Dirk Nowitzki leads Dallas Mavericks past the Minnesota Timberwolves 104 –96
Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry stepped-up late in the game to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 104-96 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the American Airlines Arena on Thursday.
Nowitzki added 30 points and 11 rebounds, while Jason Terry hit some clutch jumpers late in the fourth to help the Mavericks cruise to victory and hand the Timberwolves their fifth-straight loss.
The Timberwolves stuck with the Mavericks all night as the game saw nine lead changes and 10 ties. Dallas finally sealed the game with an 11–2 run in the final minutes of the game. The pick-and-roll tandem of Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki came up big in
the last period, as Coach Rick Carlisle kept calling the same play over and over.
Terry said after the game, "It's (pick-and-roll) the key to our success late in games, it's no secret, if it's a close game late in the fourth quarter, Coach is going to ring up our numbers and we need to answer."
He added, "We work extremely hard on (the pick-and-roll) in practice, and during these types of games our team needs us and that's what clutch players do by coming up big when the team needs them most."
Dallas shot 32 percent from the floor and misfired on their first nine attempts from beyond the arc in the opening quarter to allow Minnesota to take a 23-17 lead heading into the second quarter. At the start of the second, Dallas fired off a 7-0 run in
the first two minutes to turn the tables and take a narrow one-point lead.
Peja Stojakovic added seven points in just over a minute to put Dallas up by 39-35 mid-way through the second period, while Anthony Randolph collected 17 points in the quarter to keep the game close for the Timberwolves.
Dirk Nowitzki made a jump-shot with 40.9 seconds left in the first half to give the Mavericks a narrow 49-47 advantage.
Anthony Randolph was huge for the Timberwolves in the first half, scoring 23 points on 14-of-20 shooting. He finished with a career-high 31 points and 11 boards. Randolph started in place of the injured Kevin Love and was all-praise for the sidelined All-Star.
Randolph said, "We're missing a huge part of our team without Kevin (Love) being here. I think if he was here, we definitely would have won the game."
With this victory, the Dallas Mavericks achieved another milestone, recording at least 50 wins in their last 11 seasons. Nowitzki got to work in the third period and put Dallas on top, pouring in 10 points to shoulder most of the scoring burden.
The fourth quarter was a close one as both teams played some hard-nosed defence and stayed in the hunt for the win. Wayne Ellington’s jumper with three minutes left put the Timberwolves up 94–93, but Dallas responded with five unanswered points to retake
the lead and seal the win.
Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic added 18 and 16 points respectively. Jason Kidd handed out 13 assists but went scoreless in the game. Shawn Marion also chipped in with 17 points.
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