SAN ANTONIO — — Luka Doncic finished with a triple double and the Dallas Mavericks beat the San Antonio Spurs 123-109 in NBA action on Friday night. Box Score
Doncic finished the contest with 32 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds to lead the way for Dallas, while Kristaps Porzingis also contributed heavily in the victory for the Mavericks after he finished with a season-high 32 points to go with seven rebounds and three blocks.
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Friday night win means Dallas clinched the season series against its intrastate rival after collecting its third consecutive win over San Antonio in the season’s first 12 games.
“Playing with Luka is extremely easy,” Porzingis said. “He takes so much pressure off everybody else. Makes everybody else better and get more open looks.”
Jalen Brunson scored 17 points off the bench and Dorian Finney-Smith ended with 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals for the Mavericks (8-4) who rebounded from 117-107 defeat the Chicago Bulls two days ago. It was also their fourth win in five games.
“Just trying to learn from our losses,” forward Finney-Smith said. “Last game we got punched in the mouth in the third quarter. This game, we wanted to come out and learn from our mistakes and come out and hit them in the face.”
Meanwhile, Devin Vassell finished with 20 points to pilot San Antonio (4-8) which was losing for the second time in three games and the fourth in the last six overall.
Dejounte Murray and Keldon Johnson each had 15 points with the latter also grabbing nine rebounds, while Doug McDermott added 14 for the Spurs.
Drew Eubanks contributed 12 points and eight boards and Lonnie Walker IV had 10 points and seven rebounds for San Antonio, which has failed to win consecutive games this season, despite closing on a 20-9 run to trim the gap on Friday night.
“They’re aggressive, they’re going to use their length and get out in passing lanes,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “We felt we had to take care of the ball and we did that tonight in the first half as well as the second half.”
The Spurs played without starting center Jakob Poeltl, who remains under the league’s Health and Safety Protocols.
“We miss Jak,” Vassell said. “It’s evident, we’re playing small. As for right now, we’ve got to adjust.”
Dallas Mavericks: Host Denver on Monday.
San Antonio Spurs: At Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
