Kyrie Irving’s strong fourth quarter puts the Mavericks ahead 129-119 over the Hawks

The Dallas Mavericks played their second straight night at the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. To make up for Sunday’s overtime loss to the Miami Heat, Dallas would need to shed some key pieces as they were without Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes and Dante Exum.

Because of those absences, the Mavs started Kyrie Irving, Jaden Hardy, Naji Marshall and Dereck Lively II, while Atlanta started Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson and Clint Capela.

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It took over two minutes for the Mavericks to finally get on the field when Naji Marshall stormed the lane for a lay-in. That slow start allowed Atlanta to take an early 12-4 lead as Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson each had five early points. Dallas’ offense had just a sluggish opening frame, taking care of the basketball with eight turnovers in the first quarter, including three by Jaden Hardy. The floaters lost to PJ Washington a few games ago didn’t fall early, and Atlanta consistently made good shots and built an 11-point lead late in the first quarter.

Atlanta took a 31-18 lead with a few minutes left in the quarter, but Dallas closed the game on a 10-0 run and cut the lead to three points early in the second quarter after Naji Marshall hit a three-pointer late in the clock .

The Mavericks scored nine points in the opening minutes of the second quarter and cut the Hawks’ lead to one point after a corner kick by Marshall. Then Spencer Dinwiddie gave the Mavs a 39-38 lead with two free throws. Their run was fueled by getting to the free throw line and playing from the inside out.

Dallas extended their lead to six several times in the final six minutes of the second quarter, taking advantage of some strong defensive moments from Jaden Hardy, but they were unable to extend that lead. With just over a minute left, Atlanta tied the game with free throws from Jalen Johnson, and then Trae Young fired a floater downfield to give the Hawks a 63-61 lead. This time it was Atlanta that closed the quarter on a strong run, using a 12-0 run to take a 67-61 halftime lead.

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The Hawks immediately extended the lead to 11 and began the second half with Zaccharie Riscoher’s first five points of the game, forcing Jason Kidd to call an early second half timeout. But Dallas wouldn’t be dead yet, even though Dereck Lively II would miss the rest of the game with the same illness that kept Quentin Grimes from entering the game and left Kyrie Irving listed as questionable.

Sunday night’s villain became Monday night’s hero as Spencer Dinwiddie hit three straight three-pointers and PJ Washington scored under the basket to give Dallas an 88-86 lead with three minutes left in the quarter. At that point, he had 17 points on just six shot attempts, thanks to a few early free throws, which was a complete turnaround from Sunday’s performance. The Mavs would extend that lead to 96-95 in the fourth quarter.

The lead swung back and forth in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, with Kyrie Irving’s three-pointer putting Dallas ahead 106-104 with 8:18 left. Kyrie would hit two more three-pointers to extend the lead to 115-107. Atlanta called a timeout, thinking it would cool him down, but all he did on the first possession after the timeout was a three-pointer off a dribble and a fade to the left.

Irving’s hot shooting was infectious as PJ Washington fired a fake shot from the corner, extending Dallas’ lead to 121-111 with less than five minutes left.

With just over two minutes left, Atlanta would cut the lead to six and did a good job of getting quick shots when needed. But Jaden Hardy hit a tough layup through contact, PJ Washington blocked a Trae Young layup and Irving had plenty of room for a layup at the end to extend the lead to 129-119 with 49.4 seconds left. That would be all she wrote for this book, with Dallas winning.

Kyrie Irving was lethal in the 4th quarter, scoring 16 of his 32 points in the final frame to help Dallas win. However, it wasn’t just him. Spencer Dinwiddie responded after a terrible game on Sunday by scoring a season-high 22 points, Jaden Hardy scored a season-high 23 points and Naji Marshall scored another 22 points for his third straight 20-point game, the longest streak of his career.

Dallas shot 16/35 from three in this game but shot 6/9 in the fourth quarter to get them into this game while Atlanta was just 9/21 from deep.

Jalen Johnson led the Hawks with 28 points and 11 rebounds, Trae Young had 18 points and 16 assists, Bogdan Bogdanovic responded after foul trouble in the first half and finished with 18 points, and Dyson Daniels had 17 points.

The Mavericks return home to play the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, and Dallas is hoping the boys will have overcome their illnesses by then.

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