Second home win for Dallas Mavericks (2-1)! After a shootout in halftime one, the Mavs took the upper hand thanks to a brave performance by Maxi Kleber in the final section. Dallas wins 115:109 (BOXSSCORE) against the Chicago Bulls (0-3).
Kris Dunn made his season debut with Windy City guests after missing the first two games due to the birth of his first child. The Point Guard was allowed to play together with Zach LaVine, Justin Holiday, Bobby Portis and Rookie Wendell Carter Jr. right from the start.
On the Mavs side, Head Coach Rick Carlisle did not make any changes in the top five, so Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews, Dorian Finney-Smith, DeAndre Jordan and No.3-Pick Luka Doncic started.
The latter, after his good performance, started again against the Timberwolves. The Slovenian showed his whole package: impressive ball handling, strong drives and safe stepback-threes. In the transition, Doncic also pulled the trigger from downtown once in a while, bringing the Mavs into the lead for the first time after almost five minutes.
But Dallas simply couldn’t find a remedy on the other side against Zach LaVine and Jabari Parker. The two did with the Mavs defense what they wanted, straight Parker came several times much too easily to the basket. And LaVine? He was on fire anyway! Just two minutes before the half-time break, the 23-year-old had his first miss – and that from the free-throw line.
But in the first half he stayed out of the field perfectly (6/6 FG) and had 18 points on his account. However, the Mavs held up well thanks to the also strong offense. So the Mavs and Bulls delivered themselves in the first 24 minutes a Shootout, in which no team with more than 5 points could set off.
It continued to be similarly balanced after the page change. Although both teams didn’t hit as well as in the first half, neither the Bulls nor the Mavs were able to pull away. Only when J.J. Barea sunk a long threesome in the final seconds of the third quarter did the momentum seem to shift in favour of the Mavs.
Especially thanks to Maxi Kleber, who had another triple at the beginning of the final section, shortly after the German set the exclamation mark with a reverse dark on a 16:4 run of the Mavericks. Dallas was now in front with 10 counters. A little later Doncic took advantage of another turnover of the Bulls and took the Mavs away in transition to 109:95.
Chicago couldn’t recover from that. Although the Bulls tried everything to make the game exciting again, they were always in the way with some ball losses. Despite another strong performance from LaVine, who scored 34 points (11/15 FG), Chicago still has to wait for their first win of the season.
In the Mavs, Wesley Matthews was the best scorer with 20 points, but Doncic (19 and 6 rebounds), DeAndre Jordan (18 and 16) and Kleber (12 and 5) all made a strong performance as well.
Dallas Mavericks vs. Chicago Bulls 115:109 (BOXSCORE)
Maxi Glue. At the start of the fourth quarter, the German brought a lot of energy onto the floor – and a hot hand from downtown, which the Mavs had missed a bit after a rather mixed third quarter. Kleber was very active both offensively and defensively in this phase. No wonder coach Carlisle trusted Kleber during crunchtime. He again thanked them with important points on one side and a strong block against LaVine on the other.
Kris Dunn. The Bull’s Point Guard made his season debut with a little light and more shade. Although 9 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds read not too badly, his rhythm was still missing every trace. Only 4 of his 13 attempts found their way through the cage, to top it all off, he collected his sixth foul shortly before the end and had to bench in Crunchtime.
After the shootout in the first half, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle apparently found the right words in the half-time break. Dallas played with increased intensity after the change of sides, which mainly affected the turnovers of the guests. The Bulls gave up the spalding 19 times in total, most of it in the last 24 minutes. Although Chicago still hit more than 50 percent out of the field, the guests sent 13 litters less than Dallas. This was due not only to the loss of the ball, but also to the high pace that the Mavs had to maintain throughout the match.