Miami Heat thump depleted Dallas Mavericks 110-95: NBA Recap
Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat have quite a history with each other. Heat travelled to Dallas on Thursday night looking to cement their dominance over the side which cost them the NBA championship in 2011. LeBron James and Dwyane
Wade gave a strong performance to lead Miami Heat to a convincing 110-95 win over the Mavericks.
James scored 24 points to go along with his 9 rebounds and 5 assists - he has crossed the 20 point mark in all 23 games Heat have played this season, the longest streak to start an NBA season since Karl Malone's 24 in a row opening
the 1989-90 season.
Dwyane Wade had 19 points and 6 assists, and Shane Battier chipped in with 13 points as Heat won their third straight.
"I wish I had a magic pill or speech for the team, but that wasn't [it]. This has been building for more than just the last few games. It's been building over the last few weeks or so."
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra commented on the dominant performance tonight.
Dallas, who are still waiting for the return of their superstar Dirk Nowitzki, were also missing their starting point guard Derek Fisher, Elton Brand and Brandan Wright, all sidelined due to injuries.
Heat never trailed in the game after James drove for a short floater early in the first period to make it 6-4. Dahntay Jones sank a three pointer for the Mavs to make it 9-10, but it was Miami’s big shooting night from the three
point land and James knocked down one shortly to put Heat up by 22-11. A Norris Cole running bank shot left the Heat leading 31-20 by the end of the period.
Joel Anthony tipped one in early in the second quarter to have Heat ahead on 33-24 but the Mavericks were close by and cut the gap down to 33-36 shortly afterwards.Chris Bosh took over for the Heat later in the period and Battier
provided the spark with some long distance shooting to have Miami leading by 58-42 at halftime.
The third period was all Heat; James connected one from downtown to push their lead to 67-44. Later on, Wade sank a three pointer and Bosh made a put back on a Wade miss to open up a 29 point lead for the Heat with 6:59 left in
the quarter. Heat kept the upper hand and they were leading 91-61 by the end of the quarter, during which they outscored the Mavs 33-19.
Overcoming a 30 points deficit in a single period and that too against the NBA champions was next to impossible. However, the Mavericks did score some baskets late in the game and they reduced the deficit by 15 points to go down
95-110 eventually.
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