DALLAS — Once thought of as the top free-agent prize on the market this past summer, point guard Deron Williams was on the short list of candidates for the Dallas Mavericks as they searched for a second superstar to pair with 11-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki.
Wednesday night, with the Mavericks kick-starting a six-game homestand, The Colony native made his first appearance at the American Airlines Center since spurning his hometown team and choosing to re-up with the Brooklyn Nets. Meanwhile, the Mavericks tried to slow the former All-Star lead guard down for a second time after seizing a 98-90 win in Brooklyn on March 1.
Instead, Williams would get even, scoring of 26 of his 31 points in the second half to send the Mavericks (32-36) off their home floor with a 113-96 defeat.
"He's an exceptional player. We knew that before. That's why we recruited him, so this is nothing new," Nowitzki said with high regard for Williams. "He's been one of the best point guards in this league. We had to move on as a franchise, though. You can't be lingering. He made a decision last summer and I think both franchises have moved on, so that's where we're at."
"You know, we all know about the free agency and our fans and us recruiting him and stuff, so we knew he wanted to play well here," veteran big man Elton Brand added of Williams' night.
Coming off a 127-113 win in Atlanta on Monday, the Mavericks tried to keep their playoff hopes alive to begin a tough stretch of home games against some of the NBA’s elite squads. But as four-time All-Star Shawn Marion sat out his eighth straight game due to a strained left calf injury, the Mavs would have an issue on the defensive end early on while Nets center Brook Lopez quickly dominated his individual matchup against Chris Kaman.
Behind 37-year-old point guard Mike James' perimeter shooting and a 21-4 run, however, the Mavs gained the upper hand despite Lopez's dominance inside. The Mavs then took a 32-22 advantage into the second period.
But the Nets would again come right back, taking the lead at 40-38 on Gerald Wallace's score inside. Mavs sixth man Vince Carter's 3-pointer then brought the two teams to a 51-all stalemate entering the halftime intermission.
Overcoming Lopez's 18 first-half points and Blatche's 14 points off the bench on a combined 13 of 19 from the field, the Mavs stayed in the game while outshooting the Nets through two quarters of play, 52.5 percent to 43.8 percent. The Nets, meanwhile, used 13 boards by Reggie Evans to claim a 24-19 rebounding margin at the midway mark.
"Well, it was kind of a trend from the other night in Atlanta. I thought our defense wasn't good enough, and it carried right on through tonight," Nowitzki explained. "First half, I think we should have been up way more. We were shooting way over 50 percent, but our defense just wasn't good enough and the second half was more of the same."
"It's frustrating. We had a 10-point lead and then we couldn't get stops," Brand echoed. "We had some good looks, we just couldn't get stops. You have to credit them. Their isolations and their play sets were working tonight. ... In Atlanta, you know, we had a big lead. We scored 127 points ourselves. It was a little different than tonight. Tonight, our offense kind of sputtered and they kept coming and kept hitting us."
Looking inside to Kaman on offense to open the third quarter, the Mavs would quickly find themselves in a dogfight while Williams began to assert himself. Rookie Jae Crowder then lent Nowitzki and Kaman helping hands, draining a 3 from the corner to keep pace with the Nets at the other end.
Still, behind Lopez’s interior presence and Williams’ 13 points in third, the Nets took an 85-77 lead into the final period.
Getting a small lift from reserve swingman Anthony Morrow to start the fourth, the Mavs hung around despite attempts by the Nets to pull away. Meanwhile, Nowitzki became just the 10th player in league history with 24,000 career points and 9,000 rebounds after snagging a board in the period to help the Mavs’ comeback efforts.
But Williams would continue to keep the Mavericks at bay, sandwiching a jumper by Nowitzki with consecutive scores of his own to put the Nets up 93-88. Williams' fadeaway jumper right in front of the Dallas bench then forced a timeout by Carlisle with his team down 97-88 and 6:28 left to respond.
"I thought we lost our pace," leading scorer O.J. Mayo explained. "They got it pretty much down to a half-court game and made some shots. ... I thought the first few quarters were getting pretty much what we wanted. We just couldn't get stops. In the fourth quarter, we got into a half-court game and they're 30th in pace in the league, so it was pretty much in their favor."
