Mavericks Soar Past The Hawks, Defeats Atlanta 110-87
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by user UNT66
Monday Night at American Airlines Center, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Atlanta Hawks 110-87. With the win, the Mavericks extended their current win streak to 12 games and their home court winning streak to 20 games and maintained their lead over Phoenix by 4 games.
After a slow start, the Mavericks gained a four point lead at the end of the first quarter and never gave it up. In the second quarter, the Mavericks outscored the Hawks by 11 and lead by 15 by halftime. In the second half, the Mavericks outscored the Hawks by 8 points and kept the visitors in check, not allowing any rallies to chip away at their lead.
Powering the Mavericks were three starters who scored 20 or more points (Nowitzki, Howard and Terry) and one bench players who nearly scored 20 (19 by Stackhouse).
Next up for the Mavericks is Tuesday Night at Minnesota, a team that ended the Suns 17 winning streak earlier this season.
Notes:
Howard's Ankle is A Problem:
Josh Howard's Right Ankle was not fully healthy, thanks to an Ankle Sprain suffered against the Heat on Thursday. Now, his ankle got worse in the 4th quarter, thanks to Joe Johnson of the Hawks.
On the play when the injury occurred, Johnson stepped up to defend a Howard three point shot, but held his foot just under Howard's foot. Thus, Johnson further aggravated Howard's injury, ending his night before the game expired and putting his status Tuesday Night at Minnesota in doubt.
Now, I would dismiss this type of tactic if it only happened one time, but according to Howard, this type of injury has happened five times this season and twice in the last three games.
To me, there's a movement to look to hurt the Mavericks by playing dirty. Jason Kapono did it on Thursday vs. Heat and Joe Johnson did the same thing on Monday Night.
Sooner or later, the opposition is going to look at Dirk Nowitzki and see how they can take him off his game and I wouldn't be shocked if they use this dirty tactic as well.
ZaZa played well:
After Joe Johnson's 29 points, only one other player stepped up on Atlanta's roster, ZaZa Pachulia.
Pachulia's 24 points and 9 rebounds were a surprise as he stepped up and tried to keep the score respectable. Yet, the rest of the Hawks could not match the Mavericks intensity on offense and defense, leaving the AAC with a 23 loss and confirmation that they are still a bad team.
For those curious on who ZaZa Pachulia is, which I had no clue on this guy before the game, click on the following link: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3745
JG
