Mavericks’ spark extinguished down stretch as Spurs prevail

For a few precious moments Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks were in total control of their I-35 rivalry game with the San Antonio Spurs.

Then, Kawhi Leonard and Patty Mills decided to take the wheel and take over the game.

Leonard scored nine of his 21 points in the third quarter and Mills popped in 15 of his 23 in the fourth quarter as the Spurs rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat the Mavs 94-87.

The lost was the ninth in the past 10 games for the Mavs (3-14). The Spurs (15-4) ran their road record to a perfect 11-0, which is the third-best start to a season on the road in NBA history.

Behind some sizzling shooting by Wesley Matthews (26 points), the Mavs led 60-47 with 4:10 remaining in the third quarter after they opened the second half on a blistering 20-4 run. But Leonard got cooking late in the third quarter and at the outset of the fourth quarter.

And when the Mavs were still clinging close to the Spurs, Mills got hot, drilling 3-pointers while silencing the American Airlines Center crowd. Mills drained three consecutive baskets from downtown, pushing the Spurs ahead 90-84 with 1:32 left in the game.

Jonathan Gibson, who was pressed into action when Seth Curry was banged up and Deron Williams and Devin Harris reached their minutes’ restrictions, buried a 3-pointer to get Dallas within 90-87. But Danny Green drove the baseline and scored on a reverse layup as the Spurs forged ahead 92-87 with 55.2 ticks left.

“I’m real proud of the way the team fought,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We just ran out of guys at the end, unfortunately.”

Harris played 11 minutes in his first game of the season after recovering from a sprained great right toe. Williams played 26 minutes as he continues to work himself back into conditioning while trying to overcome a strained calf.

“Seth got banged up at the end — I’m not sure what happened,” Carlisle said. “Gibson was put in a very difficult situation, but there was no other choice.

“Just a tough way to end that game. We played so well for the majority of it.”

Besides Matthews, the Mavs got 17 points from Harrison Barnes, 14 points from Curry and 10 from Dwight Powell. But the Mavs missed 20-of-30 shots from 3-point range and were outrebounded 42-37.

“I’m encouraged by the competitive part of this,” Carlisle said. “Our guys have been fighting hard.

“We had a very bad game at Cleveland (last Friday) where we didn’t compete at a very good level, but a lot of these other games we’re fighting hard.

“The other night we’re down six with eight minutes to go (against New Orleans) and came back and found a way to win it.”

San Antonio led 21-17 after a sluggish first quarter by both teams, and was still manning a 43-40 lead at the half. But the Mavs caught fire in the third quarter, and held the Spurs scoreless on 13 straight possessions.

“We’re a little unbalanced offensively right now,” Carlisle said. “We need to spread it out a little bit more.

“Whenever we do get our full complement (of players) and be able to play guys the entire game it will help a lot.”

This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ spark extinguished down stretch as Spurs prevail."