Mavericks withstand Ellis' career night to snap three-game skid. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)Even the crappiest of teams still have a chance against this year's Mavericks.
What seemed like an easy blow-out win for the Dallas Mavericks (31-18) turned into a close game down the stretch. Dallas led by as many as 18 in the first half (62-44) and 14 in the second (73-59), before the Warriors made it a close game in the fourth.
The Golden State Warriors (13-25) got to within six at the end of the third quarter and were down only three at 95-92 with less than five minutes to play. Dirk Nowitzki then took over as he scored six straight points to put the Mavericks up 101-92 with 3:19 left in regulation.
Nowitzki appeared to injure his thumb late in the third quarter but returned to score nine of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, leading Dallas to it's 31st win of the season.
"Teams are putting smaller guys on me," said Nowitzki, who made seven of his 11 shot attempts. "When I go into the post, here comes the double-team and the ball is out of my hands. I wasn't getting a lot of looks. But I got enough to win the game."
Jason Terry led the Mavericks with 21 points (8-17 from the floor) and Shawn Marion (9-11) tied his season-high with 18 as Dallas shot 54.4 percent as a team.
Josh Howard had his second-highest scoring game of the season (19) as he and Drew Gooden combined to score 35 of Dallas' 45 bench points. The Mavericks bench outscored the Warriors bench 45-21 for the game.
"We give guys contract extensions."
For the second time in the last three games, at home, the Dallas Mavericks have allowed a player to score their career high against them.
Andre Miller demolished his previous career-high (35) with his 52 point night in Dallas on Jan. 30, and Monte Ellis put on a show tonight in Dallas.
Ellis was 17-23 from the field (74 percent), 4-6 from deep and scored a career-high 46 points in 41 minutes of playing time.
"That's what we do," Nowitzki joked. "We give guys contract extensions."
Unlike Miller, Ellis is an excellent scorer - he is sixth in the NBA in scoring at 26.6 per game - so it wasn't as bad as letting Miller (12.6 per game average) go off. Ellis previous career-high was 45, which occured earlier this season (Nov.30) against the Indiana Pacers at home.
What's Next
Dallas has an excellent chance the next two games to pick up some ground on the Denver Nuggets for second place in the West before their Feb.9 showdown in Denver. The Mavericks have a home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves Friday and go on the road to Golden State to take on the Warriors again on Monday. These teams have the two worst records in the Western Conference, so Dallas should be able to take care of business. Should.
The Timberwolves are 11-38 and have the second worst record in basketball, behind only the 4-44 New Jersey nets. Minnesota is 3-21 on the road (tied for second-worst in the NBA) and allow an average of 106.7 points a game while scoring only 97.6, the second worst differential in the NBA (9.1).
Minnesota has lost five of their last seven games and haven't won on the road since Dec. 23, 2009 (10 games), against the Nets.
Tip-off is at 7:30 and can be seen locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
News and Notes:
- Jason Kidd tied a season-high with six steals and with 16 assists (11 in the first half alone) had his fourth 15+ assist game this season. Dallas is 4-0 in those games. Kidd is fifth in the NBA is assists per game (9.3).
- This will be the first time Ryan Hollins and Nathan Jawai will play in Dallas since they left the Mavs in the offseason. (Wow. Slow news and notes day)
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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