Recap: Timberwolves 105 at Mavericks 90

Earl K. Sneed recaps the Dallas Mavericks' home defeat Wednesday night, after the Minnesota Timberwolves ruined the reigning champions' ring ceremony.

DALLAS — The night that NBA players dream of finally arrived for the defending champion Dallas Mavericks.

Wednesday night, with former Maverick J.J. Barea in town with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the reigning titleholders received a pregame ring ceremony worthy of a championship team. And with Barea in street clothes due to nagging hamstring and ankle injuries, the ex-Mav and retired forward Peja Stojakovic joined the returning veterans and coaching staff as they were honored in front of the American Airlines Center crowd.

With Mavericks owner Mark Cuban introducing the front office staff and then coach Rick Carlisle, who spoke with high praise for the entire roster, the franchise’s first championship squad was greeted with a standing ovation from the capacity crowd. The team then immediately had to turn its attention to avenging a 99-82 loss to the Wolves on New Year’s Day, taking the court minus 10-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki (sore right knee) for a third straight game and swingman Vince Carter (sprained left foot) for a fifth consecutive outing.

But as was the case on Christmas Day when the Miami Heat ruined the Mavs’ championship banner ceremony, the defending champs would have another special occasion upstaged with a 105-90 defeat, ending a three-game win streak and seven straight W’s at home.

“This is an embarrassing loss right now,” forward Shawn Marion said. “We’ve all got to sit and look at ourselves. We should be [angry]. We shouldn’t have lost this game. This is a game we should have come out and won regardless of the ceremony tonight. Everything lacked on both sides of the floor. We can make all of the excuses we want, but we should have won this game.”

He added: “It’s a great thing to receive the ring. But tonight, we still needed to win this game. That’s what we’re trying to do right now. We’re trying to focus on what’s at hand right now and the current season and focus on trying to take our baby steps to get to where we want to be. Tonight, we just took a step back.”

After the Wolves jumped out early with a quick lead to open up the game, Marion picked up where he left off two nights prior when he scored a season-high 29 points to lead Dallas to a 93-87 victory over the Suns. Using an 8-0 run, the Mavericks (11-8) seized the lead. But behind the strong defensive presence of Darko Milicic and Kevin Love’s offensive effectiveness, the Wolves (8-10) would fight back, before the Mavs’ bench duo of big man Yi Jianlian and guard Jason Terry helped the team escape with a 27-26 edge at the end of one quarter of play.

Terry and Yi would continue to power the Mavs’ offensive attack in the second stanza until an alley-oop connection from the star sixth man to big man Brandan Wright on the break nearly brought the house and the rim down. The combination of Terry and Wright would push the Mavs to a double-digit lead, which climbed as high as 14. The Wolves would immediately respond, though, with an 8-0 run to get back in the game before another 8-0 spurt to close the half down just two, 54-52.

“I thought the game turned at the end of the first half when they went on an 8-0 run in less than a minute and a half,” Carlisle admitted. “We just lost some concentration, gave up two threes and another basket on a rebound play where a 6-3 guy puts it in. And we’ve gotta come up with those. … We didn’t deserve to win. And frankly, after that period at the end of the second quarter, we really didn’t compete.”

Love led all scorers at the break with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Meanwhile, Wolves point guard Ricky Rubio matched Terry’s 11 points through two quarters. Still, the Mavericks finished the half outshooting the Wolves, 50 percent to 41.5 percent.

Looking to shake off a 1-of-11 first half, Lamar Odom took the court in the second half looking to be aggressive. But Nowitzki’s stand-in would continue to struggle in the third while the Wolves began the period on a 9-2 run to take the lead. All told, it would be a 21-4 Wolves run from 49.8 seconds left in the second quarter until back-to-back 3-pointers from Jason Kidd and Delonte West cut the Mavs’ deficit to three, 67-64, before eventually tying the game. Still, the Wolves would enter the game’s final quarter up 78-72 after an 8-2 spurt to close the third.

“We were inconsistent. We never got anything really consistent going after we got the 14-point lead,” Carlisle acknowledged. “Give them credit for continuing to attack and be aggressive and stay with it. We failed to answer that run in the first half. It didn’t get better from there.”

Hitting a rough patch where they hit just two of their 15 shots, the Mavs would very quickly find themselves down double digits. Once his team went down 13, Terry began to assert himself on the offensive end. But the Wolves protected their lead at the charity stripe, cashing in on more trips to the foul line than the Mavs.

Meanwhile, Marion did his best to lend Terry a helping hand although the Mavs remained down on the scoreboard unable to crack the deficit to single digits. And with the Mavs’ franchise record of holding opponents below 100 points ending at 15 straight games, the team wouldn’t be able to muster up a comeback.

In a losing effort, Terry led the way with 17 points off the bench on 8-of-19 shooting. Marion added 15 points and Rodrigue Beaubois pitched in 11 points as the Mavs finished three players in double figures. Odom played just over 16 minutes and finished with just five points after shooting 2-for-14.

“For myself, I just missed shots I normally make. It’s kind of like an exclamation for the start of the season for me. I’m just not myself yet,” Odom admitted.

Love led all scorers with 31 points on 9-of-16 from the field to go with 10 rebounds. Rubio added 17 points and 12 assists as the Wolves finished with five players in double figures. The Wolves also finished the night outshooting the Mavs, 44.2 percent to 41.1 percent, to accompany a 49-46 rebounding edge.

“It’s disappointing when you get outrebounded and you lose, ’cause you know some of those rebounds probably aided in the loss and kept you from winning the game,” said starting center Brendan Haywood, who finished just shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 boards.

Dallas surrendered 13 turnovers for 15 Minnesota points, while the Wolves’ 16 giveaways translated to 12 points for the Mavs at the other end. The Wolves also collected a season-high number of blocked shots for a Mavs opponent, with Milicic tying his career-high with seven of Minnesota’s 12 blocks. More importantly, the Wolves attempted 33 free throws to just 10 attempts for the Mavs.

The Mavericks return to action in the third matchup of a four-game homestand Friday night when they host the Utah Jazz. The Mavs lead the season series 1-0 after a 94-91 road win on Jan. 19. The Jazz-Mavericks game will air locally on Fox Sports Southwest at 7:30 p.m. CT. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (214) 747-6287.

“We’ve all got to come in here and regroup tomorrow,” Marion concluded, “know what’s at hand here and get this game on Friday.”

“I think we’re all happy that we don’t have anymore ceremonies for our championship,” Kidd added. “We can just concentrate on basketball.”

Single-game tickets are on sale and available at the American Airlines Center North Box Office, online at mavs.com, via phone by calling 214-747-MAVS or 1-800-4NBA-TIX and all Ticketmaster outlets (Fiesta Grocery Stores, Wal-Mart, Simon Mall in Garland and the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano).

Dr. Pepper Family Nights are here! Plans include four Mavs tickets and four McDonald’s extra value meals, starting at $49. Visit mavs.com or call 214-747-MAVS for a schedule of games and to purchase tickets.