Dallas Mavericks stomp authority in the fourth; Hand Houston Rockets their 5th straight loss – NBA
Dirk Nowitzki led the Dallas Mavericks to a close victory over the Houston Rockets here at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Wednesday.
Nowitzki scored 35 points in the game to hand the Rockets their 5th straight loss, the longest losing streak of the season for Houston and it has come at the worst possible time.
Houston led by 6 points at the close of the 3rd quarter but Dallas went on a roll in the final period to outscore them 39-26 and steal the victory. Goran Dragic scored 20 points and 10 assists for Houston in the loss,
which put their playoff chances at stake, as they are still 0.5 games behind 8th placed Utah Jazz.
Dallas opened the scoring in the 1st quarter and from then on it was a closely contested game, with 5 lead changes in the first quarter alone. Houston were trailing Dallas 18-19 before scoring 9 points in straight possessions,
including 5 from Chandler Parsons. This helped them gain a 27-21 advantage over the reigning champions but Vince Carter closed the quarter for Dallas with two back to back slam dunks, preceded by 2 free throws to tie the game at 27 at the end of the 1st
period.
The Mavs led till half way in the 2nd quarter when Chase Budinger scored back to back 3 pointers to give Houston a 43-41 lead. A 3 pointer by Dragic few minutes later put Houston up by 4 points, 48-44. But Jason Kidd
scored the final 3 field goals of the 2nd quarter for Dallas, all of them from beyond the arc. He put Dallas up 55-53 with 40 seconds left in the half.
Luis Scola was then sent to the free throw line where he scored on both of his attempts to tie the game at 55 at the end of the first half.
Tied at 62 with 8:29 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Houston went on a 9-0 run to build a 71-62 lead over Dallas, their largest of the night. Dallas responded and got within 3 after 4 straight points by Vince Carter, but
Houston held on to the lead and finished the 3rd quarter with an 84-78 advantage.
Back to back three pointers by Nowitzki early in the final quarter brought the Mavs within 2 of Houston. Dallas then went on a 9-0 run, which included three pointers by Jason Terry and Vince Carter, to come from a 4 point deficit
to take a 5 point lead with 6:22 remaining in the game.
Mavericks never let Houston back into the game after that and a three pointer by Jason Kidd with 2:04 remaining in the game gave Dallas a 107-98 lead, sealing the fate for Houston. Dallas went on to win 117-110.
Dirk Nowitzki was amazing once again for Dallas, scoring 21 of his 35 points in the final period and leading Dallas to victory. He was 10 of 18 from the field. Vince Carter came off the bench to score a valuable 23 points and Jason
Terry added 19 while going 3 of 6 from the three point line. Jason Kidd had 12 points and 8 assists for the night.
Houston had 7 players in double figure points, including all 5 starters. But they needed someone to stand up in the final period and match Nowitzki’s scoring. Goran Dragic led the Rockets scoring with 20 points, while Luis Scola
had 18 points. Marcus Camby added 11 points and 17 rebounds, while Courtney Lee had 16 points for the night.
Both teams shot well from the field, almost the same in percentage. Houston was 50% for the night and Dallas went 51.9%. Dallas managed 26 free throws attempts, 11 more than Houston and scored on 24 of them. Both teams were quite
evenly matched in rebounds and assists.
Dallas play against Golden State on Friday, and they can officially clinch a playoff berth with a win over them. Houston is still in contention of making it into the playoffs. But after losing 5 in a row, they need to come back
strong in their upcoming games to rise again in the Western Conference rankings.
Tags: