Harrison Barnes Leads Dallas Mavericks to First Win in Overtime Thriller

The Dallas Mavericks improved to 1-5 on the year after a nail-biting win at home against the Milwaukee Bucks behind a big night from Harrison Barnes.

Harrison Barnes continued his hot start to the season, as he notched a career high 34 points, including the tying points near the end of regulation. The Mavs got their first win far short of full strength tonight, missing starters Deron Williams, Dirk Nowitzki and backup guard, Devin Harris.

Similarly to the five games prior to this one, the Mavs were caught in a wire-to-wire battle that ended up a defensive struggle. Scoring just 86 points in four-and-a-half quarters against an athletic team is not normally the way to win games, but Dallas finally had a good enough defensive output to stop a potent Milwaukee attack led by the Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Jason Kidd’s Bucks entered the game 4-2, a solid mark for a team looking to take the next step following a stagnant couple of seasons. Rick Carlisle thoroughly out-coached his former player, limiting Milwaukee to just 75 points in an overtime game.

Harrison Barnes, Wesley Matthews, and Andrew Bogut combined to provide an extremely solid defensive effort to essentially hand Dallas the win despite their porous offense.

While Harrison Barnes continues to be a huge bright spot for Dallas, Rick Carlisle may have found a new bright spot deep on his bench. Dorian Finney-Smith came off the bench and provided extremely impressive defense, particularly on the final possession.

Finney-Smith essentially unseated Justin Anderson in the seventh-man spot in the rotation for Dallas, providing the Mavs with another solid perimeter defender.

Finney-Smith was essentially a throw-in near the beginning of training camp. A long-shot to make the roster at first, Finney-Smith narrowly beat out Jonathan Gibson for one of the final roster spots deep on the Mavs bench.

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With a wide frame and huge hands, Finney-Smith may be able to provide some extremely helpful defense down the stretch tonight for the Mavs as he helped them to their first win.