The Mavericks bounce back with a dominant win over the Bulls, 119-99

It was an exciting game between the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night as the Mavericks were missing Dereck Lively II, PJ Washington, Dante Exum and Maxi Kleber while Chicago was missing Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball.

Because of these injuries, Dallas had its first different starting lineup of the season: Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall and Daniel Gafford. Chicago started Coby White, Josh Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu, Patrick Williams and Nikola Vucevic.

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Dallas wanted to get off to a better start than it did against Indiana on Monday, or in most first quarters this season, really. They also wanted to get Klay Thompson more involved and give him some early shot attempts, but he missed his first three shots. It was Kyrie Irving who scored six straight points, allowing the Mavs to tie the score at nine early, and then a three-pointer from Luka Doncic gave them the lead. Klay finally got on the board with a three-pointer and extended the lead.

That slow start wouldn’t be the theme of this first quarter as Dallas scored eight straight baskets midway through the quarter, giving them a 24-13 lead. The Bulls extended the lead to 27-24 with about two minutes left in the first frame, but a three-pointer by Doncic and a nasty foul by Jalen Smith on Doncic as time expired gave the Mavs a 32-24 lead at the end the quarter. Kyrie Irving’s 15 points made the big difference here.

The Mavs started the second quarter with a 7-0 run and extended the lead back to double digits. Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu had difficult starts in this game, combining for one point on 0/12 shooting from the floor and 0/9 from three. Still, Chicago could extend its lead at any time if Luka Doncic went out. After the Mavs took a 43-28 lead, Doncic checked out and the Bulls immediately responded with a 9-0 run to get back into the game.

Doncic came back after this run in Chicago and the lead rose to double digits again. Coby White’s first basket finally came with a minute left in the first half, but the Mavs took a 56-45 halftime lead. Doncic was outstanding in the first 24 minutes with 17 points and nine assists, although he also had three turnovers. Still, he was +27 in a game where they led by 11.

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A quick 6-0 run by the Mavs at the start of the half forced Chicago to call a timeout after just a few minutes. That timeout wouldn’t work as the Mavs forced three turnovers, blocked a shot and scored another seven points to quickly go up by 25. Dosunmu, who started the game 0/9, finally broke his streak with two straight threes to end the game the Dallas run.

This time, with Luka Doncic on the bench, the Mavericks were able to maintain their lead in the third quarter. Chicago cut the lead to 16, but a flagrant foul on Nikola Vucevic for punching Dwight Powell in the face (stop me if you’ve heard that before) was part of a four-point trip that got the lead back up 20 expanded. Then, Doncic came back and led the Mavs to an 88-68 lead in the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter began with a couple of quick baskets from the Mavs that extended the lead back to 25. That would be enough for the Mavs to coast to the finish and win 119-99.

Luka Doncic led the way with 27 points, 13 assists, seven rebounds and four steals, but also had five turnovers. Kyrie Irving had 17 points, including 15 in the first quarter, as did Daniel Gafford. Dallas was able to open this game in large part because of their defensive efforts, forcing 22 turnovers and holding the Bulls to 41.9% shooting from the floor (down from 40% before some late baskets from Chicago).

Because of the big lead and injuries, it gave the Mavs a real look at Olivier-Maxence Prosper and was inconsistent. The effort was there, but it was often unpredictable. The game started to slow down for him in the second half, but he’s probably not ready for consistent minutes when the team is fully healthy.

Nikola Vucevic led the Bulls with 14 points and 10 rebounds, rookie Matas Buzelis had 13 points and Josh Giddey had 10. Without Zach LaVine, it wasn’t a great performance for any of their guys

The Mavericks improve to 5-3 and will complete their five-game stretch at home Friday night against the Phoenix Suns.

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