Road Warriors 99-90

Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks dominated the second half for their 14th road victory of the season. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

After a no-show game in Toronto on Sunday, the Mavericks needed this one.

"Some say we were in Toronto. Other say we came straight to Boston," said Jason Kidd, who had a season high 17 assists. "It was a horrible showing. To be able to come right back out was nice."

Monday night's game didn't start well for Dallas either.

Down by as many as 10 in the first-half, Dallas went into halftime down 50-41. Then Dirk Nowitzki took over.Nowitzki scored 22 of his game-high 37 points in the second half as the Dallas Mavericks (27-14) outscored the Boston Celtics (27-12) 34-18 in the third quarter and 58-40 in the second half. The 34 allowed by Boston in the third was their highest total allowed for a quarter this season. Dallas shot an amazing 80 percent in the third quarter. Nowitzki had 13 in the period.

Shawn Marion, using his patented runner, made 7 of 9 shots and finished the game second on the team in scoring with 16 points. He also added eight rebounds and two blocks in 43 minutes of game actions. J-Kidd added 13 points and was 3-3 from behind the arc.

Dallas is now 13-1 after losses this season.

TNT SUCKS

Not only did viewers miss the first four minutes of game action, but they were forced to listen to Reggie Miller lathering Kevin McHale's ass all-game long. When Miller wasn't telling long, elaborate and dull stories during a closely contested game, he was talking about the Spurs, Nuggets and Lakers as contenders in the West - conveniently leaving (number two in the West) Dallas out as they were beating the Celtics at home by 15.

When halftime came, I swore to myself that I was just going to fast forward through it, but for some reason I had to hear what those bozo's had to say. Needless to say, they never let me down with their idiotic notions on "how to play the game."

The halftime show led in with Dirk Nowitzki and Kendrick Perkins getting into a very mild argument going into halftime. Charles Barkley commented that Nowitzki should have "hit him in the mouth" and then the crew reminisced on how Nowitzki didn't do anything when David West tapped him gently on the cheek.

Then the douches, I mean, experts go into a lame segment called Kenny's Pictures or whatever. At halftime Nowitzki was 5-9 for 15 points, leading all players, so I figured maybe the TNT was going to praise Nowitzki's willingness to post up the Celtics' defenders and his keen play that was causing Rasheed Wallace (supposed Dirk stopper) to ride the bench in foul trouble.

Wrong.

The crew had singled out a play (on which Nowitzki was clearly fouled without a whistle) in which Smith felt that Nowitzki "should have popped" Glen Davis. First off, I highly doubt Dirk Nowitzki gives a frog's fat ass how Kenny Smith feels he should play. Secondly, what does Smith know about drawing fouls? He averaged 2.7 free throws a game for his career and, at 6'3 170 pounds, post play wasn't exactly his forte.

Charles Barkley then chimed in "he just make the shot more difficult" and Chris Webber echoed the same sentiment that Nowitzki just didn't know what he was doing out there on the court. That Nowitzki always "makes the shot harder" for himself in the way that he doesn't try to draw contact.

Dirk Nowitzki is 10th in the NBA is free-throw attempts per game. Ahead of Kobe Bryant - who Barkley referred to as the king of drawing that foul.

Not to mention if these guys, you know, maybe did a little research and watched a Mavs game or two before this one, they would know that Dirk draws that foul at least once a game.

Just idiotic opinions in that studio.

Again, I promise myself I will not watch it again... but I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. Luckily, Dallas has only three more games televised on TNT this season.

Dallas Center Tandem Plays Well

Erick Dampier and Drew Gooden are proving to be a formidable duo.

Gooden came in for an ineffective Dampier late in the first quarter and didn't come out again until 22 seconds left before halftime. Gooden finished with 10 points, four rebounds, two steals and two blocks.

Gooden's strong play seemed to light a fire under Damp, who scored 11 points in the third quarter (season high) and grabbed six of his seven total rebounds in the quarter.

The duo combined for 21 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

Not. Too. Shabby.

What's Next

I know Boston didn't have Kevin Garnett, but this is still a big win for a struggling Mavericks team.

Dallas continues with the third game of their five game road trip, Wednesday night in Washington.

The Wizards are 14-26 on the season but are coming off two wins at home against Portland and Sacramento. They are 8-11 at home this season.

Tip-off is at 6:00 p.m. and can be seen locally on Fox Sports Southwest.

News and Notes:

• With 13 points and 17 assists, Jason Kidd now has 12 double-doubles this season and three in the past four games.
  
• Josh Howard finished the game 1-5 and is now 6-31 from the field in the last three games.
  
• Before Monday's game, Dallas had lost to Boston in their previous four meetings by an average of 10.3 points a game.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)