Dallas celebrates (above) after turning the tables on the second night of a back-to-back, outrebounding the Hawks and withstanding a run late to take the victory. (AP Photo/David Goldman)After getting out to a sluggish start and being dominated on the boards last night against the Chicago Bulls, the Dallas Mavericks (8-4) responded by outrebounding and outshooting the Atlanta Hawks (8-5) in winning on the second night of the first back-to-back of the season.
Dallas corrected it's early game shooting woes, starting 7 of 11 from the field as opposed to the dreadful 5 for 20 the night before. In fact, the Mavericks matched their halftime total against the Bulls (35) with 9:45 left in the second quarter against the Hawks.
The Mavs won battle on the boards 40-37, but especially on the offensive glass where the Hawks totaled only seven; as opposed to the night before when the Bulls' Taj Gibson totaled eight on his own.
"It was a tough back-to-back for us, coming in late at night," Mavs power forward Dirk Nowitzki said. "We responded to a tough loss yesterday. We kind of made it a little hard on ourselves there in the second half. I felt like that was a good win against a good team at home."
The Mavericks' jumped out to a 9-0 run to start the second quarter, and the lead reached 18 later in the frame. The lead stayed in double-digits until the end of the half, this coming against a well-rested Hawks team that hadn't played since Tuesday night.
"We didn't come out with the energy we needed," Hawks guard Joe Johnson said, "but we were able to get back in it."
Atlanta got off to a hot start in the second half, scoring seven unanswered points to get the Mavs lead under double-digits for the first time since early in the second quarter. Dallas went on another large run of it's own, regaining an 18-point lead before the Hawks kicked it into overdrive and got themselves back in the game with a huge run.
After Dallas went up 71-53 on a Nowitzki jumper with 4:46 left in the third, Atlanta outscored the Mavs 22-4 to cut the lead to five points with a little over 10 minutes left in the final frame. The Mavericks then stormed back with eight straight points from the bench combo of Shawn Marion and Jason Terry (four each). But the Hawks didn't back down as the brought the lead down to a single point with 15 seconds left in regulation.
Dallas then responded on the defensive end, forcing Johnson to miss a contested three pointer and Nowitzki rose between two Hawks and snatched the rebound away from the grasp of power forward Josh Smith.
Terry and Nowitzki then made two free throws each to seal the game for Dallas.
"I love to go up there with the game on the line, whether it's a tie game or to put the game away," Terry said. "It was a must-win for us. Now you're back feeling confident in yourself. You've learned from your mistakes."
While Nowitzki struggled a bit from the field (8 of 22), he led Dallas in scoring with 21 points, while Terry scored 15 and dished seven assists off the bench.
Sometimes a team needs to learn lessons the hard way and Dallas did just that in the loss Friday versus the Bulls. The Mavericks seemed to have a renewed effort on the glass in this game and (especially on Dirk's excellent board at the end) that made the difference throughout.
Zone Defense Not Just A Mavs' Staple
Each team relied heavily on the zone defense throughout the game, but while Dallas was able to penetrate and find holes in the zone, the Hawks relied on outside jumpers - going 7 of 25 from behind the arc.
"Twenty-five 3-point shots is way too many for us," Atlanta coach Larry Drew said. "We settled for perimeter shots. Our movement was very slow early on. We didn't have much zip."
The Mavericks quick rotations on the defensive end forced the Hawks to either drive the ball into a congested paint or settle with a contest outside shot and that paid dividends.
"We're trying to be the best zone team in basketball," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "It's challenging. We have to play to our length and experience and our knowledge of the game."
What's Next
The Mavericks return to Dallas for a couple of days off before taking on the Detroit Pistons Tuesday night at the American Airlines Center. Detroit, 4-8 on the season, has actually won four of their last seven games after starting the season by losing five straight. The Pistons are 2-5 on the road this season.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. central time.
News and Notes:
- DeShawn Stevenson had his highest scoring game as a Maverick with 13 points on an efficient 4 of 4 from the field an 3-3 from three-point range.
- Shawn Marion secured his first double-double of the season, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in 31 minutes off the bench.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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