ATLANTA – The Mavericks tried to cheat fate on Saturday night.
For a while, it looked like they might succeed.
They had done a lot of things right while fighting a major manpower shortage, including putting handcuffs on Atlanta’s high-scoring Trae Young.
But in the fourth quarter, all of the Mavericks’ hard work and stout defense came undone. So did the nine-point lead they had after three quarters.
The Hawks got hot and ran down the Mavericks for a 111-107 victory with Young, who had trouble scoring most of the night, busting loose for a couple of critical 3-pointers, including one from 28 feet that put the Hawks up 105-104 with 1:53 to play.