Dallas Mavericks: Rough Night for the Mavs

The Dallas Mavericks fell hard to a determined San Antonio Spurs team with a final score of 116-90.

The Dallas Mavericks faced off against the San Antonio Spurs tonight in a game that should have been really important for Dallas. Instead, the Mavs decided to lay an egg against a very hot shooting Spurs team which is a recipe for disaster if ever there has been one.

Dallas eventually fell to San Antonio in embarrassing fashion with a final score of 116-90. The game was never close as the Spurs outscored the Mavericks in the first quarter 27-12. The game would only get worse from there.

The second quarter was more of the same for Dallas as they were outscored this time 35-14. This gave the Mavs a halftime deficit of 62-26. The 36 point gap was the biggest halftime deficit in Dallas Mavericks franchise history, according to ESPN. 26 points was also a season low for points in a half for Dallas.

The Mavs got better in the 2nd half thankfully. The third quarter went to Dallas as they outscored the Spurs 34-26. Unfortunately, Dallas still found themselves with a 28 point gap with only 12 minutes to play. At this point it was a foregone conclusion for most Mavs fans, but Rick Carlisle confirmed the suspicions starting and playing the bench throughout the 4th.

The 4th quarter was pretty much all garbage time (much like the whole game for Dallas). Starters for both teams sat the entire period and the game was long over. Besides getting the starters some rest and the bench some game time, this game would have been a good one to miss.

The Mavericks were led in scoring by Justin Anderson and Charlie Villanueva with 13 apiece followed by Dirk Nowitzki with 10. Other stat leaders for the Mavs were Dirk with 8 boards, Felton with 4 assists, while Anderson had two of the three 3-pointers for Dallas in the game. Kawhi Leonard led all scorers with 23 points while LaMarcus Aldridge pulled down 10 rebounds.

The game got pretty physical at times with a total of 4 technical fouls called and one flagrant foul. Zaza Pachulia was definitely not in his best frame of mind right from the start as he got tossed early in the 3rd quarter after his second technical foul. He finished the night with only 4 points and 2 rebounds in nearly 19 minutes of game time.

If there was any highlight in the game, it would have to be the play of rookie Justin Anderson in the 4th quarter. Anderson has found himself out of the Mavericks rotation on most nights at this point, but when the game gets out of hand, we often see the rookie get some late minutes. Tonight he was able to play over 18 minutes and made them count. Anderson showed the Mavs what a little bit of his draft expectations as he scored all 13 of his points in the 4th quarter on 4-7 shooting and 3-3 from the free throw line.

Next: Dallas Mavericks Face Crucial Three Game Stretch

The Dallas Mavericks will look to end their current ugly 3 game losing streak with another tough battle against the Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow night. The game will be in Memphis and will begin at 7:00 pm.