Luka Doncic‘s “What did I just witness” reaction summed up what everyone was thinking.
Dallas and Denver had a playoff-level game on Sunday afternoon with Nikola Jokic doing Jokic things (16 points and 11 rebounds), Jamal Murray hitting a big 3 in the final 30 seconds to put Denver up by three, and then Doncic answering with a 3 of his own to cap off a 37-point game. Dallas got the final shot but defended it well, forcing Kyrie Irving into a 21-foot left-handed floater or hook shot over Jokic at the buzzer and… it’s the shot of the year.
As noted above, Doncic’s reaction sumps it up.
Irving finished with 24 on the night plus nine assists. Dereck Lively II added 14 off the bench for Dallas, but this was a top-heavy night for their scoring. Give them credit to Dallas for sticking to a well-designed game plan as a team and attacking Denver the right ways.
The Nuggets can try to write this off as just one of those nights. Murray and Jokic combined to shoot 13-of-36 on the night (36.1%) and a good rebounding Nuggets team got outworked on the glass. Michael Porter Jr. scored 20 for the Nuggets while Aaron Gordon had 11.
With the win, the Mavericks move into a three-way tie with the Kings and Suns for the 6-8 seeds in the West (all of them are three games up on the Warriors and Lakers in the 9-10 spots). Every win matters for Dallas and beating Denver is a huge one. With the loss, the Nuggets slide half-a-game back of the Thunder (and still half a game ahead of Minnesota) in the race for the No. 1 seed in the West.
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