The Dallas Mavericks returned home after a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night to play their in-state rival Houston Rockets. It’s the first of five home games and Dallas wanted to maintain its positive momentum.

The Mavs started with their usual five players: Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. Houston started Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun.

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It was another sloppy start for the Mavs. The Rockets hit their first two shots from deep and took a 10-3 lead after PJ Washington missed two free throws, Daniel Gafford missed a dunk and Doncic didn’t turn around looking for the ball in the backcourt, and Houston took advantage the advantage. Kyrie Irving helped stabilize the situation a bit, but Houston’s physicality set the tone and allowed the Rockets to exploit the free throw line.

Luka Doncic again had problems early on and even put a shot in the air, which allowed the Rockets to extend a 27-15 lead after another three-pointer from Brooks. They led by 34-21 by the end of the quarter. Dallas simply couldn’t get its offense going against Houston’s physicality.

Despite a few shots from Kyrie Irving, this trend would continue in the second quarter. Dallas posted its largest deficit of the season – 19 points – during a period in which Doncic was scoreless at the free throw line. Nothing went right for the Mavs, not even a overturned foul that would have led to free throws for Jaden Hardy but was converted into an offensive foul.

An indecisive attack from Doncic gave them some energy to turn away and push the lead back to 15, but Houston coach Ime Udoka quickly called a timeout to prevent the Mavs from gaining momentum. That seemed to work, as Houston quickly extended the lead to 20. Closing out defensive possessions with a rebound was a problem, as Houston grabbed eight offensive boards in the first half, leading to clear frustration for the Mavs. Dallas fought back a bit, but Klay Thompson missed a three-pointer late in the half that would have cut the lead to 10, and Houston led 57-44 at halftime.

Houston didn’t set the world on fire offensively early, shooting just 21/47 (44.7%) from the floor and 4/15 (26.7%) from three, but they took advantage of the free throw line (11/14). ). Dallas wasn’t efficient at all early on, shooting 16/39 (41%) from the field, 2/12 (16.7%) from three and 10/16 (62.5%) from charity stripe. Since they did a good job defensively, a quick offensive push in the second half could get them back into the game.

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The first few minutes of the second half were even more like the first half: too many fouls, too few goals and poor defensive rebounds by the Mavs. Sengun and Jabari Smith killed Dallas on the glass, leading to fouls. Lively and Gafford each had four fouls midway through the quarter, leaving Dwight Powell needing minutes against Sengun.

Dallas just couldn’t do anything right. The first three quarters could be summed up with an offensive rebound by Houston, a bad foul by the Mavs, and an even worse offense on the other end by Dallas. For most of the game, Houston had as many rebounds on offense as Dallas had on defense. With just a few minutes left in the third quarter, Houston extended its lead to as many as 23. At the start of the fourth round, Dallas trailed 88-72 despite Irving finishing the third period.

However, a few quick baskets from Dallas early in the quarter cut the lead to 11 and gave the AAC some life. Due to foul trouble with its bigs, Dallas fielded a small lineup of Doncic, Irving, Hardy, Naji Marshall and PJ Washington. Considering how badly they were beaten on the glass, this was a gutsy lineup from Jason Kidd. They finally cut the lead to under ten with about eight minutes left after a hard shot from Doncic, then Irving found a sharp Marshall and cut the lead to seven with seven minutes left.

Jalen Green responded to this run with five quick points and extended the lead back to 12. Klay Thompson hit his first three-pointer of the game a few possessions later, cutting the lead back to seven. Then, after a crazy shot from Irving, he hit another three-pointer with his 2,500th goal from deep and cut the lead to four with four minutes left.

Green responded again with a nice layup to extend the lead to six with about three minutes left, but Luka Doncic hit a patented three-pointer to cut the lead to three with two minutes left. Dallas had a defensive stop, but once again Houston got an offensive rebound and Jalen Green hit a contested three-pointer against Doncic to cut the lead back to six with just over a minute left.

This rivalry has seen some crazy endings in recent years, and this was almost another one. Doncic responded with a three-pointer on the next inbounds, making it a one-possession game again. Amen Thompson hit a hard-fought mid-range shot to extend the lead back to five. Klay Thompson missed a three-pointer on the next possession and went out of bounds, and Dillon Brooks tied the game with a mid-range turnaround shot to go within seven points with 18 seconds left. After the foul, Houston would win 108-102.

Dallas was so bad on both defense and offense in the first half that they were unable to pull off a crazy comeback, and those are things they need to address before their next game. Houston grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and shot 27 free throws. If Dallas cuts that odds by even 15-20%, they’ll likely walk away with a win.

Kyrie Irving was the best Maverick of the evening with 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Luka Doncic outscored him with 29 points, but Irving was the one who kept the offense going when the team needed it most. The only other Mav in double figures was Klay Thompson with 12. That’s not enough scoring output from the rest of the team. PJ Washington played a great game defensively, finishing the game with nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals, but they needed another scorer to improve.

Jalen Green led the Houston Rockets with 23 points but added 12 rebounds. They also had five other players score in double figures: Alperen Sengun (17 points, 12 rebounds, six offensive boards), Dillon Brooks (17 points), Tari Eason (15 points), Jabari Smith Jr. (14 points, six rebounds, three offensive rebounds) and Amen Thompson (10 points).

Dallas needs to find a way to start games faster as slow starts are becoming a concerning trend for this team. Some of that is the work of Klay Thompson, but the team is too talented to consistently start games slowly.

The Mavericks face the Orlando Magic at home on Sunday night, who will be without their biggest star, Paolo Banchero.

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