Mavericks run out of gas in loss at Atlanta
As storms go, Wednesday may have been one of the strangest days in the history of the Dallas Mavericks.
The day started with the Mavs trying to silence one storm by suspending point guard Rajon Rondo for one game for conduct detrimental to the team. Unfortunately for the Mavs, the night ended with a similar thud when the Atlanta Hawks pounded them 104-87 before 16,126 at Philips Arena.
But this beatdown — the Mavs’ first road loss of the season against an Eastern Conference team — almost didn’t occur. Snow and icy storms were swirling in the area, so much so that the NBA seriously considered postponing the game.
Both teams, however, got the green light late in the afternoon, and the Hawks (45-12) used a 30-15 rally in the third quarter to send the Mavs home with a 39-21 record.
“The afternoon was weird,” said forward Dirk Nowitzki, who scored a season-low four points on 2-of-7 shooting. “I don’t think the NBA handled it [well].
“They screwed this one up pretty good. They kept telling us we’re waiting to hear from the NBA, we’re waiting to hear from the NBA. And the next thing you know, we’re kind of all sitting around.”
Sitting around did the Mavs no good against the Hawks, who looked like the fresher team and outscored Dallas 57-34 in the second half.
It was one of those dog day afternoons for the Mavs, who converted just 5 of 31 shots from behind the 3-point arc, turned the ball over 15 times and seemed disjointed all night.
“We went from having our bags packed [to leave town without playing a game] and having half the luggage on the truck at 3:40 to having our team meeting at 4 o’clock,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “That’s alright, you just roll with it. That’s what we did and that’s what they did.”
Behind the hot shooting of Monta Ellis (19 points), the Mavs rolled to a 34-22 lead at the start of the second quarter.
But with Dallas’ offense skidding like cars on a slick road, the Hawks opened the second half with a 9-4 run and assumed a 66-57 lead midway through the third period.
When Atlanta then started the fourth quarter on a brisk 12-0 run to go up 89-68, the Mavs were toast and this one was in the oven.
“They amped it up at halftime,” Carlisle said of the Hawks. “I thought we played a great first half. We weathered a couple of runs in the first half, but in the end we ran out of gas.”
Part of the reason the Mavs ran out of gas was because they were playing their fifth game in seven days. Dallas also played without four of its top players.
Rondo was serving his one-game suspension after he and Carlisle got into a heated, profanity-laced confrontation in the third quarter of Tuesday’s home victory against Toronto.
Small forward Chandler Parsons missed his third straight game with a sprained left ankle and bone bruise. Center Tyson Chandler was sidelined with an injury to his left hip, and Amar’e Stoudemire sat out to get some rest.
It all added up to a night where the Mavs just didn’t have enough firepower to wrestle with the second-best team in the NBA.
“Actually, we all could have played defense a little better,” said center Bernard James, who started in Chandler’s spot and collected seven points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. “But I think personally, overall, it was a good game.”
Just not good enough to get the Mavs a victory.
Dwain Price, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published February 25, 2015 at 11:08 PM with the headline "Mavericks run out of gas in loss at Atlanta."