Mavs fall to 0-6 as preaseson wipeout continues
The preseason losing streak continued Wednesday night for the Dallas Mavericks.
Still wrecked by multiple injuries to key players and other ailments, the Mavs couldn’t keep pace with the Phoenix Suns.
Well, actually, the Mavs did hold a 15-point lead in the first half before finally blowing that and the game, losing 99-87 before 18,247 at American Airlines Center.
Guard John Jenkins continued his torrid scoring pace as he led the Mavs in scoring for the sixth straight game. The four-year veteran had a game-high 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting in 38 minutes.
But it wasn’t nearly enough as the Suns, who also won Tuesday night in San Antonio, padded their preseason record to 4-2.
“Phoenix is an improved team, no doubt about it,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “They’re going to be very difficult to play this year, and they didn’t even have Tyson Chandler out there.”
Ex-Mavs center Chandler, who signed a four-year, $54 million free-agent contract with the Suns over the summer, did not play. However, before the game Chandler expressed displeasure with not being able to come to terms on a new contract with the Mavs.
“The process wasn’t straight up,” Chandler said. “I didn’t see none of it coming. I thought I was here for the long haul.
“I thought in my exit meeting I was coming back, to be quite honest. When I left the parking lot, I thought we’ll be back. This time we’ll settle in, but it didn’t work out that way.”
The Mavs could have used Chandler on Wednesday. They also could have used several of their other key players.
Dirk Nowitzki, Charlie Villanueva and Devin Harris sat out to rest. Deron Williams, Wesley Matthews, Samuel Dalembert, Chandler Parsons, JaVale McGee and Maurice Ndour sat out due to injuries.
Still the only NBA team without a victory this preseason, the 0-6 Mavs shot 36.5 percent from the field and were just 2 of 23 from 3-point range.
The Mavs led 48-33 with 5:13 left in the first half. They still held a 56-43 lead at halftime, thanks to 15 points by Raymond Felton.
However, it all came crashing down in the second half — the Mavs were outscored 27-16 in the third quarter.
“We were moving it, our paint attacks were very good,” Carlisle said of his team’s first-half success. “The ball was going in the basket.
“We were getting more stops in the first half. The thing that concerned me was that they were missing open shots in some of those cases.”
Besides Jenkins, the Mavs got 17 points form Felton, 11 from rookie Justin Anderson, and 10 points and 12 rebounds off the bench from Zaza Pachulia.
“He’s played as well or better than all of our point guards,” Carlisle said of Felton. “He’s just been playing that well — in practices and then the last two games, too.
“We shut him down early in the second half. He went and got treatment just to make sure that he’s getting completely by this hamstring thing that he had, which was serious.”
Dwain Price: 817-390-7760, @dwainprice
This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Mavs fall to 0-6 as preaseson wipeout continues."