Mavericks hit on all cylinders against flat Orlando Magic

Well, that was easy.

Continuing their hard push toward a possible playoff berth, the Dallas Mavericks took advantage of a disinterested Orlando Magic squad and rolled to an easy 112-80 victory at American Airlines Center.

Saturday’s win was the 11th win in the last 16 games for the Mavs, who improved to 22-32 on the season and sit just two games behind the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. The Nuggets lost to Cleveland 125-109 on Saturday.

With their offense sizzling and the Magic not putting up much resistance, the Mavs shot 49.5 percent from the field, connected on 17-of-35 from 3-point range, distributed a season high 32 assists, and outrebounded Orlando 51-40 in a dominating performance. It was the Mavs’ second-largest margin of victory of the season, only behind the 122-73 thrashing of the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 22.

“We got it going on the defensive end,” said Wesley Matthews, who made 6-of-8 3-point baskets and finished with a game-high 20 points. “They’re a better team than their record – they’ve got a lot of talent on that side.

“I think we kind of eased into it a little bit. But once we focused on the defensive end, our offense got it going.”

The Mavs only led 29-23 after the first quarter. But they turned up the thermostat in the second quarter, outscoring Orlando 32-12 to assume a 61-35 lead at the half.

“We did what we had to do,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We came out with energy, we were able to build an early lead and just keep building it.”

A tip-in by Harrison Barnes swelled the lead to 83-46 with 1:56 left in the third quarter. By then, the Magic (20-36) looked ready to hop on the next plane out of town.

The Mavs put on a fancy alley-oop dunk show with Matthews lobbying one to Salah Mejri, rookie Yogi Ferrell tossing one up for Dwight Powell, and Justin Anderson firing one up in the sky to Powell.

And when the starters retired for the night, rookie Nicolas Brussino came off the bench with 10 points in the fourth quarter on 4-of-6 shooting, to the roaring approval of his teammates.

“We were doing a lot of things well tonight,” Carlisle said. “We were moving it better tonight, and when the ball moves and hits a lot of hands, it has a tendency to go into the basket.”

Deron Williams was back in the starting lineup after missing the previous seven games with a sprained left big toe. The veteran point guard only played 15 minutes of the first half because he is under a minutes restriction, and finished with seven points, four assists and three steals.

Dirk Nowitzki and Seth Curry, meanwhile, contributed 14 points apiece, and Ferrell came off the bench to contribute 10 points and a game-high seven assists.

The Magic made just three 3-pointers in 23 attempts, the fewest 3s the Mavs have allowed this season. They continue to turn the corner during a season that started so poorly.

“One thing about us is we’re going to keep throwing punches,” Matthews said. “We’re going to keeping fighting, and we believe.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 11:26 PM with the headline "Mavericks hit on all cylinders against flat Orlando Magic."