Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving put on a dazzling display as the Dallas Maverick stars combined for 85 points in their thrilling overtime victory against the Houston Rockets. The defeat means that the Rockets are now out of contention for a place in the postseason despite an impressive campaign. Elsewhere, the Milwaukee Bucks lost for the fourth time in a row against the New York Knicks.
Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving delivered a dazzling display, combining for 85 points as the Dallas Mavericks overcame the Houston Rockets in overtime to secure a thrilling 147-136 win.
Irving scored a season-high 48 points and Doncic produced 37 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds as the Mavericks recovered from trailing by 22 points at one stage.
The Mavericks completed the stunning comeback but needed a dramatic buzzer-beating three-pointer from Dante Exum to send the game into overtime.
“I’m depleted. Energetic, but I’m depleted,” Irving said after the match. “We kept battling and kept doing the little things and trusting one another.”
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd was delighted with his superstar duo as the franchise edged closer to sealing the fifth seed in the Western Conference play-offs.
“It’s just about the trust, the talk and understanding that we have each other’s back,” he said. “No matter what’s happening, if you’re not shooting well, there’s always the encouragement that you can make the next shot.
“Just understand that we’re playing for something bigger than the back of the jersey – we’re playing for one another. You can see the chemistry of the team when you look at the celebration at the end.
“Understand that it takes a long time to build that and that just doesn’t happen overnight. The beauty of Kai and Luka hugging there at the end – just the trust – those two trust in their team-mates that were out on the floor. It was huge.”
The result means that the Rockets are no longer in contention for a place in the postseason despite a streak of winning 11 consecutive games earlier this season.
“They fought back into it, and we kind of dug ourselves back out to take that late lead,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “I felt like we outplayed them for the majority of the game, and Dillon [Brooks] was a big part of that.”
Elsewhere, it was another disappointing night for the Milwaukee Bucks who slumped to a 122-109 defeat to the New York Knicks.
The Knicks rallied from a half-time deficit to claim the victory with Jalen Brunson dropping 43 points.
“The ball goes through the hoop against them,” Brunson said. “I’m averaging 37, but we’re 2-3 (against the Bucks). Before tonight, we were 1-3.
“So no matter what the points was, we weren’t getting wins. Obviously tonight we found a way to win the game. Their game plan was working for the first three of four games.”
The Bucks also lost Khris Middleton through injury in the second quarter after having his tooth knocked out due to an inadvertent collision with Knicks players Donte DiVincenzo and Isaiah Hartenstein.