Doncic leads the Mavericks to beat the Hawks - and the Lakers are addicted to the extension

 Doncic leads the Mavericks to beat the Hawks - and the Lakers are addicted to the extension.

Doncic 

Slovenian Luka Doncic scored his seventh "Triple Double" of the season in the NBA, scoring 28 points with 10 assists and 10 rebounds, leading his team to the Dallas Mavericks to a 118-117 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers needed to extend to the third game in a row to get rid of Oklahoma City by a score of 114-113.

In the first game, the Mavericks returned to the game in the final quarter after trailing by nine points, to continue to forge their way into the Western Conference standings.

The Mavericks took their first lead of the match 5.29 minutes before it ended, when Doncic scored a hat-trick that put his team ahead 104-101.

Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 13 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, while Gaylin Branson added 11 of 21 points in the final minutes for the Mavericks.

Hawks, for whom John Collins scored 33 points and Tri Young had 25 points, seven rebounds and 15 assists, narrowed the gap twice to one point in the last two minutes.

At the end of the match, however, Atlanta was unable to get the ball to Young, and veteran Danilo Galinari's shot came nine-tenths of a second before the match left outside the basket.

The Mavericks opened the match by playing the national anthem for the first time at home this season, after the League issued a decision obliging all teams to preserve this tradition, after a decision made by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban not to play the anthem.

Kawhi Lennard

Clippers defeat Minnesota

In Minnesota, the Los Angeles Clippers avoided by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 119-112 loss, a third in a row.

In the absence of Paul George, the burden of scoring carried Kawahi Lennard with 36 points, as well as 8 rebounds and 5 assists, while his teammates Lou Williams added 27 points, Reggie Jackson 15 and Nicholas Batom 8 points and 10 rebounds.

The losing team regained the efforts of its Dominican star Carl Anthony Townes, who recovered from the Corona virus, knowing that he had lost his mother and many members of his family due to this pandemic.

Despite his absence, which lasted for a period of 13 games, Townes managed to score 18 points and 10 rebounds, but that was not enough to banish the specter of loss from his team.

Lakers and Winning Extension

Unlike the Clippers, the Lakers' "neighbor" struggled, winning hard-fought by one point over the Oklahoma City Thunder 114-113 after two extensions.

It is the third time in a row that the defending champion has won after the extension, and the sixth successive victory for Frank Vogel's men in the best series in the two regions.

Due to Anthony Davis' absence for an Achilles tendon injury; The Lakers delayed at the start of the match 23-37 in the first quarter, before restoring balance and imposing a draw and then winning.

In Davis's absence, King LeBron James carried the burden on his shoulders and scored a hat-trick that imposed a tie at the end of the fourth period, before turning into a fierce defender during Thunder's last game.

James scored 25 points in the match, in addition to 7 assists and 6 rebounds.

 

Bucks lost to the Suns

And at the "Talking Stick Resort Arena", 47 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists made by Yiannis Antitokunembo, the Milwaukee Bucks star and best player in the last two seasons, were not enough to save his team from a loss to landowner Phoenix Suns 124-125.

Bucks led by 12 points at the end of the second quarter (71-59), but the Suns knew how to narrow the gap and win the match thanks to duo Devin Booker (30 points and 6 rebounds) and Chris Ball (28 points and 7 assists).

Despite the loss, Bucks kept second in the Eastern Province, behind leaders the Philadelphia 76ers, and ahead of the Brooklyn Nets, who reconciled with a win against the Indiana Pacers 104-94.

Despite the defensive weakness of the Sixers in the last two quarters, Kerry Irving's teammates, with 35 points and 8 assists, maintained their lead, which reached 24 points between the two halves.