Dallas Mavericks doomed by rough third, fourth quarters in loss to Rockets

The way hot topics quickly trend on social media, that’s how fast Sunday’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets turned.

One minute in the third quarter the Mavs were ahead by 11 points, and the next minute they were gassed from chasing the Rockets all around the 3-point line. By the time the dust settled, the Mavs wound up suffering a 115-104 defeat before a sellout crowd of 18,142 at the Toyota Center in the first of a three-game road trip.

The trip continues with Tuesday’s game in Los Angeles when the Mavs play their final game against Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who will retire after this season.

From the looks of what transpired Sunday, the Mavs retired on the defensive end of the floor not long after the third quarter started. Losers in five of their past eight games, the Mavs (25-21) held a 70-59 lead with 7:36 remaining in the third quarter following a 3-pointer by Dirk Nowitzki.

But the quick-striking Rockets blitzed the Mavs with a 49-24 scoring surge — highlighted by steals, dunks, layups and 3-point shots — and maneuvered their way to a 108-94 lead with 6:25 left in the game.

“Houston is a team that puts a lot of stress on your defense,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Generally the games are high scoring, but we were doing, I thought, a very solid job up until about five minutes to go in the third quarter.

“We were up 10, and then we had some mistakes on both sides of the ball. We didn’t respond well and basically they took the game over from there, and it’s very disappointing. I thought we played 2 1/2 good quarters, but it’s a 48-minute game.”

Things got so awful for the Mavs that Nowitzki was seen screaming at guard J.J. Barea following a defensive mix-up.

“I called a [defensive] coverage and he was in another and that was it,” Nowitzki said. “We weren’t quite on the same page there, and that was it.

“I’ve had plenty of run-ins with J.J. He’s a very emotional guy, especially when he’s out there, and that was really it.”

Because of their poor performance on defense, the Mavs wasted a season-high 31-point effort from Chandler Parsons. But the Mavs were a minus-30 when Parsons was on the court.

“It just means our team wasn’t playing great defense when I was out there,” said Parsons, who was 10-of-15 from the field. “It’s more of a team stat to me — some people look at it closely, some don’t.

“Obviously you want to be in the plus range when you’re in the game, but you can only control so much. I got a good rhythm there early and guys did a great job finding me and Coach did a great job putting me in good spots to attack and be aggressive, but it wasn’t enough.”

Trevor Ariza scored 16 of his 29 points in the first quarter as the Rockets toted a 36-29 lead into the second period. But the Mavs buckled down on defense and outscored Houston in the second quarter and went into the halftime dressing room nursing a 58-50 lead.

But defensive meltdowns in the third and fourth quarters negated all that went right for Dallas in the second period and first part of the third quarter.

“I thought we had one good quarter,” said Nowitzki, who scored 19 points on 7-of-13 shots. “That was the second quarter today. We got to be better at the start and set a good defensive tone.”

Rookie center Salah Mejri did his part, racking up his first career double-double in his first career start. Starting in place of Zaza Pachulia, who has a lower left leg injury, Mejri finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in 29 minutes.

That includes racing the length of the floor and blocking a shot by James Harden, who collected his second triple-double of the season with 23 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists.

“We just go through these spots in the game where we don’t defend well,” point guard Deron Williams said. “I don’t know what to put my finger on to figure it out, but it’s something that we have to figure out as a team.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Dallas Mavericks doomed by rough third, fourth quarters in loss to Rockets."