The Dallas Mavericks will aim for their seventh straight win when they play the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night.
Both teams come into the game after experiencing very different outcomes in their games on Thursday.
Dallas won 137-101 against the Washington Wizards to start a three-game road trip. They have now won 10 of their last 11 games.
On the other hand, the Raptors had their four-game home winning streak ended by a 129-92 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Luka Dončić recorded his first triple-double of the season in the Mavericks’ win, finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. This was his 78th career triple-double, tying him with Wilt Chamberlain and James Harden for seventh place in NBA history.
“I finally got one,” Dončić said. “Just to be up there mentioned with those great names, it’s unbelievable to me. I never take it for granted.”
Kyrie Irving led the Mavericks with 25 points, even though he played just 25 minutes. Dončić played 32 and a half minutes in a game where the Mavericks led by as many as 42 points. Eight Mavericks players scored in double digits.
“First of all, I think we have a lot of depth,” Dončić said. “Anybody that steps on the court can produce a lot of things. Everybody knows their role. Chemistry, I think, is one of the most important things in teams like this. And we have it. Everybody gets along. And it’s just fun to play with these guys on the floor.”
In addition, Dončić had two steals and one block.
“When you talk about Luka’s ability to have the handprint that he can have on the game in a sense of passing, rebounding and scoring, he does all three things at a very high level,” said Dallas coach Jason Kidd. “Right now, he’s shooting the ball extremely well, and when he sees the double-team, he understands, as the quarterback, who’s open and how he can get the ball to them, and he’s done that at a high level.”
The Raptors can take lessons from the Thunder’s dominant performance. Oklahoma City had 15 steals and forced Toronto into 20 turnovers.
“Sometimes we make turnovers recklessly, and sometimes it’s because of the other defense,” said Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic. “I felt tonight it was their defense. They made us turn the ball over, so there’s going to be a lot of good film for us to learn from this.”
The Raptors were also missing Jakob Poeltl, who was out with an illness. Jonathan Mogbo stepped up in Poeltl’s place, scoring a career-high 17 points off the bench.
“(Poeltl is) really good for us in pick and rolls, setting screens, freeing up people,” Rajakovic said. “He’s just like settling force for us but, to be honest with you, it was really good for me tonight to see Jonathan Mogbo in an expanded role in, you know, in different matchups. He started in the second half and I thought that he had an overall good game tonight. But yeah, we missed (Poeltl) tonight.”
RJ Barrett also had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Raptors, achieving his fifth double-double of the season. Scottie Barnes added 12 points and 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year.
