By Sam Perley, hornets.com
Result Another sensational outing by the Hornets ended with their second-straight win as they defeated the Mavericks, 108-94, on Thursday, Nov. 5, in Dallas. Although Charlotte didn’t have its three-point shot working nearly as well as it did in its last game against Chicago, the Hornets did manage to snag their first road win against the Mavericks since Jan. 24, 1998, snapping a streak of 14-consecutive losses in Dallas. Al Jefferson had his best outing so far this season with a game-high 31 points for Charlotte while Deron Williams posted a team-high 15 points for Dallas in the defeat.
Turning Points Unlike Tuesday night’s affair against Chicago, tonight’s matchup with the Mavericks wasn’t decided until right after halftime when a five-minute 13-2 run by Charlotte gave the Hornets a 71-59 lead with 5:33 remaining in the third quarter. Al Jefferson would end up scoring 12 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting in the frame, which ended with the Hornets holding a 78-67 advantage over the Mavericks. Any hope of a Dallas comeback was quickly silenced by the Hornets in the fourth as they came out of the break on a 15-2 run to put the game well out of hand from the hometown Mavericks.
Inside the Box Score Al Jefferson led all scorers with a season-high 31 points and also pulled down nine rebounds… Marvin Williams tallied 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, for his third double-double of the season. This is tied for Williams’ most double-doubles in a season since he had six in the 2008-09 NBA season with the Atlanta Hawks… Jeremy Lamb looked strong again off the bench for Charlotte finishing with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Lamb has now scored 36 combined points in his last two games on 17-of-21 shooting… Kemba Walker tacked on 14 points and a season-high seven assists… Cody Zeller also scored in double figures with 11 points… Nicolas Batum did a little bit everything for the Hornets tonight as he finished with eight points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals… Deron Williams led the Mavericks in both points (15) and assists (5)… Dirk Nowitzki, Zaza Pachulia and Dwight Powell each finished with 14 points, which was also a career high for Powell. Pachulia also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double… Wesley Matthews finished with 11 points although shot just 2-of-9 from the field (2-of-7 from three-point range)… Charlotte outscored Dallas in the paint, 58-36… Both teams were cold from behind the arch tonight with the Hornets shooting just 6-of-27 (22.2 percent) while the Mavericks converted on 6-of-29 three-point attempts (20.7 percent)… Dallas drained 24-of-27 free-throw attempts (88.9 percent) while the Hornets hit 14-of-17 (82.4 percent).
Hornets Player of the Game Al Jefferson was absolutely unstoppable in the paint for Charlotte, finishing with a season-high 31 points on 15-of-18 shooting and nine rebounds in the Hornets first road win of the year. This would have also been Jefferson’s highest-scoring performance in regulation for the entire 2014-15 NBA season.
Mavericks Player of the Game Zaza Pachulia tallied 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field along with a team-high 10 rebounds for the Mavericks in the loss. Pachulia, who now has three double-doubles in his first five games with Dallas this season, was also a perfect 6-of-6 from the line and is now shooting 91.7 percent from the charity stripe this year (22-of-24).
Game Notes Kemba Walker now has the fourth-most made three-pointers in Hornets franchise history with 376. Ironically, Walker was tied with Raymond Felton going into the game, who started for the Mavericks tonight… Nicolas Batum is the fourth player in Charlotte Hornets history with 60+ points, 30+ rebounds and 20+ steals in the first five games of a season and the first to do it since Jamal Mashburn in 2001-02. Kendall Gill (1992-93) and Anthony Mason (1996-97) also accomplished this feat for the Hornets… Deron Williams received a flagrant foul in the fourth quarter… Devin Harris left the game in the second quarter for Dallas (foot) but did return. Next Up: The Hornets will take on the Spurs at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7 in San Antonio. The game can be seen on FOX Sports Southeast or heard on WFNZ or on the official Charlotte Hornets mobile app.
