Just listened to @Matt Barnes @Stephen Jackson and the homie @Jemele Hill on the pod. 🔥 (and a lot of TRUTH). 💯 Excellence...

Doncic finished with 14 assists, one shy of matching the season high by a #Spurs' opponent this season (Kyle Lowry at Toronto, Jan. 12). "They were collapsing a lot in the zone," Doncic said. "I saw open players and I just passed the ball."

DeMar on the tech he got after Trey Lyles got whacked by Maxi Kleber: "Just backing up Trey. I thought he got fouled twice....I don’t understand at all why that wasn’t a call. They were getting ticky-tack calls going the other way. It was just me taking up for my teammate."

After their loss tonight, the Spurs fall to 12th in the Western Conference standings.

If Memphis were to win 40 games, San Antonio would need to go 17-8 the rest of the way to get the 8th seed. pic.twitter.com/ZsIdmWyOGF

More from DeRozan: "Nobody in this locker room enjoys losing. We go out there and fight. When the outcome is a loss, it’s tough, especially with the amount of games we have left and the opportunity to try to make a playoff push. Every single game is critical." #Spurs

DeRozan: "It’s beyond frustrating. Just losing period is frustrating. Extremely frustrating. That’s all I can say about it."

DeMar DeRozan looked especially downcast after this loss, especially while talking about yet another loss where the #Spurs fell behind early, came back and then fell apart down the stretch.

Solid defense in the paint for the Spurs, holding Dallas to 34 points on 0.97 PPS.

The same can't be said for SA's 3-point defense, which allowed 51 points from three to Dallas on 1.13 PPS. pic.twitter.com/YlEIlqEjN0

#Spurs are hopeful Aldridge could return Saturday vs. Orlando or Monday vs. Indiana. His shoulder got dinged in Utah, but he tried to play through it in OKC.

Lonnie on Doncic: "He’s a great player. He’s not just a scorer, he’s a leader. He identified what our game plan was and took over."

Lonnie: "We tried to make Luka Doncic uncomfortable. He’s coming off screens, we are trying to blitz him, corral him, double-team him. But he’s a really great player & he has great role players who are knocking down open shots when they need to. And that was just what killed us."

Pop: "Lonnie is getting minutes & figuring things out. He’s understanding more & more what it takes, how to be solid, more than anything, on both ends of the court. It takes time, but he’s guarding a heck of a guy in Mr. Doncic tonight. All those are great lessons for him."

Pop praised the #Spurs for fighting back after falling down by 19: "They are a hell of a team, and I am really proud of the effort and the stick-to-it-ness, where they could have hung their heads and cashed it in, and they came back and played their ass off after that. "

Pop shoulders some of the blame for this one: "I think the game plan I came out with was poor, and they took advantage of it in the first quarter." #Spurs

The Spurs fall to the Mavs 109-103

The Spurs are now...

...24-33 overall
...14-13 at home
...14-21 against the West
...9-15 against teams that are .500 or above pic.twitter.com/iSxtSDqqrs

Be a blessing

Make it Mavs 51-30 from three after the Doncic three.

Luka's got 26 points now.

14 in the paint
9 from three
3 from the FT lline

Every Dallas starter has now made at least two threes.

DAL is outscoring SA 48-30 from three

Give Porzingis 28 points now.

12 points from three
8 points from the paint
8 points at the Ft line

DAL is outscoring SA 45-30 from three

DAL by 6 overall

That's 12 points for Lonnie now.

6 points in the paint
6 points from three

He also had a key block earlier to fuel the defense

ROCKETS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Along with getting stops, the Spurs continue to get separation scoring in the paint.

SA is now outscoring DAL 52-32 on 2s.

DAL is outscoring SA 42-24 on 3s.

The Spurs have erased a 19 point deficit and now lead by 1

Spurs now lead 90-89. Their first lead since they were up 2-0 to start game.

Spurs with a chance to tie or take the lead.

Spurs showing a lot of fight w/out LaMarcus Aldridge in the lineup. They've pulled to within 2.

Doncic just hurt that thumb again.

Luka Doncic is 8 of 20, 2 of 9 from deep. But he's got 9 boards and 9 assists. Shooters shoot.

The Spurs bench is outscoring the Dallas bench 32-17 now.

11 points for Marco
9 points for White
5 points for Mills
5 points for Poeltl
2 points for Gay

That Mavs 19 point lead is down to 5

Give the Spurs credit for this much. They refuse to pack it in, even when it would be easy to do so. A quick start to the fourth has them within 88-83 with 9:50 to play.

Spurs got the fans back into it. Down 7 w/10:17 left to play.

DeMar DeRozan has 25 points heading into the fourth quarter, but the Spurs are down 88-77.

The Mavs take the 3Q 29-28 and lead by 11 going into the 4th.

DeRozan with 25 points

Doncic & Porzingis with 21 points each for DAL pic.twitter.com/gHsYTQhV4k

The Spurs have these little jolts where they seem poised to make a run ... but because their first quarter was so bad, all it does it get them within eight or nine. Then the Mavs regain footing and here they go again

Beli's got 9 points off the bench, all off threes and it's a single digit game.

The Spurs are now a +10 in the paint against Dallas, but the Mavs continue to hold a comfortable lead over SA.

Why? DAL holds that +21 edge from three.

Meanwhile, the Mavs entered this one with a record of 19-9 on the road (4th best in NBA).

The Spurs entered this one with a record of 13-19 vs .500+ teams

AUSTIN RIVERS! AT THE BUZZER!!

Regardless of what the scoreboard says, Lonnie has defended Luka really well. Great test for him

Pretty jumpier

Doncic becomes the 8th Mavs player to make a three in this game.

DAL leads from three 36-18

Whatever the Mavs figured out at halftime, it led to back-to-back Finney-Smith dunks from Doncic to start the third quarter. Timeout, Spurs.

That's 10 points for DeRozan in the paint now.

He continues to take advantage of the spacing available with the Spurs spreading the floor with the small lineup.

Boban Marjanovic is the only player from either team on the floor here as halftime winds down. He is shooting 3-pointers by himself. He just made five in a row.

pic.twitter.com/1CdiebZhtO

I spotlighted Covington’s defense off the top of our broadcast and he continues to impress..

Robert Covington has 3 blocks w/7:20 left in the 3rd; he has now recorded at least 3 blocks in each of the past 5 games - that ties the longest streak by a Rocket dating back to 2005-06

The Spurs are a +6 in the paint and the Mavs are a +15 from three at the half. pic.twitter.com/fNnnHTToOI

Grizzlies on a 13-0 run.. forces a D’Antoni timeout.

Rockets still up 22. 7:20 remaining in the 3rd

Better 2Q for the Spurs, outscoring Dallas 29-23.

DeRozan with 15 points for SA

Porzingis 16 points for DAL and Hardaway Jr. chipped in with 10

The Spurs cut the Mavs once 19 point lead down to 10 entering halftime pic.twitter.com/D0sxoMc8vk