Dallas Mavericks Lose 5th Straight

The Dallas Mavericks dropped their 5th straight game to the Indiana Pacers today, despite a 30-point performance from Dirk Nowitzki

The Dallas Mavericks played the Indiana Pacers in an early game at the American Airlines Center today. Coming in to the game, Dallas had dropped 4 straight to the Kings, Nuggets, Clippers, and Pistons. Needless to say, these are by no means losses we can have on the record if we intend to make any sort of splash in the playoffs.

The Mavericks looked ready to play today and the crowd was pumped and ready for a great game. Dallas did a great job keeping it entertaining but in the end, they couldn’t hold off the Pacers late run.

The first half was a close battle with neither team taking a major advantage at any point. The scoring was also fairly balanced on each team with Dirk Nowitzki leading all scorers with 13 points. As the Pacers entered the second half with a 55-51 lead, the third quarter belonged to Paul George scoring 13 points and hitting 3 long balls to push the Pacers up by 8 going into the final 12 minutes.

The 4th quarter was an exciting 12 minutes as the Mavs jumped out quickly and got within one shot of the lead multiple times. With Dallas poised to tie the game on an easy David Lee layup, the ball rimmed out, fell into the hands of Solomon Hill, and resulted in an easy transition layup for Ian Mahinmi giving the Pacers another two possession lead.

From there it was the George Hill show, scoring 10 of his 16 points in the final 5 minutes of the game. The Pacers ran away in the final minutes with a final score of 112-105.

Dirk Nowitzki led all scorers with 30 points, his 5th straight game scoring over 22. Dirk was 1 of 6 Mavericks to score in double-digits with only 9 players receiving time in the game. Zaza Pachulia led the Mavericks with 9 rebounds while Deron Williams had 8 assists.

The difference maker in the game was the free throw shooting of the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers were previously shooting right around 76% from the free throw line but were able to hit their first 26 tries from the charity stripe while their only misses came with the game out of hand.

In summation, the Dallas Mavericks squandered another winnable game despite another vintage Dirk performance. If we are going to make any move in the playoffs, we need to capitalize on these performances from the Big German.

Next: How Much Blame Falls On Wesley Matthews?

The Mavericks will have their work cut out for them as they have games against a streaking Charlotte Hornets team, followed by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, and Portland Trail Blazers. Dallas has dropped to the 8th seed after today’s loss.