LOS ANGELES—Luka Doncic nailed two clutch three pointers, including the game winner with one second left, to lift the Dallas Mavericks to a thrilling 110-107 victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday in Texas.
Doncic drained a step back three pointer with 15 seconds left to make it 107-105 and then repeated the feat by shooting a high arching 28-footer over two Celtic defenders with less than a second left to win it.
The 21-year-old Slovenian finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Mavs earned their sixth win in seven games.
“It felt great. We needed this win badly. We somehow managed to win the game,” Doncic said.
“I know my team trusts me. If two guys go on me and my teammates are open I will pass, but it is about finding the best shot and that is what happened today.”
Doncic’s winner came immediately after Celtics Jaylen Brown made a layup to level the score in front of the crowd of a pandemic-limited crowd of 3,300 at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Dallas was able to win despite playing without Kristaps Porzingis and Maxi Kleber. Porzingis missed his second straight game with back trouble and Kleber sat out with a left ankle sprain.
Jalen Brunson scored 16 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, Brown had 29 and Jayson Tatum tallied 28 for Boston, who lost their second straight.
The Celtics bungled 24-point lead on Sunday in a 120-115 overtime loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Also, Furkan Korkmaz jumped started the offence and Tobias Harris closed it out as the Eastern Conference leading Philadelphia 76ers held on to beat the Toronto Raptors 109-102.
Korkmaz scored 16 of his season-best 19 points in the first quarter and Harris tallied 12 of his team-high 23 points in the fourth for the 76ers, who snapped a string of 16 consecutive regular season road losses to the Raptors.
Sixers centre Joel Embiid added 18 points and 12 rebounds to end a streak of 14 straight games in which he had scored at least 25 points.
Ben Simmons chipped in 15 points and Shake Milton and Danny Green each scored 11 in the win.
Norman Powell had 24 points and Pascal Siakam added 22 for the Raptors, who had their four-game win streak halted.
Fred VanVleet had 12 points, Aron Baynes had 11 and Chris Boucher and OG Anunoby each scored 10 points.
In Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 37 points, eight rebounds and eight assists as the Bucks spoiled the coaching debut of Chris Finch with a 139-112 rout of the last-place Minnesota Timberwolves.
Antetokounmpo was one of seven Bucks who scored in double figures as they won their third straight.
The contest marked the coaching debut of Finch who was hired Monday to replace Ryan Saunders who was fired the day before. Finch was an assistant coach with the Raptors.
Milwaukee’s eight game home stand gets more difficult as they next face Denver, Los Angeles Clippers and New Orleans.