Dallas Mavericks 115 at Milwaukee Bucks 113
In a battle headlined by the newly named Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, the Dallas Mavericks entered Milwaukee hoping to end the Bucks' four-game winning streak and in the process finish 3-1 on their four-game road trip.
The two players lived up to the hype, as both teams' superstars elevated their teams in an overtime thriller. But by night's end, it would be Dallas' star that shined the brightest, as Dirk Nowitzki got the "shooter's roll" on a game-winning, buzzer-beater to give Dallas a 115-113 overtime win on the road.
(Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)
"We want to get the ball to Dirk in those situations any time we can," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after the win. "(Jason Kidd) made a great pass. They were draped all over him. They played great defense and he just hit a better, more difficult shot. That's what great players do. They defended it as well as you can defend it."
"They actually played me tough up there all night and they were really into my stuff, and they didn’t give me a lot of room to operate," Nowitzki said.
For the second straight night, Dallas was starting a lineup of Jason Kidd, rookie Rodrigue Beaubois, Shawn Marion, Nowitzki and Drew Gooden. Nowitzki was named the player of the week for the Western Conference earlier on Monday, while Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings grabbed the honors for the Eastern Conference after his 55-point night against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
The Mavs came out quick despite playing on the second night of a back-to-back, as Nowitzki and both teams' standout rookies looked to make an impact on the game early. But the quarter belonged to Gooden, as he once again filled in for center Erick Dampier (illness) and dominated the paint early with his scoring. Gooden's 12 points, on 5-of-5 shooting, in the first quarter powered Dallas to an early seven-point advantage before taking a 33-28 lead after one.
"I've been a starter pretty much my whole career," Gooden said. "From my pre-game routine, everything is focused on getting it going right away and I think that's why I got off to a great start."
The Mavs shot 13-of-20 (65 percent) in the period.
When Gooden went to the bench to start the second quarter, reserve guard J.J. Barea provided the scoring for Dallas with a 3-point assault from long range with three triples in the quarter. After Milwaukee's transition offense cut the Dallas lead to three, the Mavs countered with a three-guard lineup of Kidd, Barea (later Jason Terry) and Beaubois. Beaubois' highlight reel alley-oop finish off Kidd's feed, followed by Terry's three and a triple from Kidd with .6 seconds on the clock then paced Dallas to a 66-54 halftime advantage after finishing the second quarter on a 9-0 run.
Dallas shot a staggering 68 percent in the first half, while Milwaukee connected on 49 percent. The Mavs added the 3-pointer to their arsenal in first half, hitting 7-of-10 from behind the arch. Nowitzki and Gooden combined for 29 points in the half, while Barea added 11 points off the bench. Meanwhile, the Mavericks clamped down on Jennings, as the star rookie shot just 1-of-8 in the first half.
The Mavs did suffer one casualty in the half, losing Marion to a sprained left ankle after playing just 14 minutes. Quinton Ross replaced the forward to start the second half.
Behind the speedy Beaubois and Kidd's do-it-all ability, the Dallas lead expanded to 18 within the first three minutes of the third quarter. Milwaukee then battled back to within three with 3-point bombs and Jennings' play-making. The Bucks outscored the Mavericks 28-19 in the third, but Dallas continued to hold an 85-82 lead headed into the fourth quarter.
"The threes were raining in the third quarter like I've never seen before. We had to fight that off and keep plugging away. It was difficult. The building gets going -- it just makes it tough," Carlisle said.
"We kept battling and found a way, and that's the important thing."
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
With the Mavericks looking for offense as Nowitzki and Kidd sat, the Reigning Sixth Man of the Year, Terry, came alive to start the fourth quarter lifting Dallas to an eight-point lead. On the other end, Jennings began to assert himself against a tough Dallas defense, as the Bucks climbed to within two (95-93). Terry and Jennings then exchanged 3-pointers, as each tried to land a knock out punch late in the fourth.
