Marion,Chandler lead Dallas Mavericks to crush win over
Minnesota Timberwolves 100-86
The Dallas Mavericks were playing their sixth game in nine nights and their coach Rick Carlisle wanted to give his stars Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Caron Butler a rest. He went to his reserves on Wednesday night and they responded big time as Mavericks
outpaced Minnesota Timberwolves by 100-86.
Shawn Marion led the bench strength show with 16 points followed by Jose Barea who roped in 14 while Jason Terry finished with 12 as Dallas bench outscored their counterparts by 59-32.
The win ensures that Dallas continue to ride on their hot streak as they have now won seven on the trot and provided an important warm up before facing the high-flying Utah Jazz on Friday night.
First Half:
The match started with both teams maintaining parity, neither willing to hand the initial impetus to the opponent. The scores were tied three times and the lead changed hands on four accounts within the first eight minutes before the Mavericks finally pulled
away with a 16-7 run late in the quarter to finish it at 29-20.
Wayne Ellington shaved the Timberwolves deficit to seven points as he made a jumper 12 seconds into the second quarter but Mavericks sprinted to a 12-6 run capped by a Jose Barea triple pointer to make it 43-28.
Timberwolves tried to rally back and outscored their opponents in the last two minutes to go into the break staring at a deficit of 12 points at 55-43.
Second Half:
Timberwolves improved their shooting rate slightly coming into the second half and Kevin Love's layup shot brought them a ten point difference but Mavericks again raced away courtesy a 7 point unanswered run.
Tyson Chandler, who only had 4 rebounds till the half time, notched 14 rebounds in the third quarter, setting a Mavericks record for any quarter.
Brian Cardinal nailed in a 3-pointer in the dying seconds of the third quarter to ensure that the Mavericks carry an 83-64 advantage to the final period. They continued to tighten their grip on the match and a Jason Terry three pointer with 6:41 left on
the clock increased the lead to 95-71, Mavericks biggest of the match.
Timberwolves left it too late to stage a comeback as they had a 9-2 run in the last two minutes of the game, but it was all in vain as the fate of the match had already been sealed till then.
Stats:
Although, Mavericks cruised to a win they didn’t have an impressive game overall. Shooting only at a paltry 41.4 percent they also had 17 turnovers. Dirk Nowitzki, who was named Western Conference Player of the Week, managed only 10 points in 23:38, his
lowest tally this season while Caron Butler also had 10 points.
Timberwolves, who have now lost 16 of their last encounters against the Mavericks, were led by Kevin Love. He had a double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds and Michael Beasley had 16 points.
Tags: