The Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans are both acclimating newcomers into their rotations.
They’ll face each other Thursday night in New Orleans in both teams’ final game before the All-Star break.
Davis Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie, acquired in a trade with Washington last week, were key contributors in their Dallas debuts, a 107-99 victory at Miami on Tuesday night.
Bertans scored six of his 12 points late in the third quarter to help the Mavericks take the lead for good. Dinwiddie added four points and five assists to help the Dallas bench outscore the Miami reserves 38-25.
“I thought Davis was great,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I think he was excited to play. He hasn’t played in a little bit. He was going to get some of the rust off. He had some great looks for us.
“Spencer was great. You could see he looks comfortable. We can get him the ball and have him run the offense and make plays.”
Dallas overcame a sub-par shooting night from Luka Doncic, who shot 5 of 19 and finished with 21 points, none of which came in the fourth quarter. He averaged 43 points in three games last week to earn Western Conference Player of the Week honors.
“If they’re going to double, somebody’s going to be open,” Doncic said. “We have to play four on three. It was good spacing and that’s what won the game.”
Maxi Kleber and Jalen Brunson scored 19 points each. In the fourth quarter, Kleber scored 10 and Brunson nine. Kleber spent much of the night guarding Jimmy Butler and blocked five shots.
“He played amazing,” Doncic said.
CJ McCollum has played four games for the Pelicans since being acquired in a trade with Portland last week. After scoring 15 points in his debut, he has averaged 29.7 points in the past three, including 30 in a 121-109 home loss to Memphis on Tuesday, but New Orleans has lost three of four.
“It’s a fresh start for us,” said Jonas Valanciunas, who scored 19 against Memphis. “We’re learning about each other, (seeing) what (McCollum) likes to do, what I like to do, and we’re working through it. So, it’s going to take some time, but every game, every practice, we work on it, and we’re getting better.”
The Pelicans made a season-low four 3-pointers (on 26 attempts) and had just 20 assists one night after having a season-high 36 helpers in a 120-90 win over Toronto.
“We were a bit stagnant,” McCollum said. “It was hard to move the ball on offense because we weren’t getting stops. When you get stops, the game is more fun. You can get out and run in transition and that’s when you kind of play with an advantage, but I think we didn’t get a lot of advantages because we weren’t getting stops.”
Tony Snell also was acquired in the McCollum trade and has 13 points in 25 minutes off the bench in the two games in which he has played. The third new Pelican, Larry Nance Jr., had his knee scoped last week and is expected to miss about six weeks.
–Field Level Media
