Luka Doncic raged at his teammates as Dallas allowed a 20-point comeback to fall to an injury-ravaged Cleveland at home.
While Doncic had 39 points on 14 of 29 shooting with six assists and seven rebounds, he didn’t get enough help, with Seth Curry (19 points) the next-best on the side.
Doncic was double-teamed on the final possession and desperately flung the ball to Curry, whose attempt at a game-tying three was blocked.
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The Mavericks superstar was seen screaming into his own hands in anger after the buzzer.
“They knew they stole the game,” the Mavericks colour commentator said of the Cavaliers coaching staff.
Aussie Dante Exum had 13 points in 33 minutes after starting, with six assists, three steals and four rebounds in a solid performance.
But his most impressive act didn’t show up on the stat-sheet, as after Jarrett Allen threw the ball into Exum while falling out of bounds to try and keep possession, Exum incredibly recovered and dove to the ground to keep the ball in-bounds.
THUNDER CONTINUE SURGE
Oklahoma City is legit. There’s no doubt about it.
The long-time strugglers came off a win over West leaders Minnesota and, in a back-to-back against the tricky New York Knicks at home, got another W prevailing 129-120.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams each scored 36 points, with Williams hitting two clutch threes as part of 17 points in the fourth quarter alone, while Chet Holmgren had 22 points and four blocks.
“Just shooting open shots,” Williams said.
“Trying to pick my spots a little more carefully. Me and Chet had a really good two-man thing going on, two-man action, for a lot of those plays. The game’s easier when you make shots, so I was able to hit a couple and that allowed me to be able to drive and opened up things for Chet to have space to do his thing as well.”
NBA Wrap: Celtics claim win over Lakers | 02:58
Josh Giddey had just seven points with six rebounds in 29 minutes.
“I thought we really got into our depth in the first half and we were able to keep the minutes under control and still have control of the game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said, as his team committed just four turnovers.
“We played a lot of different guys and we had a very balanced rotation minutes-wise in the first half, which allows you to hit the gas in the second half with the higher-minute guys.”
NBA SCORES (December 28 AEDT)
76ers 112 – Magic 92
Raptors 132 – Wizards 102
Bucks 144 – Nets 122
Suns 129 – Rockets 113
Knicks 120 – Thunder 129
Cavaliers 113 – Mavericks 110