Mavs rally late to win
11-point run by Dallas rookie Doncic turns promising lead into another loss
DALLAS — Game on the line and in desperate need of a victory, the Rockets turned to their been-there, donethat stars, armed with an eight-point lead and a headwind.
But the Dallas Mavericks had a teenaged rookie and all they needed.
The Rockets had not won a close game for nearly two weeks, but with less than three minutes left, led by eight as James Harden and Chris Paul looked for the shot to finish the Mavericks on Saturday.
When they came up empty, Luka Doncic took overand scored 11 unanswered points, propelling the Mavericks to a 107-104 victory and sending the Rockets to a third consecutive loss, their second winless road trip of the past two weeks.
“It’s tough,” guard Eric Gordon said. “They hit some tough shots towards the end of the game, and we weren’t really scoring at the end. That was really the name of it; they were converting, we weren’t.”
Harden had beaten Doncic off the dribble for a layup, putting the Rockets up by six points with 4:54 left. On the next possession, Paul took the rookie off the dribble for a mid-range jumper and an eight-point lead, the Rockets’ largest of the game.
The Rockets still led by eight heading into the final three minutes, but Doncic had yet to arrive.
Doncic, who had made one of his first nine shots, hit a couple buckets to get going, but had not yet even hinted at the run that would come.
He started with a corner 3-pointer, then kept pouring them in while the Rockets came up empty. Harden missed a 3-pointer. After Dallas guard Wesley Matthews missed and DeAndre Jordan pulled in his 18th of 20 rebounds, Doncic hit another 3. Paul missed a pair of free throws and Doncic drove to the basket, tying the game with 1:34 remaining.
“The first thing I’d like to do different is make my free throws,” said Paul, who had 23 points and eight assists. “We were up two. Throws would have put us up four. They come down and scored. They hit some step-backs. We just didn’t execute.”
When Harden again missed from deep, the Mavs’ rookie moved to unstoppable. He put in his step-back 3-pointer over the reach of Rockets center Clint Capela with 57.3 seconds remaining, completing his own 11-0 run in less than two minutes.
Harden, who had 35 points with eight assists, finished a drive. But when Jalen Brunson cut backdoor for a layup, Dallas was back up by three with 24.8 seconds left and the Rockets looked for 3s.
Gordon missed with 18.8 seconds left, but the Rockets had no complaints with the quality of shots they attempted.
“They didn’t go,” Paul said. “I think we got some good looks, myself, James, Gordie. You got to give them credit. Doncic made some big shots.”
With fives seconds left, Gordon drove, passed to Nene and then took off to the corner. Nene returned the ball to him there, but Gordon missed.
“It was a good look, a little bit off balance,” Gordon said. “That’s all you want, a good opportunity toward the end. I knew we needed a 3. I could have easily got a layup, but it would have done nothing. I kicked it out to (Nene) so I could get out for a 3. It’s all about getting that opportunity to get a shot off.”
Down the stretch, however, when the Mavs got the shots they had to make, they did, with a rookie burnishing his glowing reputation and the 11-14 Rockets returning home alone in 14th place in the Western Conference.
“They made some tough shots,” Harden said. “We missed some opportunities.”