Luka Doncic scored 35 points, Spencer Dinwiddie added 30 and the Dallas Mavericks stunned the top seeded Phoenix Suns with a 123-90 win in Game 7 Sunday night to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2011.
Dallas prevailed away from home after the home team won the first six games of the series, dominating in a hostile environment from start to finish. For the playoff-hardened Suns, who entered the NBA Finals with a similar roster last season, it was an embarrassing zero.
The fourth-seeded Mavericks meet Golden State in Game 1 on Wednesday.
Doncic gave the Mavs an early lead by hitting his first three shots, including two 3-pointers. That gave Dallas a 27-17 lead in the first quarter and a whopping 57-27 lead at halftime.
Doncic and Dinwiddie, who came off the bench, together contributed 48 of the Mavericks’ 57 points.
Game 7 drama? Not in the desert.
Simply put, the Suns seemed overwhelmed by the pressure of a Game 7. They missed shots they normally make, made misses they normally don’t, and looked nothing like the team that has won the NBA’s best 64 regular-season games.
By halftime, many Suns fans were booing the unsightly performance.
The series may have been close, the individual games were mostly not. Three of the first six games were decided by at least 20 points and none of the games went to final possession.
Game 7 followed a similar pattern, except that the team doing all the damage was the away team. Doncic was fantastic, scoring from every lie and scoring 12 of 19 points from the field, including 6 of 11 three-pointers. He got some help too: Dinwiddie was fantastic in the first half, scoring 21 points on 7 out of 10 shots, including 4 out of 5 from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, Phoenix’s all-star backcourt of Chris Paul and Devin Booker was never a factor. 37-year-old Paul is a 12-time All-Star who has accomplished pretty much everything in this game except win a championship.
After this setback, one can wonder if there will be many more opportunities. Booker had 11 points and hit 3 of 14. Paul had 10 points and four assists. The Suns hit just 37.9% from the field.
Dallas beat the competition with the win: Following the Celtics’ win over the Bucks on Sunday, the home team has a 110-33 (77%) record in NBA games with 7 points.
It’s the second year in a row that the Suns have lost a playoff series after leading 2-0. Last season, they won the first two games against the Bucks in the NBA Finals before losing four straight games.
TIP-INS
Mavericks: Doncic and Dinwiddie became the first teammates to score at least 20 points in a half in Game 7 since Patrick Ewing and Allan Houston did so for the Knicks in 1997, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Suns: Phoenix hit just 6 of 23 (26.1%) from field in the first quarter. … The Suns once again received a sold-out audience at the Footprint Center. Celebrities in attendance included baseball star Alex Rodriguez and rapper Lil’ Wayne. … The Suns are the second team in NBA history to win at least 64 regular-season games and not advance to the Conference Finals. The other team was the Mavericks in 2007. …Phoenix have never won a title since entering the league in 1968.
>
