Ellis' career game not enough as Mavs handle Warriors

By Dave Ivey, for NBA.com
Posted Thursday February 4, 2010 12:34AM

DALLAS (NBA.com exclusive) -- Monta Ellis wasn't selected as a Western Conference reserve for next week's All-Star festivities here, and was passed over again Wednesday when Denver's Chauncey Billups was chosen to replace an injured Chris Paul.

Ellis instead staged his own showcase, scoring a career-high 46 points on 17-for-23 shooting. Like his bid to make his first All-Star team, however, the effort fell short as the Warriors dropped their seventh straight game with a 110-101 loss to the Mavericks.

Jason Terry scored 21 points and nine-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki added 20 for Dallas, which led wire to wire and halted its longest losing streak of the season at three games. Shawn Marion scored a season-high 18 points and Jason Kidd tallied 16 assists and six steals.

The Mavericks shot 54 percent and had 32 assists on 43 field goals, improving to 18-1 this season when dishing at least 25 assists. They also scored 24 points off 21 turnovers, seven of them committed by Ellis -- all in the third quarter. The Dallas bench outscored Golden State's reserves 45-21, led by Josh Howard with 19 points and Drew Gooden with 16.

Ellis, who entered the night averaging 26.0 points, 5.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds, surpassed his previous career high of 45 points set on Nov. 30, 2009 against the Pacers. He was 4-for-6 from 3-point range and nearly became the second straight opponent to score 50 in this building, following Portland's Andre Miller, who had 52 on Saturday.

"It doesn't matter what I did individually," Ellis said. "We lost. That's what matters to me. The only thing I'm thinking about is trying to find a way that we can get this monkey off our back."

Foul trouble in the third quarter and erratic foul shooting (8-for-13) were about the only things that kept Ellis from cracking the half-century mark, as he turned numerous Dallas defenders into statues. He was whistled for four of his five personals in the third, including three charging calls.

"Three of those? Come on, give me a break," Warriors head coach Don Nelson said. "What a great performance he was having. I'm not saying he doesn't charge once in a while. But three in a row, you know, it's impossible for a star player and he is a star player."

Corey Maggette added 20 points for the Warriors after sitting out Tuesday's loss at Houston with a hip pointer. C.J. Watson chipped in 14 off the bench. Rookie Stephen Curry had an off night, finishing with just six points on 1-for-6 shooting.

"That was a remarkable performance by Monta," said Nelson, who coached in Dallas from 1997-2005 and has the most wins in franchise history (339). "He didn't have a great supporting cast, but he fought and kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win."

The Mavericks avenged an embarrassing 111-103 loss to the severely short-handed Warriors on Nov. 24, when Golden State became the first NBA team to win a regular-season game using only six players since 1952. Ellis scored 37 points in that meeting, but also turned the ball over 11 times.

Dallas was cruising early, leading 32-21 after one quarter and by as many as 18 points after shooting 68 percent (13-for-19) in the second quarter. Blowouts have been few and far between for the Southwest Division leaders this season, however, especially at home, and they ended up in another dogfight against a team that's just 4-22 on the road.

Maggette and Ellis were both 5-for-6 in the third quarter as the Warriors shot 71 percent to cut the deficit to 81-75 entering the fourth. Dallas was only 7-for-20 from the field in the third quarter and turned it over 10 times in the second half. The Warriors got within 95-92 on a layup by Ellis with 5:11 remaining before Nowitzki heated up, scoring six straight points and knocking down his first field goals since midway through the second quarter to lead a 13-5 run.

"We had some tough stretches, but down the stretch we were able to get a couple of big stops from rebounds and finish the game off," Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle said.

The nine-point margin of victory was the Mavericks' largest at the American Airlines Center since a 121-103 defeat of Houston on Nov. 10. All 12 of their home victories since that date have been by single-digit margins, including four one-point wins.

Starting center Erick Dampier did not dress for Dallas because of his troublesome left knee. He was replaced by the newly acquired Eduardo Najera, who made his first start in a Mavericks uniform since March 22, 2004. It was the 11th different starting lineup used so far this season for Dallas.

• Warriors: Azubuike, Bell, Claxton, Randolph, Wright
• Mavericks: Dampier, Thomas

• Warriors: --
• Mavericks: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
• Officials: #18 Mark Wunderlich, #30 Tony Brown, #46 Matt Boland
• Attendance: 19679
• Duration: 2:16