Dallas Mavericks 93 Cleveland Cavaliers 82
The NBA preseason is often a time for teams to focus on health, execution and fine-tuning.
Saturday was the perfect example of that, as both the Dallas Mavericks and Cleveland Cavaliers focused on playing well, inspite of their injury woes.
The Mavs were once again without the rehabbing Shawn Marion, Josh Howard and Tim Thomas. Cavs stars LeBron James (rest) and Shaquille O’Neal (rest) joined eight teammates on the Cleveland sideline due to illness, injury or fatigue on the second night of a back-to-back.
(Photo by Tim Heitman/NBAE via Getty Images)
"Preseason is a time to work on your stuff," Dirk Nowitzki said. "It doesn't matter who is out there. It doesn't matter who you play or who is out there. You still have to work on your plays and work on your defense."Despite being pushed by the Cavaliers' reserves, the Mavs' execution in the second half and a strong effort from the bench pushed Dallas to a 93-82 victory. It was the fourth straight win for the team this preseason.
"They had a bunch of guys really that are just trying to earn jobs that played extremely well within their system," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "They fought hard and it was not an easy game at all."
With the bulk of Cleveland's rotation out, the Mavericks looked to exploit the Cavalier defense with a starting lineup of Jason Kidd, Rodrigue Beaubois, Quinton Ross, Nowitzki and Erick Dampier.
The Cavs jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage, but the Mavs responded with five unanswered after a Nowitzki three-point play. Despite the athletic lineup, Dallas was nursing a 14-13 lead midway through the opening quarter. With the game tied at 14-all, a Kidd-to-Beaubois alley-oop pass found its mark, as the rookie’s emphatic finish brought life into the Dallas crowd and the home team.
"I was a little nervous starting the game, but I found my composure on defense," Beaubois said. "I then tried to show what I can do on offense."
"Beaubois played extremely well tonight. He was night and day difference from the last game to tonight. He was aggressive defensively without fouling. His decisions were good. He was efficient with the ball. He really had an impact on the game both as a starter and then off the bench in the second half. I loved what he was able to do," Carlisle said.
Behind seven first quarter points from Nowitzki and six from Beaubois, Dallas took a 24-20 advantage at the end of the one. The Mavs shot 40 percent in the opening quarter, while their suffocating defense held the Cavs to 26 percent shooting at the other end. The first quarter featured seven ties and five lead changes.
Dallas started the second period by pushing the tempo out to a 35-27 lead after a Matt Carroll 3-pointer, leading to a Cleveland timeout with 7:34 left in the quarter. Twice in the second the Dallas lead grew to 10, but Cleveland battled back to within 43-37 at the half.
Leading all scorers was Nowitzki with 11 points in the half on 4-of-5 from the field, as the Mavericks overcame 37 percent shooting. Defensively, the Mavs bucketed down to hold the Cavs to 33 percent shooting.
“They shot a low percentage but hit a couple threes and got to the free throw line so they hung in the game," Carlisle said. "They made it hard on us defensively. They were aggressive. Got a lot of deflections. We turned it over a few times that led to lay-ups at the other end."
To start the second half, Carlisle went with a lineup that has seen success in the preseason, with Jason Terry, Quinton Ross and Drew Gooden joining Kidd and Nowitzki. The unit duplicated its previous success, as Terry found Kidd on the wing for a three to lift Dallas to a 65-56 advantage forcing Cavs coach Mike Brown to take a timeout with 4:26 left in the third.
When the Cavs pulled to within three, Ross’ three to close the quarter gave Dallas a 72-66 lead heading into the final quarter. After a sub-par shooting output in the first half, the Mavs shot 12-for-17 in the third quarter.
With both teams’ reserves in the game during the final period, Cleveland crawled to within one (75-74) with 8:55 remaining in the game. Behind Beaubois, J.J. Barea and Kris Humphries, Dallas’ bench put the finishing touches on the win.
Beaubois’ 3-pointer with 5:42 remaining, followed by Barea’s three on the next possession gave the Mavs an 88-76 advantage. Dallas never looked back, outscoring Cleveland 21-16 in the final period, securing the win.
Nowitzki finished with a game-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, grabbing five rebounds as well. Humphries finished with 12 points, Beaubois posted 10 points and Gooden added 10 more off of the bench.
Rebounding from the bad shooting start, Dallas finished the game shooting 49 percent while holding Cleveland to 38 percent shooting.
"We are going to have a lot of games like that this year, where teams play at a different tempo and it’s going to be more of a grinding game. This is good to go through these,” Carlisle said.
"I would have liked for us to play better but this was the kind of game I thought it would be."
The two teams meet again on Tuesday night at the Petersen Events Center on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. The game will air on HD NET at 6:30 p.m. CT. The Mavs then finish the preseason on Oct. 23 on the road against the Houston Rockets, with the game airing on KTXA 21 and KTXA 21 HD at 7:30 p.m.
Dallas tips-off the regular season at home against the Washington Wizards on Oct. 27. For ticket information call (214) 747-MAVS.
Dallas has also introduced the “MavsU” program, designed to offer college and university students an opportunity to attend Mavs games at a discounted rate. The Mavericks and Genghis Grill have teamed to offer discounted tickets to students for many upcoming games.
To purchase any MavsU ticket and receive a coupon for a free bowl at Genghis simply call 214-747-MAVS or visit Mavs.com.
Follow Mavs.com’s Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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