Dallas Mavericks prove just how bad they need Luka Doncic

The Dallas Mavericks gave up one of the biggest leads in franchise history to a team without their best player. There is no silver lining to this one as Dallas fell apart throughout the entire 4th quarter.

This one is going to hurt for awhile. The Dallas Mavericks had a chance to have a winning record against the powerhouse teams of the East and they blew it faster than I actually thought possible. Dallas played against the Toronto Raptors this afternoon and held a 30-point lead with just over two minutes to go in the third quarter.

You read that right. The Mavs were outscored by 33 points in the final 14 minutes of game time and beaten by a Pascal Siakam-less, Marc Gasol-less Raptors team. Kyle Lowry was held in check for three quarters as well before exploding in the fourth and nearly outscoring the entire Mavs team. Dallas only scored 21, though, so that’s not playing much.

There really is no silver lining to this one. The Mavs played well in the middle two quarters, but they got off to a slow start and finished even slower and it cost them.

The biggest area of concern was the press break. Like the zone defense has been against the 76ers, the press could be a similar issue for the Mavs who gave up several easy baskets because they couldn’t beat the trap.

if you take away the fourth quarter, the Mavs had some good performances. Kristaps Porzingis had another double-double, Jalen Brunson had 21 points and nine assists and all five starters finished in double-digits. They gave up a lot of easy buckets and went stagnant on offense in the late game and Dallas now has double-digit losses.

There’s not much more that can be said other than the Mavericks need Luka Doncic back desperately. They have played well, but the losses to the Heat and Raptors both could have been wins with someone, anyone, ready to close a game. That’s where Luka comes into play.

Luka could have a chance to play as soon as Thursday as reports came out today that he may be ready to go by then. I still wouldn’t count on it, but the Mavs need him badly so we can just hope for now.