Mavericks (12-25), Pelicans (18-17)
New Orleans has spent all of December raining in three-point shots, leading the NBA in percentage from beyond the arc, but in its penultimate game of the 2017 calendar year, the opposition dominated from distance. In winning its third straight game – while snapping the Pelicans’ three-game winning streak – Dallas made a franchise-record 22 three-pointers in 39 attempts on Friday, en route to a Southwest Division road victory.
The Mavericks led wire-to-wire and quickly built a double-digit lead that eventually expanded to as much as 26 points. Dallas piled up 77 first-half points. Even though New Orleans won the third quarter 41-32, the hosts still trailed 109-101 entering the final 12 minutes.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Dallas backup point guard J.J. Barea nailed two straight three-pointers, turning back a big fourth-quarter rally by New Orleans. The second of Barea’s treys gave Dallas a 126-117 lead with 1:57 remaining, after the Pelicans had cut their deficit to just 120-117.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
DeMarcus Cousins put up the kind of numbers that would’ve garnered even more attention had they come in a victory, but New Orleans went down in defeat, despite the three-time All-Star putting up 32 points and 20 rebounds. Cousins also handed out eight assists.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“We didn’t have any energy. We let them get comfortable. They didn’t feel the defense. We didn’t play with any physicality. They got easy layups, easy threes, a lot of dare shots in. They started getting hot because we allowed them to. So you get down 26 and you just try to fight back from there, but we can’t come out, and we haven’t done it in a while, but we needed this win. We need all of them honestly, but this would have been a big one for us. But we didn’t come out with energy in the first quarter.” – Anthony Davis (33 points) giving a complete summary of what went wrong for the Pelicans effort-wise and defensively
“I’m pissed about it. Everybody in the locker room is pissed about it. On to the next.” – Cousins on his feelings about Friday’s defeat; New Orleans hosts New York in less than 24 hours Saturday at 6 p.m.
BY THE NUMBERS
49.4: New Orleans shooting percentage from the field, including going 34/54 on two-pointers. The Pelicans experienced a rare poor game at the three-point line, however, at 8/31 (25.8 percent).
43-31: Dallas rebounding advantage, led by 12 from Dirk Nowitzki. Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith grabbed 10 boards as part of a triple-double.
3: Zatarain’s is donating meals to the Second Harvest Food Bank for every Pelicans dunk at home games this season. New Orleans threw down three slams vs. Dallas, increasing its season total to 62.