The Dallas Mavericks suffered a self-inflicted 1 point loss to Lebron James and the Lakers on Wednesday night. Dallas was down by 19 points in this game but they were able to come back and make it close down the stretch.

Let’s run back the last 6 minutes of the game when Luka Doncic checks to see what we can take away from this tough but exciting finish.

Clutch games (when the score is within 5 points with less than 5 minutes to play) were a problem for the Mavericks last season. They went 12-38 in such games. Harrison Barnes even noted this figure when he was a guest on The Jump and how he wants to be a better closer. Dennis Smith is also a year older and will want to waste the taste of some of these types of losses out of his mouth.

Overall this was a tough loss that could’ve been prevented a number of times. But in the end it wasn’t Barnes or Smith that brought the Mavs back, it was Luka Doncic. And that’s something to watch for going forward. When the game is on the line do Smith and Barnes look-off Doncic to try and get things done themselves or do they recognize that Doncic with the ball in his hands is this teams’ best option?

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