Dallas got out to another big lead early before blowing it in the second half, this time Andrew Bogut (above) and the Bucks completed the comeback with only their third win on the road (in 11 tries) this season. (AP Photo/LM Otero)This was bound to happen.
The Dallas Mavericks (19-5) have played with fire over the past few games, getting out to huge leads before lethargic, sloppy play reared it's ugly head. It happened again Monday night against the Milwaukee Bucks (10-13), and this time the Mavericks were unable to mount a late rally to salvage the victory.
"This kind of slippage we've seen all too often," Mavericks' coach Rick Carlisle said. "I've got to coach harder, the players have got to be more conscientious, we've got to do better than we did tonight."
Dallas jumped out to a 42-22 midway through the second quarter, dominating the Bucks on both ends of the floor with a 15-2 run to take the largest lead of the game for either team.
Milwaukee answered right back with an 11-0 run of their own, taking the once seemingly insurmountable lead down to single digits -where it would stay to end the half. The run didn't stop there as the Bucks got off to a strong start in the second half, outscoring the Mavs 7-2 to take the lead down to just four points at 54-50.
"This was a game we should have won, a game we clearly had under control," Mavericks' center Tyson Chandler said. "We let them back in it."
The Bucks continued streaking to end the third, culminating with three straight drained free throws from Kenyon Dooling, after an ugly Dirk Nowitzki foul and subsequent technical, to take a one point lead going into the final frame. After scoring only 15 points in the first quarter, the Bucks lit up the Mavericks defense for 60 over the next two quarters.
"It would have been easy to hang our heads and figure, 'They're a great club.' We battled back and were trying to get it to single digits by halftime," Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles said. "We came out in the third quarter with some nice juice."
The Mavericks tried to mount another fourth quarter clutch performance to get their 13th straight win, snatching away the lead with just over 10 minutes left the final frame and holding onto it until the 5:34 mark. Unfortunately for Dallas, that's went the Bucks got hot again.
Milwaukee made two straight free throws and four unanswered buckets after the Mavericks went up 88-83 on a J.J. Barea layup with 6:47 remaining in the quarter; spurring a 14-0 run to take a 97-88 lead with 3:32 left in regulation.
Dallas crept within two points after back-to-back 3's from Jason Kidd and Jason Terry followed by three makes at the free throws took the Bucks lead down to 101-99 with under a minute to play. Nowitzki had a chance to tie it after Bucks' point guard Brandon Jennings missed a deep jumper with plenty of time on the shot clock, but Dirk missed a fade away 8-footer with 11 seconds left.
Dooling made two more free throws to ice the game with under 10 seconds to play.
"They were on a winning streak, 12 games in a row, so to come in and get a win, it's big," Jennings said.
Jennings dropped a team-high 23 points for the Bucks while dishing out 10 assists in a reinvigorated second half attack.
"He was very determined," Carlisle said of Jennings. "You could see it in his eyes. He was attacking and we never took away his momentum."
Bucks' center Andrew Bogut had 21 points (on an efficient 10 of 12 shooting) along with 14 rebounds, and Dooling led Milwaukee with 16 off the bench.
For Dallas, Nowitzki scored a game-high 30 points as one of five Mavs to score in double-digits, but the next highest scorer was Shawn Marion with 14 points in reserve.
While the way Dallas lost was not only alarming but inevitable considering their recent play, 12 straight wins is an admirable feat and it was going to end at some point. Jennings and the Bucks refused to back down with their backs against the wall, coming on strong in the final three quarters to take down the streak and win their first road game since Nov. 10.
Hack-A-Haywood
I was going to write a small article over this, but then I found that the esteemed Jeff Caplan of ESPNDallas.com already had a great article on the topic. Enjoy.
What's Next:
The Portland Trail Blazers visit the AAC Wednesday night in the first meeting between the two teams this season. Portland is a disappointing 12-12 this season, but have won four of six after losing six straight games to drop their record to 8-11 earlier this month. One good sign for Dallas is that the Blazers have lost six their last seven games away from home.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. central time and can be seen nationally on ESPN, locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
News and Notes:
- One huge reason the streak isn't at 13 games? Milwaukee outscored Dallas 52-38 in the paint.
- Want another? The Bucks missed a grand total of three shots in the final 6:31 of the contest.
- Need some more bad news in this blog? Cliff Lee is a Philadelphia Philly. More on this tomorrow.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
No comments:
Post a Comment