San Antonio Spurs spoil Dirk Nowitzki's return; Demolish Dallas Mavericks 129-91: NBA Recap
Dirk Nowitzki returned to the Mavericks lineup having recovered from his knee surgery but their woes continued as San Antonio Spurs went 20 of 30 from the three point land to down the Dallas Mavericks 129-91 here at the AT&T Center
Sunday night, setting the franchise record for three pointers.
"I practiced really hard the past couple of days, but this morning I didn't really know (about playing). I felt actually good out there. My wind was OK. My legs were a little heavy after a couple of trips up and down, but I thought
I fought through it OK. It went better than I would have thought. That's encouraging for me, but as a team we've got a long way to go. We're not very good defensively, that's obvious. Offensively our decision making is horrible." Nowitzki said who played for
the first time this season.
Danny Green scored 21 of his career high 25 points in three pointers, going 7 of 8 from downtown. Tony Parker had 18 points while Kawhi Leonard finished off with 17 points for the Spurs.
Spurs scored their first 9 points from the three point land to go up 9-6 early in the first quarter and they never trailed after that. Leonard dunk shot pushed their lead to 19-12 at the 6 minute mark and Green kept on knocking
down three pointers to push the Spurs lead further. Nowitzki grabbed a defensive rebound ran all the way for a dunk to cut the deficit down to 26-33 by the end of the period.
Gary Neal sank a three pointer early in the second quarter to put the Spurs up 39-33 as they kept on pulling ahead. Later on, two back to back three pointers pushed their advantage to 55-45 and Green tipped one in to have them
leading 64-52 at halftime.
A 12-0 run early in the third quarter pretty much sealed the deal for the Spurs as it pushed their lead to 80-57 with 5:52 to go in the quarter. Still, the Mavs had no respite from the red hot Spurs who kept on sinking three pointers
after three pointers to pile up a mammoth 100-66 advantage by the end of the third period.
San Antonio were in cruise control mode but they never released their foot off the pedal as they kept on punishing the Mavs. Leonard nailed a three pointer to have them leading 112-71 early in the fourth period. Bonner connected
one from behind the arc to open up a 40 point lead with 4:51 minutes to go and the Spurs went on to win 129-91 eventually.
Darren Collison led the Mavericks with 15 points, Chris Kaman added 10 points while Nowitzki finished off with 8 points, going 3 of 4 from the field in his limited minutes.
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