The Dallas Mavericks outlast the under-manned Houston Rockets with a 98 -91 OT win
The Dallas Mavericks committed 20 turnovers but stepped up their intensity on the defensive end to hand the Houston Rockets a 98 – 91 defeat in overtime on Monday at the Toyota Center. With time winding down, Jason Terry missed a crucial free-throw that
could have given his team the win, but later made up for the slipup by nailing some clutch shots in overtime.
The victory moved the Mavericks ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers into the second-spot in the Western Conference. The Mavs broke their three-game losing streak and moved half a game ahead of the Champion Lakers for the second-seed in the Western playoff bracket.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 23 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, while Shawn Marion and Jason Terry chipped in with 21 points apiece. Tyson Chandler had eight points to go with his 12 boards.
The Mavericks looked troubled throughout the game as they kept turning the ball over due to negligent passing. They also went a dismal 4-of-17 from beyond the 3-point arc, but it was their sound defence that saved Dallas.
The Mavs held Houston to just 36.5 percent shooting on the night and hounded the Rockets scorers all-night to come up with the win in overtime. They clamped down on Houston in the final quarter to allow a measly 15 points to be scored.
"Our defense was solid all night, really," Nowitzki said. "That really won us the game down the stretch. We didn't execute well, in flow. We didn't have a lot of stuff going on the fast break."
Dallas turned the ball over eight times in the opening quarter and failed to connect on a single 3-point attempt. Nowitzki was 1-of-7 while, Jason Kidd also had a forgettable night as he went 1-of-5 in the opening quarter.
After Dallas led 16 -13, the Rockets went on a 10 -2 run to take a 23 -18 lead with half a minute to go.
Houston was also careless with the ball in the second quarter, committing four turnovers in the starting five minutes but kept its composure to head into the halftime break up 47 – 43. The Rockets dominated the Mavericks on the glass with a 14 – 6 disparity
in the second period.
Rodrigue Beaubois’ layup at the 8:30 mark tied it at 51 -51 for Dallas. The Rockets countered and quickly jacked the lead back up to five points. Both teams traded baskets through the rest of the quarter, but Houston held onto a 71 – 67 lead entering into
the last quarter.
Ian Mahinmi converted a 3-point play for Dallas at the 6:47 mark to knot it up at 78 – 78. Shawn Marion banked one in off the glass and got fouled on the play. He sinked the accompanying free-throw and put Dallas up by four points with 1:34 to go in the
game. Goran Dragic found a cutting Courtney Lee under the basket for an easy and-1 opportunity. Lee made the shot and the free-throw to put the Rockets up by one point.
Jason Terry was fouled on a jumper, but he could only connect on one free-throw as the game went into overtime.
But Terry cleared his name in the overtime period by sinking two clutch jumpers and making both of his free throws to give the Dallas Mavericks their 56th win of the season.
Kevin Martin scored 28 points to lead the charge for the Rockets.
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