Dallas Downs Rockets

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The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Houston Rockets 123-104 in a preseason matchup at the American Airlines Center on Monday night.

Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (right knee effusion) and Mavericks guard Rodrigue Beaubois (sprained left ankle) did not play. Rockets guard Jeremy Lin rested on Monday.

With the victory, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle improved to 45-31 (.592) all-time in the preseason. The Mavericks are now 15-13 (.536) all-time in exhibition games under Carlisle.

After scoring a combined nine points in the Mavericks’ first two preseason games, O.J. Mayo tallied 10 first-half points vs. Houston on Monday. He finished with a team-high-tying 20 points (7-12 FGs, 3-6 3FGs, 3-4 FTs) to go along with four assists in 24 minutes.

Jae Crowder recorded a team-high-tying 20 points (8-15 FGs, 4-7 3FGs) to go along with five rebounds, two assists and two steals in just 15 minutes of action off the Mavericks’ bench. Eighteen of his 20 points came in the fourth quarter.   “It was a good moment for me to come out in front of the home crowd and play free. The first group set the tone early in the second half so we just came in and played loose and played good basketball,” said Crowder.

Mayo (20), Crowder (20), Vince Carter (15), Shawn Marion (15), Elton Brand (10) and Brandan Wright (10) all scored in double figures for the Mavericks in the win. It was the first time this preseason that Dallas had more than four players in double digits.

Kevin Martin scored a game-high 23 points (8-15 FGs, 3-6 3FGs, 4-5 FTs) for Houston, including 16 points before intermission.

The Rockets outshot the Mavericks 57.1 percent (8-of-14) to 33.3 percent (3-of-9) from deep in the first half and led 58-57 at the break. But Dallas outshot Houston 50 percent (6-of-12) to 20 percent (2-of-10) from beyond the arc after intermission en route to a 123-104 win.

Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle was pleased with the 2nd half effort from his team, “We stepped up and played at a higher level physical capacity. Our effort wasn’t where it needed to be in the first half, but the second half it was there. No tricky, strategic things or anything like that. Like they say in football, ‘you put your hand to the ground and play,’ and that’s what we did in the second half-we didn’t do it in the first half.”

Dallas will host Phoenix for the next preseason game on Wednesday at the AAC.

 

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