The effort was certainly there on this night, but Gary Neal (14) and the Spurs were too much for the Nowitzki-less Mavs. (AP Photo/Tim Sharp)Coming off possibly the ugliest loss of the season, largely due to the lack of sustained energy, next up was the San Antonio Spurs (28-4) who are off to the best start in franchise history. However, getting up to face the NBA's best team was no problem for the Dallas Mavericks (24-7), as this team hung tough against the hard charging Spurs throughout.
"It's a tough loss," Mavericks' coach Rick Carlisle said, "but we just have to keep battling."
Despite the loss, the mood in the locker room after the game was unexpectedly upbeat -- considering the Mavericks had just been beaten by a division-rival, in what was a close contest at times.
"With this effort, we'll win a lot more games than we would lose... no matter what the record the opposing team has," Kidd said.
Dallas jumped out of the gate hot, led by Kidd who was all over the floor making plays.
A resounding block on a breakaway lay-up attempt by Tony Parker (after Parker poked the ball away for a steal on the other end) was the first bomb to drop in a mushroom-cloud laying quarter for Kidd. The Mavs point guard dished out an assist to newly-inserted starter Brian Cardinal on the other end, then proceeded by scoring seven straight Maverick points to put the team ahead 18-12.
Kidd finished with seven points, four assists, two boards, two blocks and a steal in the only quarter Dallas would hold a lead on the night.
"We were flat against Toronto, so the big thing was to come out and be aggressive," said Kidd, who finished the game with 12 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds - his 106th career triple double. "My job is to make things happen, find the open guy, and knock down shots. I've just got to be aggressive."
The whirlwind play of the Mavericks' point guard couldn't halt a Spurs push to end the first quarter, then things got ugly after Kidd sat on the bench to start the second. The Mavericks not only lost their offensive identity without the floor general, but also their tenacity on the defensive end of the floor.
The San Antonio reserves led the way as the Spurs reeled off a 21-2 run to take a 45-29 lead with 8:11 left in the second. Gary Neal and George Hill provided the spark as the Spurs bench would go on to outscore the Mavs reserves 42-31 for the contest. Neal actually led the Spurs with 21 points off the pine, hitting 6 of 10 shots (5 of 8 from deep) to lead what Carlisle described as the Spurs' "3-point barrage" that decided the game.
"Gary has been important to us all year long coming off the bench, scoring, playing hard," Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich said. "He has been a big part of what we've been doing."
Caron Butler did his best Batman impression throughout, scoring a season-high 30 points in an effort to keep the Mavericks in it. Dallas got to within one point three times in the third quarter, led by Butler's continued third quarter magic as he put up eight points, but weren't able to supply that impact push to blow the game open.
The Spurs opened up the final quarter with a seven point lead, extending it to double digits for the majority of the fourth, and the Mavericks were unable to get any closer than five (after a desperation Terry 3-pointer with 22 seconds left) the rest of the way.
"We just couldn't get over the hump," Carlisle said. "It was tough, it was frustrating, but our guys kept battling. I take the positives out of it, but right now we've got to really work together. Without Dirk in the lineup, the margins for error are extremely slim."
Popovich even piled on after the contest, saying "we don't take too much out of the win" and even chastising his team for not improving as a team overall.
"I thought they did a lot better overall than we did in a lot of ways," Popovich said.
While I refuse to accept the notion that this can construed by some as a quality loss for this Mavericks team -- considering they shot only 42 percent from the floor and were bullied on the boards by the Spurs at 50-34 -- but it is certainly a step in the right direction after the shellacking they took at the hands of the Raptors Tuesday night.
Unfortunately, without Dirk Nowitzki, that's all you can really hope for out of this Mavs' team until the big German makes his triumphant return.
What's Next:
Dallas gets a night off to ring in the New Years before traveling to Milwaukee on New Year's Day to take on the Bucks. The Mavs 12-game winning streak was snapped earlier this year by Milwaukee, at the AAC, and this is the second and final meeting between the two teams this season.
The Bucks are 12-18 this season (7-7 at home) and are missing starting point guard Brendon Jennings -- both their leading scorer (17.9) and assist-man (5.5). Milwaukee has lost five of their last seven games overall, but the Mavs know first hand how dangerous this team can be - especially now if Nowitzki is unable to suit up.
"Milwaukee's a spunky team," Shawn Marion said.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. central time, Saturday night.
News and Notes:
- Brian Cardinal got the start over Shawn Marion at power forward to start the contest. Cardinal scored nine points and did a little bit of everything as he even played out the game in crunch time with the Matrix looking on from the bench. Marion scored
- Both Brendan Haywood and Ian Mahinmi were did not see a minute of action for the game. Alexis Ajinca was the first big man off the bench, scoring seven points and grabbing two boards for the game.
- Jason Terry, normally a player who thrives when in position to take the reigns offensively, struggled to find his shot all night. The Mavs' sixth man made only 3 of 16 shots (), finishing with just eight points and four assists. It's Terry second-lowest scoring game of the season, and only the third time he's finished without reaching double-digits. ... "It was a tough night for him, but he hit a couple of 3's at the end, " Carlisle said, "which was big for us and kept us alive." ... Dallas won't beat anyone without Dirk if they get this type of production from JET.
No comments:
Post a Comment