DeMar DeRozan has season-high but Spurs lose to Mavericks 117-110

DeMar DeRozan put together his best game of the season but the San Antonio Spurs still fell to the Dallas Mavericks 117-110.

The San Antonio Spurs have been unable to put together 48 straight minutes of impressive basketball all season. Too often they’ve come out flat or had stretches of sloppy basketball that end up costing them the game. That theme continued tonight as the Dallas Mavericks were able to use a slow Spurs start to build a dominant lead.

San Antonio looked like they would be able to retake the lead late in the game but questionable shot selection and ill-timed turnovers ended up costing them the game. DeMar DeRozan put together his best game of the season but it still wasn’t enough to snap the Spurs losing streak.

DeRozan came out strong and looked like the best player not named Luka Doncic on the floor tonight. This game was vintage DeRozan, with plenty of turn around jumpers and up and fancy footwork on the way to a season-high 36 points.

Unfortunately for San Antonio Luka Doncic went scorched earth tonight. His 42 point triple-double gives him six on the year and puts him firmly in the MVP discussion. He was magnificent for Dallas. It didn’t help that he was being guarded by Bryn Forbes and Patty Mills but still, he was dominant from start to finish. He’s going to be a thorn in the Spurs side for the foreseeable future.

Highlight of the night

attack mode

cc: @DeMar_DeRozan pic.twitter.com/i8TO1BkPdW

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) November 19, 2019

There weren’t many bright spots for San Antonio in this one but the aggression shown by DeRozan from the very beginning was one of them. This team is better when he is looking to create his shot rather than create for others. Between Mills, Derrick White, and Dejounte Murray there are plenty of other Spurs players who can set up others. Not many Spurs can create their shot as DeRozan can. Hopefully, this is the kind of play that we can expect from him going forward.

Game Notes

• We didn’t get a Lonnie Walker sighting in this one but DeMarre Carroll finally got some playing time. He had played in all of 39 minutes coming into tonight and didn’t see the floor until late in the game. When he did finally play he immediately came in and played hard nose defense and knocked down one of his two three-point attempts. Imagine that, the guy who was signed to play defense and knock down three’s did exactly that. Wild. He needs to play more.
• Marco Belinelli went 2 for 8 from the floor tonight. It feels like we say this after every game but why is he still playing 16 minutes a night? Tune back in after the next game for our regular installment of “Why is Marco still playing”.

The Spurs’ next chance to snap this nasty losing streak comes on Wednesday night when they go up against the Washington Wizards.