2 things after the Mavericks’ disastrous 118-99 loss to the Denver Nuggets

Just as the tiniest ray of optimism crept into the locker room, the Dallas Mavericks (22-18) collapsed in on themselves like a dying star in Tuesday’s 118-99 loss to the Denver Nuggets (24-15) at American Airlines Center. Dallas has now lost eight of its last 11 games as the bad news surrounding this team begets more and more bad news. Denver, meanwhile, has won eight of its last 11.

Kyrie Irving returned after missing the team’s last five games with a back injury, but misfortune struck once again as Denver steamrolled the Mavs in the teams’ second meeting in three days. The Nuggets came back at the Mavs not once but twice in Sunday’s game, in the first half from a 17-point deficit, then again in the second half from 19 points down in a 112-101 victory in Victory Plaza.

It was Denver’s turn to get the rubber game off to a fiery start in this baseball-style series. Jamal Murray made three of his four 3-point attempts in the game’s first 5:30 to lead the Nuggets to an early 16-6 lead, but he also set up his teammates with three early assists in the game’s first eight minutes. Murray was everywhere — his mid-range fadeaway jumper gave him 11 early points and put Denver up 23-10 with 4:30 left in the first while the Mavs were still lacing up their sneakers.

To compound the trauma, Dereck Lively II left the game with 8:04 left in the first after his right foot fell on someone else’s while fighting for a rebound. As the first quarter drew to a close, the announcement came – Lively would not be returning to the game after suffering a right ankle sprain.

Murray scored a ridiculous 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the first quarter to lead Denver to a 36-21 lead at the end of one. His scoring average (19.0 points per game) entering the game would represent his lowest since the 2019-20 season, but he brought his flamethrower to Dallas on Tuesday.

The Mavericks missed their first six 3-point attempts before Klay Thompson finally hit one with just over nine minutes left in the second. PJ Washington found Thompson open on the wing after bringing the loose ball on his own missed floater that was wildly off target to pull Dallas within 43-25. But even that early in the game, the writing on the wall was clearly visible to everyone in the building and watching from home. The Mavs had no chance of getting back to Denver without a fully functional Lively in Irving’s first game back from a back injury.

Murray outscored all of the Dallas starters in the first half alone, as the Nuggets’ lead grew as large as 29 points, 71-42, on Murray’s finger-roll finish off a nice layup from Jokic with about 30 seconds left before halftime. Murray tallied 32 before halftime in a new career-high in first-half scoring — compared to 23 combined points from Naji Marshall, Washington, Lively, Irving and Thompson. Murray’s 32 first-half points were the third-most in the first half of any game this season.

The Nuggets applied what can only be described as an absurd beating to the beleaguered Mavs’ backcourt in the first half, took a 71-45 lead into the locker room and cruised to an easy 118-99 victory in the second. Murray led all scorers with 45 points on 18-of-26 shooting and dished out six assists in the win over the Mavs. Daniel Gafford led Dallas with 13 points and four boards in laughter.

Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images

Former University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who will be drafted early in the first round of 2025 NFL Draftsat courtside for the case, and he apparently stayed past halftime, which is more interesting than anything that happened on the field in Tuesday’s second half. The Mavericks went on a 16-2 run that stretched across the end of the third into the first three minutes of the fourth behind Marshall’s shooting and activity on the defensive end, but it was never a serious comeback attempt.

Snake bite

The Mavs are going through it with these injuries. You can’t make this up. When Lively went out, even the walking corpse of DeAndre Jordan’s career feasted on what was left of the Mavs’ interior defense. What cosmic offense has this franchise committed to deserve such a cruel and unusual punishment? Jordan came in and scored eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, including two lob dunks straight out of 2015, in just seven first half minutes, forcing TNT color commentator Greg Anthony to wonder if the Nuggets might just be resting Nikola Jokic a little longer. I mean, why not? Mavericks fans everywhere should be compensated for serious violations of their constitutional rights.

An eye on Irving

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said before the game that Irving would be limited to 30-33 minutes in his first game back from the back injury, but upon further inspection, Irving entered the game averaging just over 35 minutes per game. match. If there was legitimate concern about Irving’s workload in his first game back, the margin would have been much larger than two measly minutes below his average outing. It’s just further proof that Kidd prefers word salad to anything remotely based in reality when talking to the media. Irving ended up playing just over 30 minutes and scored 11 points on 4-of-18 shooting in his first game back.

Irving missed all three of his 3-point attempts in his first game back and shot just 3-of-11 on his way to nine points and four rebounds in the first half. However, he was active on defense in the passing lanes and grabbed four steals in the loss – if you’re desperate for a silver lining. He drove baseline for a nice reverse lay-in over Jokic, who looked vaguely Kyrie-esque midway through the third quarter, so there were some signs he’ll be able to bounce back quickly.

Not much else to say about this one unless you’re just a Mavs masochist.