Derek Lively II, even as a 20-year-old rookie, is the third most important player on the Dallas Mavericks. (I’m comfortable saying this definitively, although there are reasonable arguments others could make in favor of the team’s starting wings.) With the kid wearing street clothes on the bench the team. after a brutal head collision during the last matchDallas’ closing effort in Game 4 was always going to require other players to step in from unexpected places.
Maxi Kleber, cleared to play for the first time since injuring his shoulder in the final game of the first round, was first. With a void in the backup center to fill, Kleber intervened discreetly but competently. Dallas needed a bigger player than Dwight Powell who could be trusted to perform rotations correctly, which Kleber did.
There were also bench guards who intervened. Jaden Hardy, a second-year guard who had not been part of the team’s rotation until Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, contributed 13 points off the bench. Dante Exum scored five more in four minutes, his first points of the series.
These were the type of contributions Dallas needed to make up for Lively’s crucial absence – if, alongside her, Dallas received the type of luxury shooting from its superstar duo that it has become accustomed to throughout this series.
Heading into the fourth quarter with five points, it felt like this familiar formula was ripe for repeating.
But Luka Dončić (28 points) and Kyrie Irving (16 points) weren’t as stellar as they had been all series, combining to shoot 13 of 40 from the field. Dončić briefly restored that potential sense of magic, nailing a 30-foot jumper with a foul with 13 seconds remaining. However, typical of the duo’s night, Dončić missed the free throw that would have cut the lead to two.
Dallas now returns to Minnesota with an unusual chance to close this series with a gentleman’s sweep in a road arena. Dallas can win without Lively, but her return would surely make things easier.
