Mavs - Bulls Recap NBA.com Exclusive

Mavericks 113, Bulls 106
Mavs hand Bulls ninth straight loss, longest skid since 2004
Dave Ivey, for NBA.com

DALLAS (NBA.com exclusive) – The seriously short-handed Bulls are overdue for some good fortune, but their green uniforms didn’t bring much luck on St. Patrick’s Day and their losing streak reached nine with a 113-106 defeat in Dallas.

Caron Butler scored 27 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 26 for the Mavericks, who won for the 14th time in 15 games. Acie Law led Chicago with 22 points off the bench, including 16 in the second half as the Bulls sliced a 25-point deficit down to seven with 5:49 remaining.

The Bulls’ longest skid since dropping the first nine games of the 2004-05 season moved them 2½ games behind Toronto for the East’s final playoff spot. Chicago has lost 12 of its last 13 trips to Dallas, and 21 of the last 24 meetings overall.

The Mavericks led 32-20 after one quarter and 64-44 at the break after shooting 66 percent during the first half. The Bulls missed their first eight 3-point shots in the half and fell behind 60-35 on a 3-pointer by J.J. Barea at the 2:00 mark.

Chicago flipped the script in the second half, shooting 62 percent and dominating Dallas in the paint (32-18) and on the break (13-3). The Bulls scored on 11 of their first 12 possessions in the fourth quarter to tighten things up at 100-93, but Barea answered by scoring 10 straight points for the Mavs and buried two big 3-pointers to end the threat.

Chicago played its ninth straight game without Joakim Noah (left foot), its fourth straight without Luol Deng (right calf) and third straight without All-Star Derrick Rose (left wrist) due to injuries. The only regular starters in action were rookie Taj Gibson and Kirk Hinrich, who returned from a one-game suspension for contact with an official.

“There’s never been a team that at some point wasn’t short-handed,” center Brad Miller said. “That’s just physically impossible in this league. We’re just obviously not playing good. A lot of new parts, a lot of big parts out, but nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We’ve just got to try to get better with the guys we’ve got playing.”

Law was 7-for-8 from the field and 7-for-7 at the line to lead Chicago, with Hakim Warrick (13) and Flip Murray (12) also reaching double figures off the bench. Miller and Gibson each had 12 and rookie James Johnson scored 11.

Chicago returns home from its 0-4 road swing and will try to halt its slide against East-leading Cleveland on Friday. The Bulls have allowed 100-plus points in 12 consecutive contests, their longest streak since a 25-game stretch in 1985-86. “

We’ve got to tighten up some things defensively,” Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro said. “That’s how we won early in the season. We can’t control the paint and we’re not controlling penetration as well as we’d like. We just have to keep trying to find ways to improve.”

The Mavericks improved to 14-2 since the All-Star break. They are 19-1 when shooting 50 percent from the field and 11-1 when scoring at least 60 first-half points.

Nowitzki scored 17 of his 26 in the first half and finished with seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Butler was 14-for-16 at the line and Dallas remained unbeaten (5-0) when both players score at least 20. Barea was 3-for-4 behind the arc and logged 15 points.

“We were struggling a little bit in the fourth quarter to score, so I started going underneath on the pick-and-rolls and got my shot going,” Barea said. “I felt confident and when they left me alone, I just pulled up and shot it.”

Jason Kidd, who turns 37 next week, rested the entire second and fourth quarters and was held scoreless. He was also 0-for-4 from 3-point range, snapping a streak of 30 straight games with at least one triple.

“He’s had some soreness the last couple days,” said head coach Rick Carlisle. “About a minute or two into the fourth, he asked if he could ice down. At that point, he was done.”

Sixth man Jason Terry returned after missing five games following facial surgery to repair a broken orbital bone, suffered when he was struck by Minnesota guard Corey Brewer’s inadvertent elbow on March 3. Wearing a protective mask – and accompanied by the theme from “Phantom of the Opera” – he knocked down his first four shots, but then missed his next six.

“He went 4-for-5 in the first half. That was great,” Carlisle said. “In the second half, he’s a factor on the floor because of all the attention he draws. He changes the geometry of the rest of the players. Even when he’s not scoring, he’s a factor.”

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