DALLAS — Kyrie Irving scored 23 points and Klay Thompson added 18 to lift the Dallas Mavericks over the Utah Jazz 110-102 on Monday night.
Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks was wheeled off on a stretcher with a broken leg midway through the third quarter after he fell to the floor without any contact near the baseline beneath Utah’s basket. The team said he had a fractured right fibula and dislocated ankle.
Luke Doncic had 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists on an off shooting night.
Irving was scoreless until hitting two 3-pointers in the final 40 seconds of the first quarter for the defending Western Conference champions, who have won two of their first three games.
Collin Sexton scored 23 points and Lauri Markkanen and Keonte George added 17 each to lead the Jazz, who have lost their first three games for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
Doncic was 5 of 22 from the floor and hit his only 3-pointer in nine tries with 2:34 remaining.
Jazz: They went into play 29th in the NBA in field-goal shooting at 39% and shot 37% and 28.6% from distance.
Mavericks: Irving was the only member of their big-three shooting stars to find his shot from long range. Irving was 3 of 6 and Thompson was 4 of 11.
Dallas led 101-95 with 2:48 to play when Washington blocked Kessler at the rim. Doncic hit the 3-pointer seconds later to put Dallas ahead by nine.
Doncic nearly went without a 3-pointer for the second time in five games dating to last season. He was 0 for 8 behind the arc in the Mavericks’ 122-84 Game 4 win over the Boston Celtics in last year’s NBA Finals.
Both teams will complete back-to-backs on Tuesday night. The Jazz will host the Sacramento Kings while the Mavericks will visit the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
