The Dallas Mavericks hope a return home will change their recent fortunes as they host the improving San Antonio Spurs on Saturday.
The Mavericks head home for the battle with their Lone Star State rivals after dropping a 115-113 setback to the Utah Jazz on Thursday. Naji Marshall misfired on a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer for the Mavericks, who have four consecutive losses by a combined eight points.
“Poise, calmness is a big thing and we’re not there yet,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “With a new group, that could be an issue early on, but there’s no better way to go through it than being able to play close games and learn from your mistakes and also learn from being able to win games.
“It’s the small details. If we can clean up some of these little things on these plays, that puts us in a better seat.”
Luka Doncic led all scorers with 37 points in the loss. Marshall scored 19 points, Klay Thompson had 17, Quentin Grimes added 15 and Daniel Gafford had 10 for the Mavericks, who played without Kyrie Irving (strained right shoulder).
Dallas was down by 14 points after three quarters and charged back, going up by two with 1:33 remaining to set up the furious finish.
“It’s adversity, man,” Marshall said. “That brings out the best in people. We’re going to run through a wall facing this adversity and get better. Later on in the season as we made the right changes, we’ll look back on this and see how far we came.”
The Spurs head north for the second game of a home-road back-to-back set after a 120-115 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. The contest was the first in NBA Cup group play for both teams.
Victor Wembanyama paced the Spurs with 28 points and 14 rebounds and Stephon Castle added 22 points. Devin Vassell had 15 points, Keldon Johnson hit for 12 and Chris Paul collected 11 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio, which saw its two-game winning streak come to a halt.
Vassell, who missed nine months with a broken foot, still is coming off the bench under a minutes restriction as he works his way back into the starting lineup.
“I’m not tripping about it as long as we are winning and playing well,” Vassell said of his reserve role.
San Antonio was down by just a possession when Castle was forced to settle for a contested, step-back 3-pointer with 12 seconds left that was rebounded by the Lakers.
San Antonio still has yet to win an NBA Cup game after going 0-4 last year.
The Spurs could have backup guard Tre Jones back in the fold for Saturday’s game. Jones has been out since Oct. 26 with an ankle injury.
“I would hope sometime very soon. I’m not sure if it’s (Saturday) or Tuesday, but I would suspect very, very soon,” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said Friday.
Dallas beat the Spurs in the teams’ first matchup this season, 120-109 at home on Oct. 24. The teams won’t play again until back-to-back games March 10 and 12 in the Alamo City.
