Luka Doncic’s 45 points, missed game-winner vs. Clippers caps hectic intro for Mavs’ trade additions – The Dallas Morning News

When Davis Bertans sets his phone to “do not disturb” mode, he only allows the number from his wife, Anna, to go through.

Still, the 29-year-old forward was confused when his wife’s call interrupted his pregame nap Thursday, about 2:40 p.m. in Washington, D.C. He was resting before the Wizards played the Nets. She was supposed to be picking up their daughter, Mila, from preschool.

“You got traded,” Anna told him when he answered groggily.

He asked where.

Dallas.

“OK,” Bertans said. “Good.”

From snoozing at the NBA’s trade deadline to watching Luka Doncic lead a furious fourth-quarter comeback attempt in the Mavericks’ 99-97 loss to the Clippers Saturday night, Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie have endured a whirlwind process as the Kristaps Porzingis trade return to reinforce Dallas’ shooting and depth.

They didn’t play Saturday against the Clippers, but their first days in Dallas gave them a glimpse of how they’ll fit in the franchise’s post-Porzingis run.

“Coming here and playing for a team that is basically top 5 in the Western Conference, fighting for a good playoff spot,” Bertans said. “Yeah, it could’ve been a lot worse, I’m going to tell you that, so I’m excited to be here.”

They wore sweats and watched from the bench with two other sidelined Mavericks — Tim Hardaway Jr. (left foot surgery) and Marquese Chriss (right knee soreness) — as Doncic tried to will the Mavericks to win after a sloppy first three quarters.

Doncic tallied 23 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter, scoring 19 straight for the Mavericks in the last 4:12. His mix of stepback 3s and crafty drives positioned Dallas for a game-winning look with 3.4 seconds left.

The 22-year-old All-Star got a final look — a double-teamed 3-pointer from near the logo — but it fell short.

Despite tallying 45 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists one game after dropping a career-high 51 points, Doncic tore off his finger tape and threw it on the court before walking off with the loss.

Outside Doncic, Jalen Brunson (22 points) and Reggie Bullock (17), the six other Mavericks who played combined for 13 points.

Dinwiddie and Bertans won’t debut until Tuesday in Miami — and hope to boost the offense — but they already have some Mavericks connections.

Dinwiddie played with assistant coach Jared Dudley in Brooklyn during the 2018-19 season and against Chriss, a fellow Pac-12 product, growing up. He remembered one time dunking over Dwight Powell, too.

The only downside to his move to Dallas?

He “unfortunately” has to reunite with Theo Pinson, who became a close friend and target for sarcasm from 2018-20 with the Nets.

“You can definitely print that one,” Dinwiddie quipped.

Bertans and Porzingis are the only two Latvian players in the league.

The two, friends from national team play, texted immediately after the trade news broke and, for a moment, wondered whether they’d get to play together.

Instead, they were swapped in the league’s first Latvian-for-Latvian trade.

“It might be the only one also in the far future,” Bertans joked.

Porzingis and Bertans traded advice on neighborhoods in Dallas and D.C., team chemistry and other helpful moving tips.

After Dinwiddie and Bertans landed in Dallas on Friday afternoon, they met with coach Jason Kidd and general manager Nico Harrison, passed their physicals and ran through some practice sets with some of the Mavericks’ low-minutes reserves who were working out on an informal practice day.

On Saturday — the same day Porzingis passed his physical in Washington but sat out the Wizards-Kings game as his right knee bone bruise continues to heal — Dinwiddie and Bertans received a tour of American Airlines Center and continued to meet with assistant coaches to learn Kidd’s systems.

Both believe they better understand their Mavericks roles and expectations after offensive slumps in Washington.

Dinwiddie said the Wizards considered resting him the first 20 games of the season to ease his comeback from January 2021 ACL surgery, but he opted to play from opening night.

Does the 28-year-old guard think his 20.6-point, 6.7-assist averages from his last full season before the injury (2019-20 in Brooklyn) could translate into a likely sixth-man role with the Mavericks?

“Of course,” Dinwiddie said. “I got wrote off like 30 games into the season that I didn’t have to play. … Your first year [after ACL surgery], you’re getting your rhythm back and getting everything rocking and rolling beyond just a health aspect.

“They always talk about the second year and the third year being much better, so being 28, having a great recovery so far, I definitely expect myself to play at that type of level.”

Bertans lamented Washington’s inconsistent rotation.

After missing 10 games with an ankle injury in November, his playing time declined in the Wizards’ frontcourt logjam. He felt the Wizards’ passers in his back-up units didn’t involve his catch-and-shoot specialty. He hasn’t played more than 13 minutes since Jan. 3.

“My type of game is I really rely on my teammates setting me up,” Bertans said. “I’m not a guy who takes the ball, creates something for myself and then shoots. So if I don’t get set up by a teammate, it’s really hard for me to get the rhythm going, and then getting some shots every 10, 15 minutes is really hard to keep that percentage up.”

Had the Mavericks shot better than 41.2% from the floor or 38.5% from 3, perhaps they would’ve watched Doncic tally a couple more assists for his 10th triple-double of the season.

But Doncic, who shot 15 of 33 from the field himself and committed seven of the team’s 14 turnovers, came one moment shy of providing his new teammates a magical introduction.

Photos

LA Clippers guard Terance Mann (14) and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) get in each others face during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Dallas, Saturday, February 12, 2022. LA won 99-97.

1/25LA Clippers guard Terance Mann (14) and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) get in each others face during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Dallas, Saturday, February 12, 2022. LA won 99-97. (Brandon Wade / Special Contributor)