Dominick Barlow posted a career high in scoring and rebounds to lead four San Antonio players with double-doubles, lifting the visiting Spurs to a 138-117 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday in the season finale for both teams.
Neither the Mavericks (38-44) nor Spurs (22-60) qualified for the postseason, marking the first time since 1980 that the three Texas-based franchises (along with Houston, which is at the bottom of the Western Conference standings) all missed the playoffs.
Dallas, which has dropped nine of its last 11 games, played on Sunday without the injured Luka Doncic (left thigh), Kyrie Irving (right foot), Tim Hardaway Jr. (left ankle) and Maxi Kleber (right hamstring). Reggie Bullock, Christian Wood and Josh Green also sat out for rest purposes.
Barlow finished with 21 points and 19 rebounds and Sandro Mamukelashvili racked up 23 and 11, respectively. Malaki Branham scored 20 points, Keita Bates-Diop had 17, Julian Champagnie amassed 16 points and 10 rebounds and Gorgui Dieng tallied 13 points and 10 boards for the Spurs.
San Antonio, which won three of its final five games, was missing starters Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan and Zach Collins.
Jaden Hardy led all scorers with 25 points, with Theo Pinson forging a triple-double (23 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists) for the Mavericks. Davis Bertans added 19 points and McKinley Wright IV had 13.
The Spurs built a 17-4 lead just four minutes into the game and never looked back. Branham rang up 10 points in the first quarter, after which San Antonio led 42-14 while setting a franchise record for the largest lead after one quarter. The Mavericks shot just 20.7 percent (6 of 29) from the floor in the quarter.
San Antonio pushed its advantage to 31 points on a jumper by Tre Jones at the 7:10 mark of the second quarter before the Mavericks began to whittle away. Hardy’s putback jumper with 53.4 seconds to play in the period pulled Dallas to within 12 points, and the Spurs settled for a 71-59 lead at the break.
Hardy led all scorers in the half with 21 points while Bertans hit for 17 for the Mavericks. San Antonio got 14 points from Branham as all 10 players in uniform scored at least five points before halftime for the Spurs.
–Field Level Media
