Mavs show most dominant effort of season in dismantling of Bulls

Obviously mad about their situation, the Dallas Mavericks went out and successfully pieced together their most dominant performance of the season on Saturday night.

With Wesley Matthews scoring 26 points and Harrison Barnes chipping in another 22, the Mavs pounded the Chicago Bulls 107-82 before a sellout crowd of 19,857 at American Airlines Center. It was the Mavs’ second win in their last four games and boosted their record to 4-15.

And with Philadelphia’s 107-106 loss to Boston on Saturday, the Sixers at 4-16 are the new owners of the NBA’s worst record.

The Mavs distributed the type of wall-to-wall effort coach Rick Carlisle has been preaching all season. The ball moved briskly around the horn with Deron Williams dispensing 15 of the season-high 31 assists the Mavs collected, and the defense was exceptionally solid.

Meanwhile, Dwight Powell poured in a career-high 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Matthews went 7-of-11 from 3-point range after going just 1-of-11 from downtown during Thursday’s loss to Charlotte.

“I just tried to be aggressive and do what I can,” Powell said. “Bring energy, be a defensive presence, be a spark plug for these guys and just go hard to the glass and just play my role offensively and try to get guys open and set hard screens rolling and take advantage of my opportunities.”

Angry from the get-go, the Mavs opened the game on a 13-2 run and never let up. They led 23-6 late in the first quarter and just kept pressing the pedal until they choked the life out of the Bulls, who never led in this game.

“The biggest thing was we were even on the boards (43-43),” said Carlisle. “These (Bulls) are a dominant rebounding team.

“And we kept turnovers down (to 10).”

By contrast, while the Mavs were busy protecting the ball, they also managed to flip 20 Chicago turnovers into 24 points and stay in constant control of the game.

While Matthews and Barnes were tickling the twine all night, Williams was the floor general with six more assists by himself than the nine the Bulls had as a team.

“Deron’s doing better and better, obviously,” Carlisle said. “His shooting numbers weren’t great, but his distribution of the ball, his feel for situations and all that kind of stuff – he only had one turnover.

“A guy like that, we need a guy on the floor that can lead us and keep us settled and he did that tonight.”

The Mavs were so on point that they tallied at least 25 points in every quarter. They also rolled to a 57-45 lead at the half and increased it to 82-66 going into the fourth quarter while looking like a well-oiled machine.

Powell kept throwing down easy opportunity dunks, and the Mavs kept riding those and that sizzling shooting from Matthews, to a much-needed victory.

“He’s a guy that’s he’s so enthusiastic and wants to do so well that sometimes he just has to take a deep breath,” Carlisle said of Powell.

“The more a guy like him can get in those situations where he knows we trust him and he steps in and knocks it in, that’s huge.”

This story was originally published December 3, 2016 at 11:43 PM with the headline "Mavs show most dominant effort of season in dismantling of Bulls."