Chandler Parsons, bench power Dallas Mavericks over Brooklyn 91-79

In a sure-fire example of how much depth they possess, the Dallas Mavericks showed Friday night just how potent their bench can be.

The Mavericks’ reserves outscored the Brooklyn Nets 34-2 Friday night at American Airlines Center. That big difference was what pushed the Mavericks to 91-79 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,409.

The victory increased the Mavs’ record to 27-22, while the Nets dropped to 12-35.

In a stunning development, the only points the Nets scored off the bench occurred 47 seconds into the fourth quarter when Andrea Bargnani dropped in a 21-foot jumper. Other than that, the Nets reserves missed their other 13 field-goal attempts and were a non-factor all night.

Meanwhile, J.J. Barea led the Mavericks’ bench with 13 points, Salah Mejri scored seven, and Raymond Felton had nine points, and the Mavs were a plus-23 when he was on the court.

“Our bench is one of our calling cards — has been for years,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “I thought Barea and Felton both played huge roles, I thought [Charlie] Villanueva’s minutes in the first half were really key. He came in and helped us stretch the lead. And Mejri came in the second half and played solid, and we didn’t have to stretch [starting center] Zaza [Pachulia] out too much, so that was big.”

Pachulia had missed the previous three games with a sore left Achilles, but he returned Friday and was aggressive, while earning more than his share of floor burns. Pachulia collected his career-high-tying 21st double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds) and provided the muscle Dallas needed to stand up to Nets center Brook Lopez.

“It was a really important thing for us tonight because of his strength and experience versus Lopez, and they put some on the other end putting the ball in the basket,” Carlisle said of Pachulia. "Sixteen and 12, those are gaudy numbers at our center position, so it was production we needed.”

The Nets sliced a 40-22 second-quarter deficit down to 56-49 midway through the third quarter. But behind Chandler Parsons, who scored seven of the Mavericks next nine points, Dallas was off and running again.

Felton’s step-back 21-footer at the third-quarter buzzer padded the Mavs’ lead to 71-55. And it got back to 18 points again — 75-57 — when rookie Justin Anderson tossed in a 19-footer with 9:20 remaining in the game.

Parsons finished with 19 points and a season-high 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.

“This was a must-win for us,” said Parsons, who was 8-of-15 from the field. “We understood the importance of this one coming off a tough road trip against the best teams in the league.”

Dallas led 25-18 after the first quarter, 51-39 at the half and didn’t need to rely too much on Dirk Nowitzki. The 18-year veteran scored 12 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked a season-high four shots in 29 minutes.

“I thought Parsons played a really strong game,” Carlisle said. “He hit a couple of shots at key times to kind of keep the lead up and I thought his baseline shot in the fourth kind of put the game away, and Dirk was out so we didn’t have to bring him back, so that was big.

“[Parsons is] picking up his game and this is the right time to do it for us. We need his production, we need his playmaking, his defense is becoming a real factor and it gives us the two-way option of the big guy at [small forward] and the speed and playmaking at [power forward], so he’s getting there.”

Meanwhile, this was the first game point guard Deron Williams played against the Nets — he played for them the previous three-and-a-half seasons — since Brooklyn bought him out of his contract last summer for $27.5 million. Williams came in averaging only 11.9 shots per game, but had seven attempts in the first quarter and only made one.

Overall, Williams was 3-of-14 from the field and finished with eight points and six assists in 32 minutes.

“He had some good shots that missed, but I love the way he just stayed aggressive throughout the game,” Carlisle said. “His shooting numbers don’t look great, but he made a couple of key hoops in our run in the second quarter and he battled on defense all night.”

“Hey, not everything’s going to be perfect, and our shot-making wasn’t particularly great tonight and yet we still were able to get enough stops and rebounds to get trough it.”

The Mavs went a disappointing 1-2 on their recent three-game road trip to play the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors. But they made amends Friday night in the opener of a two-game homestand, which ends with Sunday’s 6 p.m. game against Phoenix.

“It’s an important win for us coming off of losing two out of three on the road,” Carlisle said. “We grinded through the game and did what we had to do.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 11:34 PM with the headline "Chandler Parsons, bench power Dallas Mavericks over Brooklyn 91-79."