Rockets pull away from Mavericks in fourth quarter
That fun run to the scoring column the Dallas Mavericks thoroughly enjoyed Wednesday night against Oklahoma City didn’t happen Thursday night against the Houston Rockets.
And now the Mavs have to deal with another injury to a key player.
One night after scoring 30-plus points in three quarters against the Thunder, the Mavs got outscored 31-18 in the fourth quarter Thursday and wound up losing to the Rockets 108-101 before a sellout crowd of 20,062 at American Airlines Center.
It was the fifth loss in the past seven games for the Mavs, who dropped to 46-30 overall and lost the season series to the Rockets 3-1. With the playoffs set to start in less than three weeks, the Mavs are now concerned about an injury to small forward Chandler Parsons.
In his first season with the Mavs after playing three years with the Rockets, Parsons left the game for good with 4:07 remaining in the third quarter with soreness in his right knee. Coach Rick Carlisle said he wasn’t sure when Parsons’ injury occurred, but it wasn’t against the Rockets.
“After the game Wednesday night I heard about it and talked to him a little bit about it,” Carlisle said. “He was a little sore, but he didn’t think it was serious, and then he got treatment [Thursday].
“He got checked out at halftime. He wasn’t having a lot of pain, he just got some swelling and he wanted to give it a shot, but then we pulled the plug.”
Parsons left during a timeout after ex-Mavs guard Jason Terry made a 3-pointer right in front of the Dallas bench to give Houston the lead for good at 98-95. From there, James Harden scored six of his 24 points down the stretch and the Rockets (52-24) moved into sole possession of second place in the Western Conference.
This was a dismal fourth-quarter performance by the Mavs, who led 72-61 with 5:01 left in the third period after a 3-pointer from Parsons. It was downhill from there.
The Mavs played foul-free defense early in the fourth quarter, then picked up their first team foul with 7:05 to go. The Mavs were then whistled for four team fouls on one possession up the floor, and wound up getting their fifth team foul with 5:42 left in the game.
“The dribble penetration was a problem,” Carlisle said. “We just didn’t do a good enough job keeping them in front.
“Harden is a foul creating machine. When he gets into that kind of a groove he makes it hard and we just needed to be in better position on a lot of plays and be there faster, but they put you in those tough spots.”
After scoring a career-high 51 points Wednesday against Sacramento, Harden was just 6-of-15 from the field and 10-of-12 from the free throw line. Also for Houston, former Mavs guard Corey Brewer scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half, and Trevor Ariza finished with 19 points.
The Mavs shot 61.5 percent from the field and scored 135 points against the Thunder but managed to shoot just 44 percent against the Rockets. Houston also enjoyed a massive 55-41 edge on the rebounds, including a huge 17-9 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavs with 21 points and Monta Ellis added 19, but missed 14 of 21 shots. With just six games remaining, the Mavs also have to worry about the health of Parsons.
“The important thing for us to get playing as well as we can play,” Carlisle said. “I thought we had a lot of good stretches tonight, but the fourth quarter doomed us.
“We’re going to have to do a lot of things better to get playing better. Last night was great, tonight was very disappointing.”
Dwain Price, 817-390-7760
Twitter: @dwainprice
This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Rockets pull away from Mavericks in fourth quarter."