Mavs Dominate Lowly Pacers- 91-82

The Mavs held the Pacers to 37 percent shooting and never trailed. Eddie Najera is seen above swatting the ball away from Roy Hibbert (55). (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

The final score says the Mavs won by nine, but it wasn't even that close. From 7:58 left in the third quarter on, Dallas never led by less than 11 points - until :17 left in the fourth. A Dirk Nowitzki break-away dunk (on a nice down-court pass from DeShawn Stevenson) with 7:28 left in the fourth quarter put the Mavs up 87-66 and led to some much needed rest for the Dallas starters.

No Mavericks' starter played over 33 minutes and Stevenson (23 minutes), Rodrigue Beaubois (18), and Najera (15) all got some minutes down the stretch.

While Dallas held the Pacers to only 82 points on 37 percent shooting, the Mavs weren't shooting much better at 39 percent, which led to many rebound opportunities.

"Both teams didn't shoot well, so I had a lot of opportunities to get some rebounds," said Haywood, who had 20 rebounds on the night - tying his season-high. "I was trying to attack the boards and be aggressive."

Haywood also added 13 points (3-6 shooting) and three blocks to go along with his 20 boards for his second straight double-double.

The Pacers were without their leading scorer in Danny Granger (23.3 ppg) and Nowitzki knows the Mavericks night was a little easier thanks to that.

"Granger obviously is their go-to guy, and he always makes shots, so we definitely caught a break that he wasn't there," said Nowitzki, who had a team-high 23 points on 7-14 shooting.

Only one Pacers' starter scored in double-figures (Troy Murphy with 10 on 5-15 shooting) and their leading scorer was T.J. Ford off the bench with 14 points.

Coach Unhappy With Team's Play

Although the Mavs won, coach Rick Carlise felt like Dallas could have played much better against a team as poor as the Pacers - especially without their leading scorer.

"We played a sloppy game," said Carlise. "The ball movement wasn't crisp, and we had questionable shot selection. Defensively, we had too many breakdowns. We have to get better."

After Dallas went up 90-68 with 5:54 left in the fourth, Indy went on a 14-1 run to close the game. The Mavericks were 0-9 from the field, had two turnovers and allowed the Pacers to make 5-9 shots from the field.

The Mavs bench has got to be able to hold a lead when the starters get up by 20 on an opponent over half-way through the fourth quarter. If this was the Lakers (who come to Dallas Wednesday night), they would have come back and won by 20.

Terry Gets Back On Track

After going 0-10 against the Miami Heat on Saturday night, Jason Terry put an end to his 0-fer pretty quickly, 7:29 into the first quarter to be exact.

Terry made two of his first three shots and finished with a tidy 14 points on 5-10 shooting. Not bad after one of the worst games of the guards 10-year career.

Kidd Finally Gets Some Rest

After playing at least 40 minutes in each of the past three games, Jason Kidd got a break against the Pacers. While he still played his part (10 points and seven assists), Kidd played only 28 minutes for the game and sat out the entire fourth quarter as Dallas had the game on lock.

These are the types of games the 36 year-old point guard needs more of as the Mavericks prepare for the playoffs. Kidd has played 30 minutes or less in a game only seven times this season and only three times in the past 40 games.

Hopefully this trend changes in the next two months. The more Kidd is rested come playoff-time, the better chance Dallas has of getting to the Finals. He is the engine that makes this team go, on both ends of the court.

What's Next

While Dallas didn't play as well as it should have at times, they still got the win and they still rested their veteran starters who had seen a heavy workload as of late. So, mission accomplished.

Wednesday night, the big bad Los Angeles Lakers come to town for the fourth and final meeting between these two teams this season. L.A. has a 2-1 advantage in the three meetings this season, having won at home and in Dallas. But this is a new Mavericks' team and it's going to be exciting to see how the new pieces are going to match-up against the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant (the NBA's fourth leading scorer at 28 points per game) is expected to be back in action, but the Lakers will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back after taking on the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday night. Even without Bryant, the Lakers have won four of their past five games.

Tip-off is at 8:00 p.m. and can be seen nationally on ESPN, locally on KTXA 21.

News and Notes:

• The Mavericks have now one four straight for the third time this season. Dallas won five straight games Nov 13 through Nov 20 (Minnesota, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Sacramento) and Dec. 8 through Dec.16 (Phoenix, Miami, Charlotte, New Orleans, Oklahoma City).
• In the 10 games before the Butler-Haywood-Stevenson trade, Dallas was 4-6 and had allowed an average of 107.1 points per game. Since the trade the Mavs are 4-1 and have allowed only 90.8 points per game against teams like Phoenix (109.2) and Orlando (101.1). Nice.