Cavaliers at Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks continue to put up a good fight before falling just short, leading to losses in seven straight and 12 of the last 13 games. The Mavericks will try to get over the hump and back into the win column when they host the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.
Dallas' last five losses came by single digits and the last three were against playoff teams from the Western Conference, capped by a 100-99 setback at Denver on Thursday in which Nuggets star Nikola Jokic knocked in a buzzer-beater to give his team the win. "The effort was great," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle told reporters. "It's just getting over the hump is where we've got to get to." The Cavaliers are in the race to earn one of the worst three records in the NBA and therefore give itself the best chance in the draft lottery and were crushed 120-91 at Orlando on Thursday. "I thought (Orlando) came out and set the tone early and we didn't respond," Cavaliers coach Larry Drew told reporters. "That was disappointing. A message about this game is how they came out. And we knew they would come out with a sense of urgency, but we just didn’t respond."
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Cleveland), FS Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (17-52): Cleveland briefly found a groove after star forward Kevin Love came back from a foot injury, but he could not overcome early foul trouble against Orlando on Thursday and finished with 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting in 24 minutes. "I was poo," Love told reporters. "With a few extra o's. Nothing was happening, nothing going right. Seemed like everybody was going through that tonight. Like (guard Brandon Knight) said, he goes, 'We just need to flush this one down the toilet and move on to Saturday.'" Rookie guard Collin Sexton is finding his form toward the end of the season and averaged 26 points on 54.9 percent shooting in the last four contests.
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (27-41): Dallas star rookie Luka Doncic is shooting 70.2 percent from the free-throw line but is struggling mightily of late. The 20-year-old Slovenian went 1-of-9 from the stripe in a 112-105 loss to San Antonio on Tuesday and 3-of-7 at Denver, including a miss in the final minute that would have given the Mavericks a two-point edge. "I should have made that free throw," Doncic, who finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in the loss, told reporters. "I feel like I let my team down."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cavaliers PG Matthew Dellavedova (concussion) and PF Larry Nance Jr. (ribs) are both questionable for Saturday.
2. Mavericks rookie PG Jalen Brunson averaged 27 points while going 20-of-31 from the floor in the last two games.
3. Dallas earned a 111-98 victory at Cleveland behind 35 points from Doncic on Feb. 2.