Mavericks squander big lead, crumble to Magic in overtime

The more things change, they really do stay the same as far as the Dallas Mavericks are concerned.

Friday night at Amway Center, the Mavs picked right back up where they left off before the All-Star break.

With a loss in overtime to an inferior team.

This time, the Mavs squandered a 14-point lead in the third quarter and kept making mistake after mistake. The Orlando Magic eventually took advantage of the Mavs’ miscues and carved out a 110-104 triumph in overtime before a crowd of 17,764.

The loss was the fifth in the past six games for the Mavs, who are 29-27 and in danger of not making the eight-team playoffs. Dallas barely leads in a four-team scramble for the sixth through eighth spots.

The Mavs fell behind by 21 points in the first quarter, gained control of the game in the third quarter, and then found a way to blow it during crunch time.

“It just seemed like we ran out of gas a little bit,” said Deron Williams, who had 25 points and seven assists. “We spent so much energy coming back from being down so early so quick it just looked like we ran out of gas and they just got stronger.

“They made the plays when they had to, they got stops when they had to.”

Victor Oladipo made a 3-pointer and banked another shot off the glass from inside the paint to snap a tie and put Orlando ahead 106-101 with 1:05 remaining in overtime.

Williams then had his driving shot blocked by Nikola Vucevic, and Aaron Gordon later scored on an alley-oop dunk after Chandler Parsons’ second turnover of the overtime session.

“We had some big opportunities,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We had a couple of layups we missed.

“There were a couple of bad possessions, but we had missed opportunities and then we didn’t get stops.”

In their first game in 10 days, the Mavs started out as if they hadn’t played a game since preseason. They bungled shots and plays and missed defensive assignments.

Ultimately, the Magic built a 31-10 lead with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter.

“We had a horrible start to the game,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who finished with 11 points on 4-of-16 shootings. “Obviously they’re very athletic and they jumped all over us, and we kind of were sleep-walking out of the break, but we recovered pretty good from there.”

The Mavs recovered so well that they were able to get within 56-51 at the half, and then mounted an 81-67 lead with 2:02 left in the third quarter.

It all came crashing down in the fourth period when the Magic (24-29) looked like the superior team.

Still, with the score tied at 98, the Mavs had another golden opportunity to get out of this one with a win. Nowitzki, however, missed an 18-footer at the regulation buzzer.

“I had a good look there for the game-winner,” Nowitzki said. “I should have just made it and gone on home, so that’s on me.”

Parsons, who grew up near Orlando, finished with 24 points and was 9 of 11 from the field and 6 of 7 from 3-point range. He also hit four 3-pointers in the third quarter during the Mavs’ torrid rally.

Also for the Mavs, Zaza Pachulia (11 points, 19 rebounds) collected his 23rd double-double of the season. And the Mavs made a franchise record 19 shots on 3-point attempts in 41 attempts.

However, the Mavs scored just 23 points in the fourth quarter and overtime session after scoring 38 points in the second quarter and 30 more in the third period.

“It’s very frustrating,” Parsons said. “The crazy thing is we’re still in good position and we control our own destiny.

“We can’t hang our heads. We’ve got a lot of home games coming up and we’ve just got to protect home court and take it game by game.”　

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 10:38 PM with the headline "Mavericks squander big lead, crumble to Magic in overtime."