DALLAS — Hoping to carry over the momentum of back-to-back wins on the road, the Dallas Mavericks returned home and tried to find similar success Wednesday night at American Airlines Center.
Sprinting to a 116-104 win over the Washington Wizards before also outlasting the New York Knicks for a 104-97 victory to conclude a back-to-back on the road Monday night, the Mavericks then turned their attention to defending their own floor for the start of a three-game homestand. The Mavs also attempted to get the better of the Atlanta Hawks, who entered Wednesday’s showdown having taken the three previous matchups in the head-to-head series.
However, after fighting their way to two wins over Eastern Conference teams, the Mavericks (13-10) wouldn’t be able to overcome their sluggish shooting Wednesday night, falling to a 98-95 loss on their home floor.
“This is a tough one,” 13-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki said after the loss. “You know, we fought hard here the last week. It’s been a lot of traveling, and I think it caught up with us a little bit. But hey, I thought we kept fighting. We didn’t particularly play well in the first half, but we kept lingering around. And the same with the second half.”
Continuing to bring small forward Chandler Parsons off the bench as he works his way back from a hybrid microfracture knee surgery this offseason, the Mavericks would get off to a slow start while missing their first five shots from the field. Nowitzki and point guard Deron Williams then attempted to right the ship, finding nothing but the bottom of the net on a pair of three-pointers as the two shared the scoring duties.
Swingman Wesley Matthews then took over the offensive responsibilities as the Mavs got into a rhythm, swishing a three-pointer to beat the shot clock. And with backup guard J.J. Barea returning after missing six games with a sprained right ankle while sixth man Devin Harris also slid back into the lineup following a one-game hiatus with a rib injury, the Mavericks took a 23-22 lead into the second period.
Surrendering the lead early in the second quarter, the Mavs gladly welcomed Parsons’ timely trey to tie the game. Backup big man Dwight Powell joined the fun shortly after that, giving the Mavericks the lead once again with a three-point play in traffic.
Center Zaza Pachulia took over from there, having his way inside at both ends of the floor. Still, with the Mavericks’ offensive attack growing stagnant, the visiting Hawks team would begin to surge ahead on the scoreboard behind a balanced attack to take a 49-44 lead into the half.
Outshooting the Mavericks through two quarters, 47.6 percent to 37.8 percent, the Hawks (14-9) also held a 26-19 rebounding advantage. Meanwhile, Williams did his best to keep the Mavs in the game, posting nine points through 24 minutes of play.
“Our undoing tonight was the first half, where we had our lowest activity numbers for the entire year in terms of contesting shots and 50-50 balls,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle explained. “Even though the score was relatively close, you know, we weren’t playing to the level of intensity that we needed to.”
Continuing to operate in the first unit, veteran guard Raymond Felton came out of the locker room aggressively as the second half got underway. Nowitzki also came alive in the third quarter, attempting to will his team back into the game.
Powell’s two free throws then gave the Mavericks a 65-64 edge with 4:13 left in the period as the second-year standout continued to contribute off the bench. However, the Hawks would again stage a rally behind big man Paul Millsap, taking a 76-72 lead into the final quarter.
Starting the fourth with a lineup of Barea, Harris, Parsons, Nowitzki and Powell, the Mavericks quickly tried to steal the momentum away in front of their hometown fans. Harris provided the spark, bringing the Mavs within three at 80-77 after a driving three-point play with 9:28 remaining.
Matthews also picked up his play with an end-to-end sequence that began with tracking down a loose ball and ended with a driving score inside. The sharpshooter’s timely three-pointer then tied the game at 84-all midway through the period. But it would be Pachulia’s score inside the next trip down the floor that would give the Mavs the lead as they continued to vibe off their home crowd with a 7-0 run.
Williams also reemerged in the scoring, connecting on a jumper to force an Atlanta timeout as the Mavericks took a 90-87 lead with 3:27 left to play. The three-time All-Star point guard didn’t stop there, answering a score inside by Hawks big man Al Horford with another trey from the corner. However, after a three by Hawks swingman Kent Bazemore, the visiting team reclaimed the lead at 94-93 to force a Dallas timeout with 2:18 still on the game clock.
A score by Millsap then pushed Atlanta’s cushion to three, while Nowitzki failed to answer on multiple shot attempts at the other end of the floor. Carlisle spent his last timeout shortly after that with 36.7 seconds left for his team to respond. The ball went to Felton out of the timeout, and the veteran earned his way to the foul line on a driving attempt, swishing two free throws to bring the Mavericks within one with 30.4 ticks remaining.
The Hawks countered with an isolation for point guard Jeff Teague, who baited Matthews into a foul on a shot attempt with 11.4 seconds left. And after Teague’s two foul shots extended the lead to three, Williams’ trey attempt to tie the game in the final seconds would find nothing but the rim to send the Mavs off their home court with a tightly-contested loss.
Scoring 18 points on 8 of 20 from the field, Williams led six Mavericks in double figures during the loss while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out six assists. Matthews added 17 points in the first unit, while Powell scored 14 points off the bench. Nowitzki pitched in 13 points and eight rebounds. Pachulia also recorded his 13th double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and 17 rebounds. Felton scored 11 points as well, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out five assists to boot.
“You know, they definitely made things tough on us,” Williams admitted. “The first half wasn’t great, especially defensively. I thought we could have done a better job. We just kind of let them be the aggressors. And when we do that, we kind of get in trouble at times.”
“All game, really from the beginning, I think we just couldn’t get the rhythm offensively. It definitely was not our day. Everybody, the whole team kind of struggled,” Pachulia said. “We couldn’t get the crowd involved as well. There were little runs, but there were only a couple of them. And unfortunately not enough to win tonight’s game, especially playing against a good team.”
Millsap led five Hawks in double figures with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, grabbing 11 boards as well. The Hawks also outshot the Mavs for the game, 48.1 percent to 36 percent, in addition to converting nine turnovers into 17 points to overcome Dallas’ 51-47 rebounding edge.
“Shots weren’t going, and I don’t think we played necessarily with the right urgency to start the game out,” Matthews concluded. “It was kind of a methodical game. Once we started picking our energy up on the defensive end in the second half, you know, the crowd got into it more. Shots started going and we started getting the flow going, but we just didn’t do enough at the end to win the game.”