Nowitzki then tried to answer, banking in a contested jumper over Williams before Lopez responded at the other end. James then broke back into the scoring with his fourth 3-pointer of the night, which was quickly answered by Joe Johnson as the Nets continued to produce timely scores.
Johnson's 3-pointer with 2:51 left then lifted the Nets to a 106-96 score, closing the door on the Mavs for the night in the process as Carlisle was again forced to call a timeout.
Williams' third 3 of the night and a triple by Keith Bogans then added the final padding as the Nets sent the Mavs into their home locker room with a bitter taste in their mouths.
In defeat, Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Kaman added 14 points, James pitched in 12 points and Crowder recorded 10 points in the first unit.
Led by Lopez's 38 points on 15-of-22 shooting, the Nets finished with three scorers in double figures. Williams, meanwhile, finished the night hitting 13 of his 25 shots, including 3 of 8 from 3-point range, while dishing out six assists.
"Deron got hot there in the second half," Nowitzki continued. "Brook basically had it going all night. So, yeah, our defense wasn't good enough. ... I mean, we gave up I don't even know how many (points) at home. That's too many."
"You know, at the point position and the 5 position they had a great game. The two guys had great games and we didn't do a good job there," Carlisle added. "So, you know, it's a bad result for us. The irony is I think this is the same number of points we gave up the other night in Atlanta, but we scored 127, so it all seemed like it was OK. But this is an ongoing challenge for us being able to keep teams at or under 100, so we've got keep going and keep working on it."
The Mavericks finished the night shooting 50 percent to the Nets' 50.6 percent. The Nets also ended the game with a 52-34 margin in points in the paint and 45-34 rebounding advantage led by Evans' 22 boards.
"Lopez was a pretty big load in the first half. Pretty much throughout the game, but he really got going in the first half. D-Will picked it up in the second half, and then you've got Reggie Evans getting 22 rebounds, getting second shots and limiting us to one shot. So they played well," Mayo concluded.
Note: The Mavericks will now hit the practice court on Thursday before returning to action and continue their homestand Friday night against ex-Mav Jason Terry and the Boston Celtics. The Celtics lead the season series 1-0 after handing the Mavericks a 117-115 overtime defeat in Boston on Dec. 12. The 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-MAVS (6287) or by visiting Mavs.com.
"He's beloved here and did a lot of great things over a lot of years, so he'll get a very warm reception," Carlisle said of Terry's return to Dallas for the first time since signing as a free agent with the Celtics in the offseason. "And he's playing well, too, so it's going to be another tough game and we're going to have to bounce back quickly."
"He obvious deserves a tremendous ovation and I hope he gets it," Nowitzki added with respect to his teammate of eight seasons. "He meant so much to our franchise. Not only on the court, where to me he's one of the best clutch shooters I've ever played with, but also off the court. He was a great community man. ... Every other day he was doing something and appearances left and right. He's just a guy with a huge heart, so I wish him all the best this season, but hopefully he gets the ovation he deserves."
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DALLAS — While the Dallas Mavericks know a great opportunity sits before them as they begin a six-game homestand Wednesday night against the Brooklyn Nets, they aren’t getting ahead of themselves.
Hoping to build on a 127-113 win in Atlanta on Monday, the Mavericks (32-35) return to their home hardwood ready to crack a dent in their three-game deficit behind the Los Angeles Lakers in the race for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff seed.
Still, with plenty of tough games remaining during their home-heavy schedule, the Mavs are keeping a game-by-game approach, hoping to replicate their 98-90 victory in Brooklyn on March 1.
“Every game we need,” sixth man Vince Carter said following Wednesday’s morning shootaround. “Every game is important and every game matters to us, so losing does nothing for us. … It’s one game at a time. It’s great to play at home and have a couple of home games, but it’s one game at a time. I’m not really interested in any other game other than tonight.”
“We understand the teams that are coming in are in playoff hunts themselves, all have winning records, but we understand what we have at stake also,” starting point guard Mike James added. “We’ve been playing inspired basketball recently and we’ve just got to continue to keep a winning streak going.”
