The Dallas Mavericks won their first home game of the season 116: 106 against the Houston Rockets, for which Luka Doncic provided with 28 points and 14 rebounds.
Dallas Mavericks (2-1) – Houston Rockets (1-3) 116:106 (BOXSCORE)
Doncic also played 7 assists in 4 turnovers and also fell defensively with a spectacular block against Alperen Sengun, only the success of Downtown (1/6) remained.Tim Hardaway Jr. and Reggie Bullock (4/9 3P) each contributed 16 points, Jalen Brunson (11 assists) and Boban Marjanovic (5/5 FG) each came from the bench to 11 points. Maxi Kleber had 9 points and 7 rebounds in 3 fouls in 16 minutes.
For Kristaps Porzingis, however, the next mixed workday (9, 2/10 FG, 3 rebounds) ended early in the third quarter, the forward had to struggle with lower back problems, according to his team. “KP is okay, we’ll look further tomorrow,” said Jason Kidd at the subsequent press conference, and added: “The other Big Men all played very well today.”
Kidd put all of his 15 available players in before the last quarter began and let them all play for at least three minutes. The head coach revealed that three of the leading players on the team had asked him the day before to use all 15 players. “That was a wonderful thing,” said Kidd of the matter.
In the Rockets, the starters played significantly more minutes, but the top scorer was Sixth Man Eric Gordon with 22 points in 7/11. Christian Wood put on a big double-double with 16 points and 17 rebounds, Daniel Theis followed with 15 and 10 (4 offensive rebounds). Rookie Jalen Green paid a lot of money with 4/16 from the field and only 1 assist, just like Sengun (5 points in 14 minutes).
Maxi Kleber and Daniel Theis with good games
The Rockets got off to a better start and gained a 17:12 lead with a threesome through Theis, before Boban Marjanovic made the best use of his first minutes of the season and delighted the fans in Dallas with seven points in the first quarter (31:27 for Houston) .
In the middle of the second section, only Kleber’s throws found their target on the Mav’s side, but the 29-year-old immediately sank his second and third threesome. A little later, Theis also intervened on the other side, with seven points in the last 80 seconds and a powerful fast break dunk for the 60:57 lead of the Rockets at the break.
However, the Mavs shot out of the locker room with a 13-0 run in four minutes, pinning Jae’Sean Tate, who was often used as the primary defender against Doncic, his fifth foul of the game. Dallas was in control from this point on and allowed only 18 points in the last section, which meant that the Rockets could no longer make the game close.
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