Mavericks cool off blazing Heat, tighten West playoff race

Don’t look now, but the Dallas Mavericks are making some serious strides in the NBA.

Faced with the challenge of trying to cool off the league’s hottest team, the Mavs put up a huge defensive front and held off the red-hot Miami Heat 96-89 on Monday night at American Airlines Center.

With that victory the Mavs (24-35) are just two games behind the Denver Nuggets for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot.

The Mavs ended the game on a 12-0 run and held Miami scoreless for the final 4:37 in one of Dallas’ best defensive performances of the season. Miami suffered only its third loss in 19 games.

The win could be a major boost for the Mavs given the Heat’s surge. But the Mavs matched Miami’s defensive intensity with some face-to-face defense of their own.

Miami (27-33) entered the game after scoring 100 or more points in 16 consecutive games. Their 89 points Monday were the fewest the Heat have scored since losing to the Los Angeles Clippers 98-86 on Jan. 8.

Offensively, the Mavs basically relied on Seth Curry (29 points) and Harrison Barnes (24 points).

“We’re figuring it out,” Curry said, on his two-man offensive show with Barnes. “The more we play the more we figure out spots where we can do damage on their defense, whether the defense is switching or not.

“He’s a threat out there, so him setting screens is big for us and it opened me up a little bit, and I’m trying to find him when he pops and gets open. So like I said it’s a lot of fun playing with those guys right now.”

Goran Dragic received a friendly bounce on a 3-pointer from the left corner to put Miami ahead 89-84 with 4:39 remaining. That was all the scoring for the Heat, however.

Meanwhile, Curry scored on a left-handed scoop, a free throw and a 3-pointer to put the Mavs up 90-89. Barnes added two free throws, and Wesley Matthews finished off the scoring with four consecutive free throws.

Defensively, the Mavs put in a show, forcing 14 turnovers and holding the Heat to just 9-of-26 shooting from 3-point range.

Dragic led Miami with 24 points, and Hassan Whiteside added 19 points and 19 rebounds.

The Heat led 31-17 early in the second quarter, but the Mavs didn’t blink and steadily chipped away until they built a 55-54 lead at the half.

In all, it was the Mavs’ first home win over the Heat since 2010. And it came at a time when they’re trying to incorporate newly acquired center Nerlens Noel into their offensive and defensive attacks.

Noel was able to shake free for three baskets via alley-oops — two on passes from Devin Harris and one off a feed from Matthews. Noel finished with six points, six rebounds and a whole lot of intimidation in 25 minutes.

“He’s active and he was all over the place,” said Curry, who converted 5 of 7 shots from behind the 3-point line. “I turned and sometimes I was expecting nobody to be there, and he’s there and recovering back to his man.

“He causes a lot of havoc on the defensive end and we’re trying to finds spots offensively where we can get him lobs and get him into the game like that. It’s fun to have him out there on the court and he brings another weapon to our team.”

Curry came out of the All-Star break with a career-high 31 points Friday against Minnesota. Now this.

“I haven’t played this many minutes in my career, so it was good for me to get some rest, come back with a new fresh mindset and just try to play to win,” Curry said. “All our guys are playing unselfish and playing hard and its fun to play our there with them right now."

This story was originally published February 27, 2017 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Mavericks cool off blazing Heat, tighten West playoff race."