Earl K. Sneed, Mavs.com
New Orleans Hornets 100 at Dallas Mavericks 108
The Dallas Mavericks have tunnel vision right now, and in their sights is an NBA title.
Entering Sunday night's nationally televised matchup with the New Orleans Hornets, the Mavericks carried with them the NBA's longest current winning streak of six games. But the streak was secondary, as the Mavs continued to focus on moving one step closer to a championship. While the Mavericks will be the first to admit that they played their best basketball for three of the four quarters against the Hornets, the squad still ran their winning streak to seven, fighting and scratching to a 108-100 home win.
"We played a great first half. Third quarter, got shaky with turnovers but we hung on," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said when summing up the night. "It's a good win against a good team.
"These guys are pretty good at coming back on teams, and a lot of times they win. Tonight, we won, which is better than losing."
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
With the season series tied at 1-1 coming into the night, the run-and-gun Mavericks gave the Hornets a heavy dose of southern hospitality. Getting Caron Butler back from his two-game absence after a bad reaction to medication certainly helped.
"Good to see (Butler) back out there," Carlisle said. "It really helps our rotation."
Butler immediately stepped back into the starting lineup, alongside Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki and Brendan Haywood. But the opening quarter began with a Butler-Kidd, Darren Collison-Peja Stojakovic duo duel.
"It felt good getting out there and getting a rhythm early," Butler said.
Midway through the period the entire Maverick core got into the act, using transition offense to finish the quarter on a 19-4 run. With a 15-0 advantage in fast break points, the Mavericks held a 35-24 lead after one. Dallas' scoring output was one point shy of a season-high for the first quarter.
Things got ugly in a hurry for the Hornets in the second quarter. The Mavericks scored with ease, spearheaded by Marion and sixth man Jason Terry. It reflected on the scoreboard, as the Dallas advantage reached as much as 23. Meanwhile, Kidd got some much-needed rest, never touching the court in the period. With the Dallas defense operating as an unmovable wall, while Nowitzki and Butler asserted themselves offensively, the Mavs emerged from the quarter with a 69-50 halftime advantage. It was Dallas' second-best scoring performance for a half this season.
Nowitzki's 16 first half points on 7-of-11 from the field paced the Mavericks to 67 percent shooting. Though the Hornets hit on 50 percent, Dallas' 21-15 rebounding edge and 23 assists to just three turnovers helped the Mavs take a stranglehold early.
With Kidd moving ahead of Maurice Cheeks for fourth on the NBA's all-time steals list, the third quarter looked promising. The Mavericks turned defensive execution into easy buckets at the other end. But after lifting their lead to as much as 25, the Mavs stumbled.
"We made it ugly," Nowitzki said. "We were up 25 -- really playing well, getting shots, moving the ball, shooting the ball. Next thing you know, we just started turning the ball over left and right. That really got their transition game going."
In addition to costly turnovers, the Mavericks missed on 11 straight shot attempts to end the quarter. New Orleans closed to 86-75 heading into the fourth after a 17-3 run.
"We just had it clicking on all cylinders early. We hit a brick wall in that third quarter," Marion said.
"You're going to get sloppy at times. Don't forget, this team, 12 times this year has come back from double digits to win. We knew that. It's something we mentioned to the players this morning, and we knew they were going to keep coming at us," Carlisle said of his team's play in the third.
Within the first minute of the final period, the margin between the two teams shrunk to single digits. Collison ran a settled Hornets' offense to perfection, while one rookie gave another first-year pro a helping hand when Marcus Thornton caught fire."The two young kids (Collison and Thornton) are energetic," Carlisle continued. "They've got a lot of fight in them. It's not surprising, but we brought some of it on ourselves with turnovers and sloppy plays. We've got to get that cleaned up for tomorrow."
The Mavericks' lead fell to as little as four. But as Dallas fans have come accustom to seeing, Nowitzki was primed and ready to take over late. Meanwhile, Haywood patrolled the paint at both ends, scoring in the interior and sending back would-be Hornet scores with block after block.
Still, Collison's career night continued, raining in a three with 2:45 remaining to cut Dallas' lead to 101-97. But Nowitzki quickly deflated the Hornets' balloon, hitting a step-back jumper with 58.9 ticks left to put his team up six. The Mavs then put the game away with the defensive play of the night, when Butler ripped Collison's pocket clean. After Butler's transition layup rimmed out, Haywood converted the play into two points with a tip-dunk as 47.2 seconds remained on the game clock.
"I was noticing a lot that (Collison) was putting ball in front of him. I was just watching him, and I didn't want to gamble early on, but I felt like it was a great opportunity to try to get a deflection on the ball...Brendan Haywood did a great job of following it up and sealing the game," Butler said.
"Defensively, (Butler) battles and stays within the system," Carlisle said. "When he's in the position to make a play, he does -- like he did on that last play, where he goes down and Haywood follows it in."
A couple of clutch free throws later, and the Mavs had their seventh consecutive win.
The Mavericks held the Hornets off despite being outscored 50-39 in the second half. After the red-hot shooting in the first two quarters, the Mavericks cooled to 52 percent from the field by game's end. That was still better than New Orleans' 45 percent shooting for the night.
"We're not even worried about (the lackluster second half)," Terry said. "It's another win. We're moving on."
Nowitzki finished with a game-high 36 points on 14-of-25 from the floor. No. 41 put together one of his best all-around games of the season, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out seven assists. In his return, Butler posted 19 points on 9-of-18 shooting. Kidd (13), Haywood (12) and Terry (11) made it five Mavericks that scored in double figures. Kidd and Haywood both finished one rebound shy of double-doubles.
The Mavericks shared the ball well, finishing the night with 31 assists on their 45 made field goals. Vice versa, the Hornets tallied up just 14 assists on their 37 made shots.
"Our guys are getting a good feel as to where and when to deliver the ball," the coach added.
Standing in for Chris Paul (arthroscopic knee surgery), Collison exploded for a career-high tying 35 points, doing so while connecting on 15-of-21 shots.
"(Collison) is a talented, young guy. Tonight was the first time we actually got a chance to really see him, without CP3 (Paul) on the floor with him. He's tough. He's something to look forward to," Marion said of the young guard.
Collison's rookie running mate, Thornton, added 21 points off the bench.
Both teams snatched 43 rebounds on the night, with each totaling 14 second chance points. But the Mavericks' 50-40 edge in points in the paint and 30-14 advantage in fast break points were ultimately the difference in the game.
"At this point in the season, we'll take the win and move on," Nowitzki said.
Now the Dallas squad prepares for one of the hardest back-to-back games scheduling of the season. Playing in a late time slot on Sunday night, the Mavericks will have to make a quick turnaround, flying to Charlotte in the wee hours of the morning before tangling with the Bobcats on Monday night.
"We've got Charlotte tomorrow, so that's where our focus shifts to. We're a different ball club. Before, we'd be sitting here talking about, 'We got a long flight.' We're ready to play," Terry said.
The Mavs will try to sweep the season series with the Bobcats, after narrowly escaping with a 98-97 home win on Dec. 12 over the upstart Charlotte ball club. The game will air locally on Fox Sports Southwest at 6 p.m. CT.
For up to the minute news on the Dallas Mavericks, visit Mavs.com. Follow Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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