The Dallas Mavericks suffered their second consecutive defeat since the restart, falling to the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, 117-115. Despite the loss, however, the Mavs were able to clinch a playoffs berth thanks to the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies losing to the San Antonio Spurs, 108-106. Dallas stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis were asked to comment about the same, and both players expressed their delight in their rather anti-climactic achievement on Sunday.
According to Doncic, he's glad to have finally gotten the job done, but that they're not thinking about their first-round opponents at this point.
“That was the objective, to get to the playoffs this year,” said Doncic, via Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “It doesn't matter who you play. If you want to win, you've got to beat everybody. We've just got to learn from these mistakes.”
Doncic was outstanding in the defeat, logging 40 points on 11-of-20 from the field and 18-0f-19 from the line, along with eight rebounds, and 11 assists.
For his part, Porzingis admitted that it was a disappointing evening for the Mavs. He also echoed Doncic's thoughts, about taking things one game at a time from this point on.
“Our goal was to make the playoffs, and we achieved that, but for me and for us, we're going to try to win every game now that we have left in the regular season,” said Porzingis. “Then, we'll see where we end up in the playoffs and go from there. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon, and with each day, with each game, with each practice, we want to be a better team and better individually.”
“It's another tough loss for us, but I believe that this is part of the process,” Porzingis said. “We're going to get through this and get better.”
Porzingis was also outstanding against Phoenix, finishing with 30 points, two triples, eight rebounds, an assist, a steal, and four blocks. Despite the heroics from Doncic and Porzingis, though, the Suns just proved too much for them to handle on the evening.
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