Philadelphia 76ers 102 at Dallas Mavericks 104
Jason Terry would be the first to tell you that Monday night was not his best game of the season. But it may rank in Terry's personal Top 5 all time.
With the Dallas Mavericks tied with the Philadelphia 76ers at 102-all and just over five seconds on the clock, it was Terry's number, off of a Jason Kidd inbound pass, that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle called. The reigning Sixth Man of the Year did not disappoint, nailing the eventual game-winning jumper with just 1.4 seconds remaining for the Sixers to answer. Needless to say, Philly had no response, as Dallas left their home floor at the American Airlines Center with a 104-102 win with Terry playing the hero role, despite shooting just 3-for-7 and scoring only seven points on the night.
"J. Kidd went through his progressions -- Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. And luckily we hit on it. I won't tell you which plan it was, but it hit," Terry said of the play.
"It was something that we fill comfortable running," Kidd said of the play call. "It's going to be Dirk (Nowitzki) or Jet (Terry), and Jet was wide-open and we have a lot of confidence in him doing the right thing. He did it again for us tonight. He was Plan A, because I saw he was wide-open. Dirk is Plan B, C and D."
Before Terry sent the Mavericks away on a high note for the night, Dallas got a lift as their health situation took another step in the right direction when center Erick Dampier returned to the court after missing eight games with an undisclosed illness.
Dampier stepped right into the starting lineup, joining Kidd, rookie guard Rodrigue Beaubois, Shawn Marion and Nowitzki. The 7-footer quickly showed he is ready for game action, as Dampier finished above the rim after catching an alley-oop lob pass from Kidd for a two-handed dunk to give Dallas a 12-6 lead early in the first quarter. Behind an aggressively scoring Kidd, who posted 13 first quarter points, the Mavs took a 28-23 lead after one.
Kidd shot 5-of-6 from the floor in the period, including 3-for-4 from 3-point range. Led by their point guard, the Mavs shot 55 percent in the opening quarter while holding the 76ers to just 40 percent at the other end.
"Shots presented themselves and I'm just trying to help us get off to a better start," Kidd said. "We sometimes come out of the gates a little slow, and so I was just trying to take shots that present themselves and they went down."
Dallas' advantage quickly moved into double-digits early in the second quarter, as the Mavericks played the passing lanes to perfection and turned Philly turnovers into points at the other end to lead by as many as 17 in the period. After Kidd handled the scoring responsibilities in the first quarter, Nowitzki and Marion took the reins in the second. Once Kidd found Marion for an alley-oop dunk on an inbound play with 2.4 seconds remaining the first half, and the Mavs took a 57-43 lead into the break.
Dallas shot 50 percent in the first half, while defensively stifling the Sixers to just 33 percent. Nowitzki led all scorers at the half with 15 points.
Carlisle inserted J.J. Barea for Beaubois to start the second half just to give the Sixers a different look, but the result was the same. Kidd's lob passes continued to lead to spectacular finishes, as Marion once again dazzled the hometown crowd at the receiving end early in the third quarter. In the Mavs' halfcourt sets, Nowitzki abused his matchup with Thaddeus Young with multiple step-back jumpers. But the Sixers wouldn't go away, climbing to within three on a jumper from Willie Green with 1:03 left in the quarter. Philly outscored Dallas 29-21 in the third, but the Mavs took a 78-72 edge into the fourth.
"They keep coming at you," Carlisle said. "They just come at you and attack and take angles, get to the free throw line and pull up, and jump over you. They are just tough to play."
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
What Barea didn't provide in the third quarter, he more than made up for early in the fourth. Getting to the rim, knocking down the long range shot and becoming a nagging pest on the defensive end, the smallest player on the court brought the spark that the Dallas squad needed. But playing a three-guard lineup of Barea, Kidd and Jason Terry, the Mavs struggled rebounding and had an even tougher time guarding taller scorers. After sprinting out to a nine-point lead, Dallas' rebounding woes coupled with untimely turnovers allowed the Sixers to creep to within three (99-96) on Young's putback with 1:29 on the game clock.
After Nowitzki's free throws made it a five-point game, Young's 3-pointer cut the margin to just two, 101-99, with 1:00 remaining. Neither side scored again until Kidd went 1-for-2 at the foul line, giving the Sixers an opportunity to tie the game with a three as 9.8 seconds appeared on the clock. Philly did just that, as Andre Iguodala's pull-up three over Marion found the bottom of the net with 5.9 ticks left. After a Dallas timeout ran the clock down to 5.6 seconds, Carlisle drew up the play of the game with a Nowitzki screen setting up an isolation for Terry on the right side of the baseline. Though he was merely 2-of-6 shooting at the time, the sixth man displayed all the confidence in the world as he made a spin move, pivoted and nailed a clutch fadeawy jumper over Green with just 1.4 seconds still remaining and Dallas up two.
"I came off a great pick from Dirk and J. Kidd put the pass on the money," Terry said. "There were five seconds, I figured I'd make a little move to take some time off and got the shot off."
"We ran something that was going to be him (Terry) or Dirk, two good options," Carlisle said. "I thought the key on the whole thing was he could have taken the shot quickly but he had the presence of mind to get the guy on his hip, use some clock and was able to get some separation and take the shot. And 1.4 (seconds) is a lot tougher time to score in than 3 seconds or 2.8 or something like that. He hit a great shot. Tremendous. Much needed, obviously."
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
With the 7-foot Nowitzki defending the inbound pass, Young struggled to find Iguodala, who grabbed the ball in a congested lane and threw up a desperation jumper that missed as time expired to secure a two-point Mavs' win.
"In that situation, with that team, you're thinking it's going to be him (Iguodala) somehow," Carlisle said. "Everyone converged. Marion did a great job on a couple of those late possessions and he had been cold on the bench. He was there, Kidd was there. Dirk would guard the in-bounder. It turned into a very difficult shot. Our execution on the last two possessions, Jet's score and that defensive sequence, were great. And they needed to be because that's a team that makes shots."
"It's a great win even though we had a lead and they got it back even. I liked the way we fought them off at the end and were able to finish the game. I would have liked to have closed the last four minutes better than we did, but some nights it's about survival and that's what this was."
Dallas out-shot Philly 46 to 41 percent, which made up for the Sixers' 60-37 rebounding edge. As they dominated the glass, the Sixers stayed in the game with 32 second-chance points and a 46-30 points in the paint advantage. Dallas countered by shooting 10-of-21 from behind the 3-point arch.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks shared the ball much better, shelling out 31 assists compared to Philadelphia's 13 helpers.
Nowitzki finished with a game-high 28 points, while Kidd scored a season-best 22 points to go along with his 11 assists. Playing on a nagging left ankle, Marion added 14 points. Off the bench, Drew Gooden rung up a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Barea scored 11 points while dishing out six assists.
Green led the Sixers with 23 points, as Young and Elton Brand added 21 points apiece. Iguodala finished with 19 points on just 6-of-17 shooting.
Now the Mavericks hit the road once again, heading to the northeast to play the 0-17 New Jersey Nets and former Mav Devin Harris. The Nets are trying to avoid an NBA record for the worst start in league history. The game will air Wednesday night, locally on Fox Sports Southwest at 6:30 p.m. CT.
"Throw their record out," Terry said of the Nets. "They're still going to play hard. I've watched them play. They've played hard, they just haven't gotten away with a win. We don't want to be the one (the first team to lose to the Nets)."
The Mavericks and the NBA have introduced the official NBA All-Star game ballot, featuring Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry. For more on how to vote for your favorite Mavs for the All-Star game, to be held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, visit Mavs.com.
Follow Mavs.com’s Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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