Mavs Thanksgiving Leftovers: 3 Key Stats from Last-Second Win Over Lakers

The Dallas Mavericks are spending Thanksgiving in Hollywood, and they already had a pre-Thanksgiving meal by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in clutch fashion on Wednesday night. But like with every great Thanksgiving feast, there are leftovers to be had later, and today, DallasBasketball.com brings you three key stats from the Mavs’ thrilling win over the Lakers that are ready to be reheated.

The Mavs shot 39.6 percent from the field … and still won. It was by far Dallas’ worst shooting performance of the season, and yet, Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic made several big plays in the closing minutes of the game to help the Mavs secure the 104-101 win – their 10th in 15 games to start this season.

A big reason for the Mavs’ shooting percentage dropping under 40 percent was the cold streak they experienced to start the fourth quarter. After having a 91-71 lead when the final frame began, Dallas only scored two points in a span of six minutes. Meanwhile, LeBron James, who continues to defy Father Time and leads the league in fourth-quarter scoring, spearheaded the Lakers’ comeback attempt with 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.

Being on a second night of a back-to-back, the Lakers tried to muck things up for the Mavs on offense, and they succeeded before Irving put Dallas up for good with a clutch 3-pointer with 21 seconds remaining. After Irving tacked on two more free throws, James missed a game-tying attempt from deep at the buzzer, and that was that.

Irving was, by far, the best Mavs starter on Wednesday, being a +14 in the boxscore plus/minus in 35 minutes. Although Doncic finished with 30 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and two steals on the night, he was a -11 for the game, and the only other positive starter aside from Irving was Dereck Lively II, who was a +1 in 19 minutes before leaving the game in the third quarter with a back contusion.

Irving finished with 28 points on 11-22 shooting from the field, 4-8 from deep and 2-2 from the free-throw line. On top of scoring the Mavs’ final five points when they were down 101-99, the eight-time All-Star also grabbed six rebounds and two steals on the night. After starting the season off slow by his standards, Irving is now averaging 24.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game while shooting 47.6 percent overall and 39.5 percent from deep.

“Resilience and no fear attitude,” Irving said in his postgame interview. “We knew that we had them against the ropes. We should have won by a little bit more, but they’re a great team, and you have to give them credit.

In 23 minutes as the first reserve big off the bench against the Lakers, Richaun Holmes (10 rebounds) doubled Dwight Powell’s rebounding total over his last four games (five rebounds). Jason Kidd made the decision to give Holmes an early opportunity, and it ended up working out great for Dallas, as Holmes finished with four points to go with his 10 rebounds and one block. He also helped hold Anthony Davis to just 10 points on 4-10 shooting on the night.

“We talked about that in the locker room, I thought [Holmes] played great for us on both ends, both offensively and defensively,” Kidd said. “Again, we were going with him instead of [Powell] tonight, and I thought he responded in a positive way. He helped, he really helped us win this game tonight.”

Lively claims to be fine after sustaining his back contusion, but we should find out more about his status after Friday’s practice. If the rookie big man has to miss time, Holmes appears to be in the driver’s seat to be the fill-in starter at center going forward.

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