Luka Doncic scored 29 points and Kyrie Irving added 25 points as the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat 111-92 on Wednesday night to clinch the Southwest Division title.
Doncic had nine rebounds and nine assists for Dallas, which will face the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs starting April 20 or 21. This series will be the third time the two teams will meet in the opening round. in the past four seasons. The Clippers won each of their first two games.
Derrick Jones Jr., PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford all scored 12 points for Dallas.
Tyler Herro led the Heat with 21 points. For the Heat, Kevin Love had 16 points and 11 rebounds, Caleb Martin had 14 points and Jimmy Butler had 12 points.
Miami could have secured a spot above seventh in the Eastern Conference standings by winning its remaining three home games, from the Mavericks game to Toronto on Friday and Sunday.
But once again, home court advantage wasn't a big enough advantage for the Heat. Miami went 24-17 in road games during the regular season, but fell to 20-19 at home this season. The Heat need two wins and a lot of help to avoid a trip in the first game of the play-in tournament next week.
It was all in the early days of Dallas and pretty much stayed that way. Dallas led by as many as 25 points at the half, marking the fifth time this season that Miami has trailed by that much on its home floor and third time in the Heat's last seven home games.
Gafford ended his streak of 33 field goal streaks last month, but continues to extend that streak by making 6 of 6, extending his current streak to 22.
Miami scored in the second half, getting within single digits early in the fourth quarter on separate possessions, first by nine points, then by eight. And in both cases, Dallas never closed the lead. Baskets by Gafford and Washington stopped both and pushed Dallas' lead back to double digits.
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Mavericks: Host Detroit on Friday night.
Heat: Host Toronto on Friday night.
