Mavericks’ weak first quarter dooms them to defeat against tough Raptors

If what happened Saturday to the Dallas Mavericks happens one more time this season, they will move into uncharted territory.

The Toronto Raptors led wire-to-wire and used their physicality to upend the Mavs 94-86 before a sellout crowd of 19,934 at American Airlines Center. The loss dropped the Mavs to 31-41 and four games behind Denver for the eighth and last playoff spot in the Western Conference.

More important, the loss prevented the Mavs from having a winning season for the 16th time in the last 17 seasons. Also, one more loss in their final 10 games and the Mavs will have their first losing (full) season since Mark Cuban purchased the franchise from Ross Perot Jr. on Jan. 4, 2000.

The Raptors shot 48.1 percent from the field and outscored the Mavs in the paint 44-30 and held Dallas to just 37.8 percent shooting. At times, the Raptors moved the Mavs around as if they were Styrofoam.

“It’s as physical a team as there is in the league right now,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “They play an intimidating style, they set hard screens, they’re very strong.

“And so, a team like us has got to beat them with persistence, quickness, anticipation. We’re not going to out-brute force them — that’s just not our game.”

The Mavs climbed to within 89-83 of the Raptors with 1:34 left after a 3-pointer by Seth Curry. From there, Serge Ibaka misfired for Toronto, but Patrick Patterson grabbed a huge offensive rebound.

On that same possession, Patterson buried a 3-pointer to put the Raptors up 92-83 with 59 seconds left, then turned and said something to the Mavs’ bench. That led to a double technical foul — one on Patterson and one on Carlisle, who said some unkind things to Patterson.

“I’m not going to let a guy unnecessarily taunt our bench,” Carlisle said. “I don’t think it’s right, I take exception to it.”

The Mavs’ backcourt of Wesley Matthews (four points, 2-of-12 shooting) and Curry (11 points, 4-of-10) didn’t play particularly well. Former starting point guard Yogi Ferrell — he has come off the bench the past two games — didn’t play in the first quarter for the first time this season but came in to spark a rally with seven of his 10 points in the second quarter.

“He played with a lot of force and he had great impact in the game, really, at both ends,” Carlisle said of Ferrell. “He was ready to play and it’s a great sign for him and his career.

“He’s shown that he can be an effective starter, and the last couple of games he’s been really terrific off the bench. It just adds value to who he is as a player in this league.”

Harrison Barnes led the Mavs with 23 points, and Dirk Nowitzki finished with nine points on 4-of-11 shooting.

“Defensively, this is a really good team,” Barnes said. “We had to move the ball from side to side.

“We had some open looks there, just couldn’t get some of them to drop, but this is a tough night for us.”

The Mavs fell behind 17-4 with 8:01 remaining in the first quarter, trailed 30-22 after the first period and played the entire game swimming upstream.

“Early, we had some pretty decent shots,” Carlisle said. “A lot of them didn’t go in, and they were making everything, so it just got us behind the eight-ball early.

“You look at the final three quarters and they’re basically even. The first quarter was our downfall.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2017 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ weak first quarter dooms them to defeat against tough Raptors."