Deng helps Miami Heat hold off Dallas Mavericks, 93-90

Luol Deng made two key plays down the stretch and the Miami Heat held on to defeat the Dallas Mavericks 93-90 on Wednesday night at American Airlines Center.

The loss was the second in a row for the Mavericks, who are 28-24 and will play host to the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night. Miami (28-22) swept the two-game season series against the Mavericks and now has won in Dallas the past five seasons.

Dallas had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Raymond Felton missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Felton was trying to get the ball to Dirk Nowitzki, but Miami’s defense made that impossible.

“We needed to have everybody grinding for 48 minutes tonight — full bore — and they out-grinded us,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “It had nothing to do with the home court.”

Deng’s 3-pointer gave the Heat a 92-87 lead with 1:04 left. A minute earlier, he blocked a jumper by Nowitzki when the Mavericks were only down 89-87.

Nowitzki’s 3-pointer got the Mavericks within 92-90 of Miami with 17.9 seconds left, and Dwyane Wade made one of two free throw attempts with 15.5 seconds to go. The Mavericks then worked the clock and couldn’t get the ball to Nowitzki, leaving Felton with no choice but to hoist up a 3-pointer.

But the Mavericks know the game should never have come down to those final seconds.

Dallas held a 59-55 lead when Nowitzki opened the third quarter by scoring seven of his team’s first 13 points. But the Mavericks ended the quarter by missing 14 of their final 16 shots and getting outscored 19-6.

That sent the Heat ahead 74-65 going into the fourth quarter.

“We’ve got to dig deeper, that’s all,” Carlisle said. “Everybody’s got to dig deeper and we’ve got to dig deeper as a team, and we can do it.

“These games are hard. Miami’s got a bunch of championship players out there, and they’ve got great coaching and they’re very tough-minded and they outworked us tonight.”

Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 28 points on 10-of-21 shooting. Chandler Parson scored all 12 of his points in the first quarter, J.J. Barea and Felton each added 11 points and Zaza Pachulia finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds.

Neither team looked crisp in the first quarter, which ended tied at 21-21. At that juncture, the Mavericks were 8-of-22 from the floor and Miami was 8-of-23.

One of the Mavericks’ bigger problems was dealing with Hassan Whiteside, who came off the bench to collect 10 points, nine rebounds and five blocks in only 17 minutes.

Dallas native Chris Bosh led Miami with 20 points, Wade finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, and Deng had 15 points and five boards.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 10:36 PM with the headline "Deng helps Miami Heat hold off Dallas Mavericks, 93-90."