Mavericks close out Pelicans, snap 8-game losing streak

Behind one of their best fourth quarters of the season, the Dallas Mavericks finally located the win column again.

After scoring 60 points through the first three listless quarters Sunday night, the Mavs strung up 31 points in the fourth period while outlasting the New Orleans Pelicans 91-81 before a rousing sellout crowd of 19,302 at American Airlines Center. The long-awaited victory snapped an eight-game losing streak and was the Mavs’ first win since they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 109-97 on the road on Nov. 8.

Even with Dirk Nowitzki sitting out as a precaution with a sore right Achilles, the Mavs were able to finish the game in spectacular fashion by scoring on 13 of their final 14 possessions to improve to 3-13.

“There are a lot of reasons to drop your head in a game like this,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “They made runs, we had a few bad turnovers.

“But everyone was undeterred and kept hanging in there for each other, and it’s good to win a game once in a while.”

Wesley Matthews and Harrison Barnes combined to score 23 of the Mavericks’ 31 fourth-quarter points as Dallas had to overcome the Pelicans’ one-two punch of Anthony Davis (36 points, 13 rebounds) and Jrue Holiday (17 points, six assists).

During one stretch from 6:32 of the fourth quarter until 1:31 remaining, Matthews and Barnes combined for 20 of the Mavericks’ 22 points. That included 11 points by Matthews — nine on three 3-pointers — and nine points from Barnes.

The Mavs held the Pelicans to 39 percent shooting while converting 41.6 percent of their shots. Dallas led 44-42 at the half and the score was knotted at 60 after three quarters before the Mavericks’ late surge.

“We just have to keep playing hard and playing for each other and playing together on both ends of the court,” said Matthews, who finished with 21 points and made 6-of-8 from 3-point range. “It’s something that we haven’t done this season so far.

“One thing that I was proud of tonight was that we didn’t hang our heads. We didn’t get down on ourselves.”

The Mavs entered Sunday after being embarrassed in Cleveland on Friday when they were down 45 points and eventually lost to the NBA champion Cavaliers 128-90. But when the Pelicans staged rally after rally — a pair of 3-pointers by Holiday gave New Orleans a 68-62 lead early in the fourth quarter — the Mavs didn’t flinch and closed the game on a 26-10 run.

“I would love to talk about how hard everybody played the entire 48 minutes regardless of the situation and regardless of the score,” Carlisle said. “At the end, we just kept playing hard and we outlasted them.”

Besides Barnes (23 points, seven rebounds) and Matthews, the Mavs received a huge contribution from second-year veteran Justin Anderson, who collected 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

“I thought Justin played by far his best game in two years with 23 minutes, big shots, always being in the right place and tough defense,” Carlisle said. “That is exactly what we need from him.”

And this win, the Mavs also know, is exactly what they needed. Especially with the San Antonio Spurs coming to town on Wednesday.

This story was originally published November 27, 2016 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Mavericks close out Pelicans, snap 8-game losing streak."