A Tale Of Two Halves: Mavs Fall Short To Resting Spurs

The Dallas Mavericks may have faced off with the San Antonio Spurs as the favorites, but with limited minutes from most veterans, Dallas fell short in the end.

With the season winding down, the Dallas Mavericks hosted the San Antonio Spurs tonight. While the Spurs rested seven players, all but one Mavericks player (Seth Curry), saw some playing time. That advantage was not enough as San Antonio came away victorious 102-89.

The Mavericks used the absence of key Spurs players such as Kawhi Leonard and Pau Gasol to their advantage early on. Everything was clicking for them. Yogi Ferrell got to the rim with ease and JJ Barea showed why he leads the league in assists off the bench (5.3).

Wesley Matthews had some impressive assists himself, one of which was an alley oop pass to Nerlens Noel. Noel fell just short of his third double-double as a Maverick with eight points and nine rebounds in 14 minutes of action.

Dallas Mavericks

Harrison Barnes was relatively quiet tonight. He only scored eight points in 18 minutes. Despite the slow night, Barnes became the fastest player to reach 1,500 points as a Dallas Maverick.

This balanced attack paired with a lack of firepower for San Antonio helped Dallas go into halftime with a 61-50 lead.

The third quarter was more of the same until San Antonio went on a 17-2 run at the 7:34 mark. The run started with a driving floater by rookie guard Bryn Forbes. Forbes led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-19 shooting in 29 minutes. Dallas only managed to score eight points the entire quarter.

Dallas scored 20 points in the final period but the damage had already been done. It was simply too little too late. San Antonio wouldn’t relinquish their lead. They swung the momentum in their favor and kept their foot on the throttle.

Moment Of The Game

In brighter news, one lucky Mavs fan named Courtney drilled a half-court shot during a timeout and won a 65″ TV. She also got a chance to celebrate with Dirk and a few other Mavs players. As, you can see, the AAC was jumping!

https://twitter.com/dallasmavs/status/850537096553132032

Dallas will suit up again on Sunday as they head to Phoenix to play Devin Booker and the Suns. You can catch that game at 6:00 PM EST on Fox Sports Southwest and FAz+.