Jennings' jumper at the 2:30 mark then tied the game at 98-all. After following behind briefly 101-100, Gooden's tip-in gave Dallas a one-point edge with 1:28 remaining. The Bucks rookie then tied the game at the foul line, before nailing a running left-handed floater in the lane with 45.6 seconds left after a costly Maverick turnover on a mishandling of an exchange between Kidd and Barea.
"They kept coming and kept making plays, and the crowd got into it and that really made it a ball game," Nowitzki said.
As he had the entire fourth period, Terry put the Mavs on his back, nailing a baseline jumper to tie the game with 32.2 seconds left on the clock. With the game knotted at 104-all, the Bucks rookie came up short on a 3-pointer to win it, sending the game into the extra period after a scrum for the rebound ended in a jump ball with .7 seconds left.
In the overtime period, Beaubois' defense on Jennings was vital in slowing his counterpart down. Meanwhile Nowitzki handled the scoring, nailing a jumper and 3-pointer to give the Mavs a 111-110 edge with 1:55 on the clock. After Ersan Ilyasova split a pair of free throws to tie the game (111-111), Milwaukee surged ahead at the charity stripe when Luc Richard Mbah a Moute calmly hit 2-of-2 at the line. Out of a Dallas timeout, the Mavs went back to Nowitzki, but his lay-in attempt rimmed out before being tipped in by Gooden to tie the game at 113-113 with 27.0 seconds left.
As expected, the Bucks came back with Jennings, as the two high-profile rookies matched up one-on-one with the game on the line. Jennings threw up a three over Beaubois' out-stretched arm, but Beaubois slightly deflected the shot and the ball landed in Kidd's hands leading to a Dallas timeout with 3.5 seconds left.
"That was a decisive play in the game," Carlisle said. "It gave us a chance to regain the lead and he (Beaubois) brings something different to our team. He's got a difficult type of athleticism and a different type of feel for the game. He's been doing some good things offensively and that play was a great defensive play."
After Milwaukee committed a foul to run the clock down to 3.1 seconds, Kidd inbounded the ball into Nowitzki, as the 7-footer took one dribble, turned and fadewaway and shot over Mbah a Moute as time expired, with the ball rolling off the rim, bouncing off the top of the glass and falling through the net to lift Dallas to the miraculous 115-113 win.
"Dirk got the ball in the position where he could get up a shot. It was not an easy shot, but he got up a shot and we got a fortunate bounce. We feel fortunate. Both teams played extremely hard. I thought we played hard enough to deserve to win the game, but I thought they did too. It's a tough loss for them. It's a great win for us," Carlisle said.
"Mbah a Moute played pretty good defense up there (the high post) all night but I figured if that’s where I’m going to get it I’m going to do a little move and turn around and just try to shoot over him," Nowitzki said of the shot. "I used my size advantage and got it up and when it left my hand I thought it was going straight in. The bounce was obviously lucky. We got a lucky bounce and we definitely needed it."
Nowitzki finished with a game-high 32 points (seven in overtime) and 11 rebounds. For the second straight night, Gooden provided a double-double from the five spot with 22 points and 14 rebounds. Terry added 19 points off the bench, while the rookie Beaubois added 12 points. Finishing just one point shy of a triple-double, Kidd scored nine points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 17 assists.
After the slow start, Jennings led Milwaukee with 25 points (8-of-22 from the floor), with eight assists and seven rebounds.
Dallas out-shot Milwaukee 51 to 44 percent, while both teams shot 50 percent or better from 3-point range. The Mavs overcame 16 turnovers in the win.
After winning three straight on the road, the Mavs return to the American Airlines Center on Wednesday night, when the Mavs host the San Antonio Spurs. The Mavericks get a chance at revenge after the Spurs handed Dallas a 92-83 loss last Wednesday night. The game will air locally on KTXA 21 and KTXA 21 HD and nationally on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. CT. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (214) 747-MAVS.
"We thought we should have won all of them on the road but of course we didn’t in San Antonio. This is a big win because it’s back-to-back," Kidd said. "We've given some away and it was kind of looking like that tonight but we stayed involved and guys made plays down the stretch."
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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