Dallas, TX

Brief lapses doom Phoenix Suns in loss to Dallas Mavericks

Published

2 years ago

February 23, 2024

Brief lapses doom Phoenix Suns in loss to Dallas Mavericks

The Phoenix Suns played well enough in spurts to win on Thursday but lacked a full and focused effort to beat the Dallas Mavericks in a 123-113 loss.

Dallas’ star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving bested Phoenix’s. Doncic’s 41 points on 14-of-27 shooting were accompanied by Irving’s 11-of-18 shooting for 29 points. Doncic also racked up nine rebounds, 11 assists and four steals. Devin Booker’s 35 points (13-for-21), five rebounds, eight assists and four turnovers led the Suns while Kevin Durant’s 9-of-23 mark for 23 points with five rebounds, an assist and five turnovers missed the mark.

The Mavericks’ 29 points off 16 Suns turnovers were a factor as well.

Three surges by Dallas in the last two quarters that were more so poor stretches by Phoenix decided the game.

A 15-0 Mavericks run to begin the second half epitomized the margins Phoenix has to improve within to truly become a great team. Doncic nailed three of his six triples on unguardable step-backs. He set up P.J. Washington, a below average shooter, for another. All of those are possessions the Suns can accept but they’ve got to make up for it in other ways, and the offensive end included a pair of turnovers and a missed layup.

After that, Doncic launched a 30-footer early on the shot clock as a heat check, a bailout for Phoenix to reset, only for the Suns to not grab the rebound and for that to lead to an open Josh Green 3 to put Dallas ahead by a dozen.

With those three minutes not going great for starting center Jusuf Nurkic, Suns head coach Frank Vogel smashed the emergency glass early, pulling Nurkic for Royce O’Neale. It’s the type of mid-game adjustment and rotation choice the Suns should focus on developing more over the next two months so it becomes more natural. Decisions like Thursday’s will help.

Dallas is the perfect team to do this against. It has size but not the type that will punish a smaller team, doesn’t have the good shooters Phoenix does to trade open 3s in spaced-out basketball built around the stars and lacks on-ball juice defensively to contain high-level scorers. The Mavericks have rightfully been thought of as a bad matchup for the Suns the last two years but if Phoenix was to really embrace small ball, it could turn the tables quickly.

All of these themes played out over an immediate 17-5 run led by Booker, who didn’t take a shot in the second quarter because of double-teams but suddenly had more space to maneuver. Dallas, however, found a 9-0 spurt right after.

Nurkic returned later in the quarter for two minutes, only for Phoenix to go back to a small group at the start of the fourth quarter and remain that way the rest of the night.

Phoenix was +7 without Booker in the first half but this group headed by Durant struggled this go-around. The offense had a few dwindling possessions, with Durant’s cadence slowing things down a bit too much. It was an 8-2 advantage to Dallas.

That’s why Bradley Beal is so important for that segment of the game but he remains out due to tightness in his left hamstring. He wasn’t able to progress enough over the All-Star break to avoid nothing more than a one-game absence (that was essentially two after he played under five minutes when he got injured). Vogel also said Beal is unlikely to play in the second game of a back-to-back on Friday.

Booker could only get 2:25 of rest before coming in thanks to just two Phoenix points over that time. With Dallas now up 11, it put the Suns in a position requiring stops. They wouldn’t muster two in a row until the 3:12 mark on the clock while trailing by 12. Too late.

Add up those Dallas runs in the second half and it was a 32-2 edge in a combined game time of just 7:03.

Eric Gordon scored 16 points starting in place of Beal. He was the only supporting cast member to make a legitimate impact. Despite how often Phoenix spent the game going small, new addition Thaddeus Young did not play, presumably because of how recent his arrival was.

Unless one of the top four teams in the Western Conference slows down and the Suns (33-23) go on an absolute tear to end the year, they are likely left fighting for two spots above the play-in amongst five different squads. That makes tiebreakers with those teams essential. Thursday’s cemented a 3-2 season series edge to Dallas (33-23).

As for the four others, Phoenix has already lost the tiebreaker to the Los Angeles Lakers (1-3) and owns it over the Golden State Warriors (3-1). Still left to be determined is a winner-take-all fixture with the Sacramento Kings (2-2) similar to Thursday and two contests remaining with the New Orleans Pelicans (1-0).

Durant reached 40 minutes and it was 39 for Booker. There will be a few regular season games that still warrant minute totals that high but Phoenix has to be cautious with the start of the postseason now visible in the distance. It plays tomorrow in Houston and it doesn’t sound like Beal will play.

