It had been a solid two games since the Mavericks had an injury scare, so naturally, they were due for more health issues on Sunday afternoon.
Late in the third quarter of their 125-116 loss to the Phoenix Suns, the Mavericks watched Dwight Powell and Kessler Edwards – two of their last big men standing – ran into each other head to head. Both headed to the locker room although Edwards would return with 6:05 left in the fourth quarter.
And so, the narrative of this season continued.
The Mavericks played a substantial amount of the fourth quarter with just seven healthy bodies and none of them were taller than 6-7 Naji Marshall.
Phoenix feasted in the paint and the Mavericks simply did not have enough bulk to put up any resistance.
And yet, they were only down 108-100 early in the fourth quarter after a Max Christie three-pointer. That’s when the Suns turned on the jets and their lead grew to 118-102 with 4:35 to go.
The Mavericks are clinging to the 10th spot in the Western Conference, which is the last spot that will qualify for the play-in tournament.
The Suns, now 30-34, are closing in on the 32-33 Mavs, who fell below .500 for the first time since they were 6-7 in mid-November.
The Mavericks were led by Marshall with 34 points, the second game in a row he’s established a career high after pouring in 29 points Friday against Memphis. Marshall also had 10 assists and nine rebounds. Klay Thompson added 26 points. Devin Booker had 24 points and Kevin Durant had 21 for Phoenix.
Interestingly, it was Powell who tried to get the Mavericks jump-started early in the fourth quarter with a tough layup and then blocking Durant from behind before Marshall scored to cut the Suns’ lead to 93-84. But then Powell got a defensive rebound and ran into Edwards, bumping heads.
It’s the story of the season, pure and simple.
Before Sunday’s game, coach Jason Kidd had said that with the Mavericks’ severely shorthanded, opponents were making a point to smother Klay Thompson, who can turn a game around when he gets on a scoring tear.
That’s what he did in the third quarter against the Suns.
Thompson was off kilter in the first half, hitting just 2-of-10 shots. But he hit nine consecutive points for the Mavericks early in the third quarter to bring them within 74-68 after they had trailed by 13 moments earlier.
But the Suns stayed in control primarily because they were dominating the Mavericks in the rebounding department. By the middle of the third quarter, they had more than doubled them on the glass, 31 rebounds to 14.
Briefly: Kidd said before the game that the Mavericks’ injury situation is giving a lot of players some unique opportunities. Defenses are loading up on Klay Thompson and for that reason, others have scoring opportunities. “They’re going to take away Klay anyway,” Kidd said. “So just for the sake of the team, hopefully they don’t take away Klay and we can get some easy looks for him. But it’s a team game. We got to generate shots. Someone has to be able to touch the paint with the ball . . . and we got to be able to knock down open shots. They might not focus on B-Will (Brandon Williams) and he can have 30. (Kessler) Edwards, they’re going to give him that three. So this is a great opportunity to take those shots and knock them down.” . . .