In the first meeting, Williams led four Brooklyn scorers in double figures with 24 points on 8 of 18 from the floor, but committed a season high-tying seven turnovers against the Dallas defense. But, with versatile forward Shawn Marion perhaps slated to miss his eighth consecutive game due to a strained left calf after Mavs coach Rick Carlisle ruled the four-time All-Star questionable for the matchup, the Dallas team may be greatly challenged in slowing Williams down for a second time after his 31 points and five assists in just 28 minutes of work led the Nets to a 119-82 victory over Detroit on Monday to begin a 17-day road trip.
“Well, he’s going to be extremely aggressive tonight,” Carlisle said of Williams’ return to Dallas. “I expect him to play the same way he played in Detroit. He looks like a different player right now. I think he’s healthier. It looks like he’s trimmed down some, and so he’s one of the most dangerous players in the game. In a game recently, he had nine threes and there was another game he made 11 threes. You know, he can flat out beat you by himself, so we’ve got try and make it as hard as possible on him and we’ve got to do a lot of things well.”
Note: The Mavs return home for the start of a six-game homestand Wednesday night against the Brooklyn Nets. The Mavs lead the season series 1-0 after a 98-90 win in Brooklyn on March 1. The game will air locally on Fox Sports Southwest and nationally on ESPN at 7 p.m. CT.
DALLAS — Following one of their best offensive performances of the season, the Dallas Mavericks return to the American Airlines Center hoping to build momentum with the start of a six-game homestand.
Bouncing back from a 107-101 home loss to Oklahoma City on Sunday, the Mavericks (32-35) immediately got on track in the second game of a back-to-back and fourth in five nights, seizing a 127-113 road victory in Atlanta. The Mavs will now try to continue surging in the right direction, beginning their long stretch at home against The Colony native Deron Williams and the Brooklyn Nets.
"We've been bouncing back all year,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We've had a lot of opportunities to do that unfortunately, but we've got 15 left and we're going to throw the kitchen sink at all 15. We've got some home games coming up that are big for us, and so we're going to have to be right and we're going to have to be together.”
And with a win, the Mavs will also try to keep their playoff aspirations alive, entering Wednesday’s contest sitting three games behind the Los Angeles Lakers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Meanwhile, after relying heavily on their offense Monday night in Atlanta, the Mavs will attempt to perform at a high level at both ends of the court.
The Mavericks lit the nets on fire while shooting 57.3 percent from the field as a team, connecting on 13 of 22 from 3-point range as well. But, after surrendering 56 percent shooting to Atlanta at the other end of the court, the Mavs admit that they will need to elevate their defensive intensity even if they’re forced to play an eighth straight game minus four-time All-Star Shawn Marion due to a strained left calf.
"It was a great offensive night for us," 11-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki said. "We almost scored basically 30 or more in in every quarter. We were running, we were shooting the ball and sharing the ball, and it was fun to play. The only problem was the other end of the ball. We couldn't get a stop to save our lives. ... I don't think we're happy with the defensive outing, but offensively this is about as good as we've played all year."
"Well, it was a defensive pillow fight," Carlisle joked. "Let's be honest. I mean, neither team got much traction defensively, but sometimes games are like that. And when they are, you've got to ring the bell and you've got to put points on the board."
Defense wasn’t an issue for the Mavs while pulling away from the Nets (39-28) in the second half of their meeting versus each other earlier in the month.
Despite allowing Williams to led four Nets in double figures with 24 points on 8 of 18 from the floor, the Mavericks also forced the local product into committing a season high-tying seven turnovers. Dallas also outshot Brooklyn on the night, 50 percent to 46.2 percent, while scoring 17 points off the Nets’ season-high 20 turnovers as a team, making up for Brooklyn’s 44-31 rebounding advantage.
“I thought defensively we got stops,” shooting guard O.J. Mayo explained. “We made plays down the stretch on the offensive end. When they did score, we attacked and got to the free-throw line. But more than anything, on the defensive end we got stops.”
They’ll look for similar success Wednesday night while beginning a lengthy stretch at home against a Nets team that began a 17-day road trip with a 119-82 victory over Detroit on Monday.
Note: The Mavs return home for the start of a six-game homestand Wednesday night against the Brooklyn Nets. The Mavs lead the season series 1-0 after a 98-90 win in Brooklyn on March 1. The game will air locally on Fox Sports Southwest and nationally on ESPN at 7 p.m. CT.
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