Follow @KellanOlson

Source link

Related Topics:Arizona Sports Now on 98.7 FM Featured Home Phoenix Arizona Sports News | Phoenix Breaking Sports News

Click to comment

Dallas, TX

Dallas Stars blow out Anaheim Ducks as offense explodes for third straight win

Published

6 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Dallas Stars blow out Anaheim Ducks as offense explodes for third straight win

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist, and the Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 8-3 on Friday night for their third straight win.

Roope Hintz and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist, and Oskar Bäck, Sam Steel, Ilya Lybushkin and Adam Erne also scored for the Stars. who are an NHL-best 13-2-4 on the road. Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen each had two assists, and Casey DeSmith had 23 saves.

Ryan Poehling, Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund scored for the Ducks, who have lost four of five. Lukas Dostal gave up four goals on seven shots before he was pulled with 5:41 left in the first period. Petr Mrazek came on and stopped 14 of the 18 shots he faced the rest of the way.

The Stars’ eight-goal output tied a season high, matching their 8-3 win at Edmonton on Nov. 25, and was the most the Ducks have given up.

Bäck gave the Stars a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal 2:37 into the game after the Ducks turned the puck over behind their net.

Poehling tied it 55 seconds later, scoring in close on the rebound of a point shot by Radko Gudas.

Hintz put Dallas back ahead at 4:42, getting a pass from Robertson in the slot, sliding backwards and firing a shot past Dostal for his 11th.

Steel pushed the Stars’ lead to 3-1 with 7:19 left in the first, scoring past Dostal while crashing into the net and dislodging it. The goal was confirmed after a review.

Harley made it a three-goal lead 1:38 later as he got a pass from Rantanen and scored from the right circle.

Robertson scored in front on a power play with 8:50 remaining in the second, and then put a backhander past Mrazek from the right circle 4 minutes later to make it 6-1. It gave Robertson a team-leading 22 goals.

Erne made it a six-goal lead with 1:30 left in the middle period.

After Sennecke pulled the Ducks back within five 1:01 into the third, Lybushkin got his first of the season 41 seconds later to extend the Stars’ lead to 8-2. Granlund capped the scoring with 5:38 remaining.

Up next

Stars: Host Toronto on Sunday.

Ducks: Host Columbus on Saturday.

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

Source link

Dallas, TX

Don Stone, Dallas philanthropist and arts advocate, dies

Published

18 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Don Stone, Dallas philanthropist and arts advocate, dies

Don Stone, a Dallas civic leader and strong supporter of the arts, died on Sunday. He was 96.

Angela Stone, Don’s youngest child, said her father was one of a kind, a rare mix of sweet and tough.

“He was just the most wonderful man I ever knew, just generous to a fault, smart, charming. He influenced so many people,” she said.

Stone gave widely across North Texas, including $500,000 to endow college scholarships for musically gifted Dallas ISD students. Stone also held leadership positions at several North Texas arts organizations, including the Dallas Public Library, Voices of Change, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Fine Arts Chamber Players, Orchestra of New Spain, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, Shakespeare Dallas and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

“He just believed that all of our lives would be so much poorer without music, art and theater. He said in our country we have the freedom to support whatever we want and that we needed to support the arts so that they would continue to exist,” Stone said.

Stone, a businessman who lived in Turtle Creek, worked for Sanger Harris, which later became Macy’s. He was a 2018 TACA Silver Cup Award honoree for his arts and culture advocacy in North Texas.

Maura Sheffler, president and executive director of The Arts Community Alliance (TACA), said in a statement that Stone’s legacy will continue to inspire the local arts community.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Don Stone, a devoted champion of the arts whose leadership and generosity,” she wrote.

Stone’s wife of over 72 years, Norma, died in June. She was the one who first got her husband involved in the arts, according to their daughter Angela.

Michelle Miller Burns, the DSO’s president and CEO, said the Stones had a profound impact on the DSO.

“It is with such a heavy heart that I received news of Don Stone’s passing earlier this week. Don was a devoted patron, a donor and a board member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and his leadership and generosity really have helped shape the Dallas symphony across five decades,” she said.

In 1980, Stone served as DSO’s chairman of the Board of Governors and helped launch efforts to raise $80 million for Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and secure architect I.M. Pei.

In 1997, the Stones launched the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund and committed $1 million to continuously support new works. Some of the works supported through the fund include this year’s world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s requiem For Everything You Keep Losing. The fund also supported a Grammy award-winning violin concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis co-commissioned with the Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Melbourne Symphony.

“I think it is rare for a couple who so firmly believes in the future of classical music and creating opportunities for new musical voices to be heard to really put support behind that in a meaningful way to fuel that process, to ensure that it can come to fruition,” Burns said.

