The Dallas Mavericks returned home looking to establish their first winning streak of the season. They beat the Washington Wizards on Saturday evening, but to establish that streak, they’d need to take care of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks at home.
Antetokounmpo had been playing at an MVP level, but he was really struggling early in this game. Through three quarters, he had just 15 points and 4 turnovers, as the Mavs were doing a great job of crowding him on drives and making any possible pass-outs difficult. But he also dealt with foul trouble in the first half that limited his effectiveness.
On the other side, the Mavs were turning those turnovers into easy points on the other end. For a team that’s played with pace all year, this is the first time that pace has had a purpose. They created easy baskets in transition, and although the perimeter shooting was still rough, people were able to get downhill when they needed to. And a lot of that was due to Brandon Williams being placed in the starting lineup.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Mavs had opened up a 13-point lead. Milwaukee quickly trimmed that back down to 4 a few minutes later, though, and the game was on from there. Back-to-back threes from Bobby Portis cut the lead to one with 7 minutes remaining, which was a theme for the Bucks in the early portion of the fourth, as they seemingly couldn’t miss from deep. Once Giannis Antetokounmpo hit a three to take the lead, the choke was complete, and it felt unlikely that Dallas would get it back.
However, there was a huge swing with about 3:30 remaining. With the Bucks up by 4, Giannis Antetokounmpo missed a dunk, which led to a transition corner three for Max Christie to cut the lead to one. Cooper Flagg helped the Mavs retake the lead with a few minutes remaining, and P.J. Washington missed a few open threes to extend the lead, which allowed Milwaukee to go up by three again.
