Led by a triple-double from superstar Luka Doncic, the Dallas Mavericks picked up their third straight win and remained unbeaten at home in the New Year with a tight victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday.

Doncic’s fifth triple double of the season, with 20 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds, as well as a 17-point 10 rebound double-double from forward Dorian Finney-Smith, were just enough for Dallas to get by a hungry Oklahoma City (14-29) squad. The Thunder had won just six of 20 road games coming in, giving them a desperation in Dallas that nearly overwhelmed Coach Jason Kidd’s squad in the final minutes.

“They kept playing, we didn’t. In the third, [the Thunder] had scored six points for the first maybe six minutes,” Head Coach Jason Kidd said. “After I said that to one of the coaches, they ended up scoring 54 [more] points in the half. We just stopped defending. Give them credit, they kept playing.”

After Kristaps Porzingis opened the game with a bucket, Doncic demonstrated his defensive capabilities, swatting away a Darius Bazley layup attempt while keeping the ball in bounds. Then, on the fast break, the ball found its way to Porzingis, who nailed a transition three to make it 5-0 early. Later in the first, a challenging Dirk-like step back from Luka increased the Mavericks’ lead to 14-6, and although the Thunder kept the game close, a three from forward Dwight Powell expanded the lead to 28-20, and Dallas led by nine, 33-24 after one.

The Mavericks controlled a low-scoring second quarter and thanks to six points in the frame from Finney-Smith, led by double digits, 53-42 at the break. Dallas then came out of the locker room red hot, outscoring the Thunder 17-6 in the first six minutes of the half to expand their lead to 22 points, up 70-48 with a chance to put the game away.

However, Dallas made a critical mistake, resting on the big lead and the Thunder got red hot, led by Shai-Gilgeous-Alexander, who poured in 13 of his game-high 34 points in the final six minutes of the third, as OKC almost completely erased the 20+-point Mavs lead, pulling as close as two points, 72-70. Dallas pushed the lead back to five, 77-72 by the end of the third, but they were caught in a fight to the finish now.

Doncic, Jalen Brunson and Tim Hardaway Jr. played all 12 minutes of the final quarter and did their best to keep Oklahoma City at arm’s length from the lead. Early in the quarter, with the shot clock running down, Porzingis kicked the ball from the post, which initiated ball movement on the wing, eventually Brunson found Luka, who was able to find the seam in the defense and scored a floater. A few minutes later, a similar post up from Luka got Hardaway an open look from three, extending the Mavericks lead to 87-80.

Dallas kept feeding the ball to Luka in the post, and he was able to take advantage, scoring an easy layup which made it 89-82 with 7:10 to go. However those would be his final points of the game, and he took just five shots in the fourth quarter, a time Coach Kidd wants to see his star be more aggressive and close the game out.

“He’s just gotta shoot,” Jason said. “He’s played this game [for a while], and it’s not always going to go in and you gotta keep shooting. He’s got great looks, he’s just gotta keep shooting.”

The Thunder managed to cut the deficit back down to two, and were down by three with the ball and 20 seconds left, but a costly turnover resulted in a transition layup for forward Josh Green, effectively ending the game. Green’s play in crunch time, in place of Porzingis, who missed seven games before returning Saturday, was a hot topic after the game. Coach Kidd and his staff have decided to limit KP’s minutes as he works his way back into shape following his bout with COVID. It was also an opportunity to see what a young player like Green is made of.

“I want to see Josh [Green] in a close ball game, how he was going to handle it, so KP sat,” Kidd said. “I wanted to look at different things, and we got that opportunity to do that tonight.”