Washington, May 13 (BUS): Luka Doncic scored his first win in the elimination match. Now the young Dallas star gets another game — and another 7 game to boot.
Doncic scored 33 points and the Mavericks beat the Phoenix Suns 113-86 on Thursday night to force a playoff in the Western Conference semi-finals.
The host team won all six matches, with none by a difference of more than seven points. A trip to the Western Finals will be at stake Sunday in Phoenix, according to the Associated Press.
The Mavericks won when they faced elimination for the first time in three attempts with the 23-year-old Doncic, the three-time All-Star goalkeeper.
The two losses to the Clippers have come in the past two seasons, including Game Seven in Los Angeles last year after the visiting team won their first six games, their first in the playoffs.
Dallas plays after the first inning for the first time since winning the title 11 years ago, when first-year coach Jason Kidd was the norm.
Seeking a second straight trip to the conference finals, The Suns are going the distance in a series for the first time in two seasons with Chris Paul and Devin Booker.
The previous three were six times, including Phoenix’s loss to Milwaukee last year in the NBA Finals.
Booker scored 19 points but was out of the 3-point range (0 of 4) while he went 6 of 17. Dender Eaton scored 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Paul added 13 points.
The first-seeded Suns finished a low-scoring season, regular season or playoffs, for the second time in the series. They achieved a 40% low playoff performance with 22 spins, the most all season.
Soon, the Mavericks went on a crucial 19-5 run to finish the first half, turning the two-point difference to a 60-45 first-half edge.
The home team’s replay was for the third quarter of Game Five, when Phoenix went 17-0 to add 18 points and ended up winning by 30.
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