when their defense arrived back from
Allstar break about an hour after
everybody else the Mavericks started
their stretch drive toward the playoffs
with a bang Thursday night the Mavericks
sent notice to the Phoenix Suns and the
rest of the teams in the Western
Conference that are ahead of them that
the Mavs are not to be discounted as put
up or shut up time arrives in the NBA
season with Luca donic and Kyrie Irving
on their way to a combined 70 points the
Mavericks overwhelmed the Suns in the
second half and took a 123 to 113
victory at American Airlines Center in
the first game after the weeklong break
that typically signifies the beginning
of the Sprint to the regular season
Finish Line the Mavericks won for the
seventh consecutive time after closing
the pre-break portion of the season with
six wins amazing I think we have an
amazing team said donic about the way
the Mavericks have come together in the
past 2 weeks seven in a row hasn't
happened for a while so I'm very happy
with the guys we have on our team in
fact seven consecutive victories ties
for the longest streak for the Mavericks
since
20101 they also won seven in a row in
the 20121 22 season it feels good Irving
said we just want to keep it up there's
definitely more to improve on at 33 to
23 they pulled even with the suns in the
west standing in plus they earned the
tiebreaker should the teams end up with
identical records by winning the season
series two games to one donic finished
with 41 points 11 assists and nine
rebounds while Irving had 29 Points five
rebounds and three assists Devin Booker
was terrific for the Suns with 35 points
and eight assists in a losing effort it
was a night that completely turned at
the start of the second half the
Mavericks couldn't slow down Booker
Kevin Durant and friends in the first
half but they kept themselves in the
sun's Shadow then they started the third
quarter by forcing three missed shots
and two turnovers hit five quick
three-pointers as part of a 16 to0 Blitz
that supplied a
76-63 lead it was no Breeze from there
but the Mavericks never lost the lead
and they are busting out some new
defensive schemes to work on before the
postseason gets here Luca got his hands
on a couple deflections coach Jason kid
said of the third quarter turnaround
being able to rotate we're looking at
something new defensively and I thought
the guys did a really good job of doing
that there were maybe a couple mistakes
here and there but no one got upset the
maturity of our group you could see we
getting better I thought it was a great
effort start to finish part of the new
defensive look as geared to newcomers PJ
Washington and Daniel Gafford but it
also includes a heavy usage of Maxi kber
who played the majority of the second
half in a bigger lineup with either
Gafford or Derek Lively to Maxi
defensively he's the anchor kid said he
kind of sets everybody up and
understands the rotations