Slovenian Heritage Night celebrated former national team mates Doncic and Dragic.
Saturday 29 February 2020 09:31, UK
Luka Doncic turned 21 on Friday, but his birthday celebration was spoiled in Miami.
Jimmy Butler scored 26 points, Duncan Robinson added 24 and the Miami Heat scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter to spark a 126-118 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
With former Slovenian national team-mates Doncic and Goran Dragic going head-to-head, the Heat - as they did when Dallas visited last season - deemed it Slovenian Heritage Night.
There were hundreds of flag-waving fans from the European nation in the crowd. Some even wore specially designed T-shirts with Doncic and Dragic on the front, and the Slovenian flag on the back.
But Doncic's sore thumb kept the prodigious All Star in check. He shook off a 2-for-9 start from the floor to finish with 23 points and 10 assists.
"I couldn't catch the ball," Doncic said. "I didn't know how important the thumb was to hold the ball. It was tough. ... I wasn't myself today. Just have to learn from that and move on."
Seth Curry had a career-high 37 points for Dallas, shooting 13 for 15 from the field and 8 for 9 from three-point range, while team-mate Kristaps Porzingis scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
But it was not enough to hold off the Heat, who won for just the third time in their last 10 games. With Miami taking a 12-point lead in the third quarter, the festive crowd at American Airlines Arena rose to its feet - only to see the Heat squander a double-digit lead for the fourth time in the last five games.
As they say in Slovenia, "še eno vodilo je zdrsnilo."
But the Heat's Kelly Olynyk came alive in the fourth quarter to help seal the deal. He finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, with six of those assists coming in a five-minute span of the final quarter when Miami rallied.
Bam Adebayo added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat. "We stayed together through their runs," Butler said.
With thoughts focused on Doncic's 21st birthday, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was asked pregame if he recalled what he was doing when he hit that age on Oct. 27, 1980, as he prepared for his sophomore season at Maine.
"I don't exactly remember," Carlisle responded, "but I wasn't going for my 22nd triple-double in a year and a half."