She said the DSO will continue the Stones’ legacy by commissioning new works through the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund.

Stone is survived by his children Michael, Lisa and Angela, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The family will have a private funeral.

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.

Source link

Dallas, TX

Daniss Jenkins sparks rally but Detroit Pistons fall in OT to Dallas

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Daniss Jenkins sparks rally but Detroit Pistons fall in OT to Dallas

DALLAS — A late comeback attempt fell short for the Detroit Pistons.

They fell to the Dallas Mavericks in overtime, 116-114, after recovering from a third-period 18-point deficit. A dunk by Anthony Davis gave the Mavericks the lead for good with 1:32 to play in overtime.

Cade Cunningham (29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists) missed a short jumper with 7 seconds left that would’ve tied the game at 116, and Jalen Duren (17 points, 13 rebounds) couldn’t convert two offensive rebounds into a tip-in basket. Davis corralled the rebound with 0.9 seconds left, and the Mavericks called timeout.

The Pistons fouled Davis after the inbounds pass with a foul to give. Daniss Jenkins, who scored 11 points after halftime, stole the second inbounds pass with 0.6 seconds left but didn’t have enough time to get a shot off.

The Pistons trailed by 18 points with five minutes to play in the third quarter. Their bench unit was instrumental during a 31-11 run that gave the Pistons the lead again, 99-97, midway through the fourth quarter. They held Dallas to 38.5% shooting and forced nine turnovers in the second half.

No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg gave his Mavericks the lead, 110-109, with under 20 seconds to play with a midrange jumper. Isaiah Stewart was fouled by Davis on the other end with 3.4 seconds left, and he split the trip to the line to tie the game at 110. Klay Thompson missed a floater at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime.

‘Dallas’ unit leads Detroit back from big deficit

Down 86-68 with 4:57 to play in the third quarter, coach J.B. Bickerstaff looked to the end of his bench for a spark. Jenkins, Marcus Sasser and Paul Reed checked into the game for the first time in consecutive order, joining Ron Holland and Javonte Green. The Pistons have a Dallas-centric roster — Holland, Sasser and Jenkins are all from the city, and Cunningham is from nearby Arlington.

They led an 11-3 run to cut the deficit to 10, tallying four steals during the stretch — two for Green and one each for Jenkins and Reed. Cunningham checked in for Green to open the fourth quarter, and the run continued. A 3-pointer from Jenkins, coast-to-coast layup by Holland and midrange jumper from Jenkins extended the run to 21-7, cutting the deficit to 93-89 with under 10 minutes to play.

As he has done several times this season, Jenkins rose to the moment in the final period. An entry pass from Jenkins to Holland created an open layup to slash Dallas’ lead to two, and Jenkins made a layup over three Mavericks defenders to tie the game at 95 with 7:46 remaining and push the Pistons’ run to 27-9.

With 59 seconds left in the fourth, a pair of free throws from Jenkins extended the Pistons’ lead to 3, 109-106. He played 11 minutes and 32 seconds in the final period, second only to Cunningham, and overtime.

Ausar Thompson ejected in second quarter

The Pistons lost Thompson — their primary defender on Flagg — midway through the second period after an exchange with an official.

With 5:09 remaining before halftime, Thompson tied up Mavericks guard Ryan Nembhard under the rim and was whistled for a foul. Thompson didn’t like the call and got in the ref’s face, and was instantly ejected. NBA rules make it an auto-ejection when a player makes physical contact with an official.

It was a strong start for Thompson prior to the ejection, as he had eight points, two assists, two rebounds and a steal in nine minutes of play. Stewart entered for him in the second quarter.

In all, it was a rough night for the Pistons regarding the officials. Cunningham was whistled for a tech late in the second quarter after disagreeing with a call, and Bickerstaff was whistled for a tech during halftime after arguing with an official.

Duncan Robinson exits with left knee injury

With 11:08 to play in the third quarter, Robinson suffered a knee-to-knee collision with Mavericks wing Naji Marshall. Robinson limped off of the floor and was initially ruled “questionable” to return until he was downgraded to “out” in the final period.

Robinson finished with two points and two rebounds, shooting 1-for-7 overall and 0-for-5 from 3. He missed two games in early December with a right ankle sprain.

[ MUST WATCH: Make “The Pistons Pulse” your go-to Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

Follow the Pistons all year long with the best reporting at freep.com/sports/pistons.

Follow the Detroit Free Press on Instagram (@detroitfreepress), TikTok (@detroitfreepress), YouTube (@DetroitFreePress), X (@freep), and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook. (@detroitfreepress).

Source link