nets missing Durant, Irving
LOS ANGELES: Luka Doncic scored 27 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 115-98 NBA victory in Brooklyn Saturday, snapping the short-handed Nets’ eight-game winning streak.
James Harden scored 29 points for the Nets but ran out of steam late as he carried the load in the absence of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Durant missed his seventh game with a strained left hamstring while Irving sat out to rest his surgically repaired right shoulder.
Harden had just four points in the second half, sitting out most of the fourth quarter in which Dallas led by as many as 22.
The Mavs were buoyed by the return of Kristaps Porzingis, who scored 18 points in his first contest since missing three games with back trouble.
Brooklyn remained half a game behind Eastern Conference leaders Philadelphia, who fell 112-109 to the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime in a rare home defeat.
Guard Collin Sexton scored 28 points and Darius Garland added 25 with nine assists for the Cavaliers, who came into the contest missing half a dozen players due to injury or personal reasons.
Despite having just nine players in uniform, Cleveland led 28-23 after the first quarter and 56-47 at halftime.
The league-leading Utah Jazz wasted no time in bouncing back from a disorganised defeat to the Miami Heat, cruising past the Magic 124-109 in Orlando.
Donovan Mitchell scored 25 of his 31 points in the second half as the Jazz improved to 27-7.