Mavs Beat Kings

via The Sports Xchange

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks used a balanced scoring attack and early feisty defense from guard Seth Curry, who played as if he had a point to prove to his old club in a 99-79 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday afternoon at American Airlines Center.
Curry, who played for the Kings last season, was a pest defensively in the first half, getting deflections and a couple of steals that helped set the tone for Dallas, which played throughout with much greater energy than Sacramento, which was seeking to string consecutive victories together after an impressive win Friday at Memphis.
Curry came off the bench to provide a spark and finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range, five rebounds, four assists and the pair of steals in 28 minutes. He was especially integral in disrupting Sacramento’s offense early and helping Dallas (7-20) to jump out to a 28-19 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“Every single day I’m getting better and more comfortable in the offense,” Curry said. “I’m trying to make the right plays out there and get other guys involved and get them the ball where they like to shoot it on the floor.”
Outside of center DeMarcus Cousins, the Kings (10-17), who beat the Mavs in Dallas by 31 points just 10 days earlier, had nothing going. Cousins finished with 33 points and scored 14 in the first quarter. Without the big man, Sacramento would have been bounced out of the gym much earlier.
Not that it really mattered. Dallas, which led by 11 at halftime, never gave the Kings hope of a comeback and increased the lead to 20 points before taking a 76-58 cushion into the fourth quarter as the Mavs bounced back from Friday’s last-second heartbreak loss at Utah.
Sacramento scored just 14 points in the third quarter and shot 37.3 percent through three quarters, including going just 6-of-24 from beyond the arc. They finished 8-of-31 and shot 39.5 percent overall for the game.
“We let them hit us first, and they are an aggressive team,” Cousins said. “The biggest thing is we couldn’t make our shots today. They were pretty decent for the most part defensively, but we just couldn’t make any shots. There were good looks, the offense could have been better and we could have made it easier on ourselves by causing more movement, more cutting, trying to get more shots at the basket. Even with misses, they were good quality shots, just one of those nights were the shots were off.”
Dallas shot better than 60 percent for much of the first half and finished the game at 44.2 percent, having cooled off during the 21-point third quarter. The Mavs got another impressive offensive game from undrafted rookie Dorian Finney-Smith, who made the team because of his tenacious defense and has received a chance to play because of injuries. He scored a season-high 17 points and knocked down three 3-pointers.
Point guard Deron Williams scored 15 points and seven assists and reserve guard Devin Harris had 14 points and seven rebounds. The balanced attack allowed Dallas to get a win without forward Harrison Barnes (15 points, nine rebounds) or Wesley Matthews (15 points) having to do the majority of the scoring, a frequent recipe in Dallas’ other six wins.
“He’s (Finney-Smith) playing the game. He’s playing the game within his role, within his abilities,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s knocking down open 3s. He’s driving the ball well. In transition, he runs well, runs hard. He’s just got to keep doing what he’s doing. When he’s on the floor, he really helps our defense. And offensively, he’s becoming more and more of a factor.”
The Kings left town wondering how they managed to score 120 points earlier this month in Dallas. It took well into the second half for guard Ty Lawson to join Cousins in double figures. No one else would the rest of the game. Lawson finished with 10 points.
With eight minutes to left in the game and Sacramento trying to get back in the game, down 84-70, no other Kings player had more than seven points.
Sacramento missed a chance to cut the lead 12, and then a basket by Finney-Smith and a corner 3-pointer from Harris increased Dallas’ lead to 89-70 and effectively sealed the victory.
“It was never really much of a game. We had a couple runs late but we missed a lot of shots and took a lot of quick shots,” Kings coach Dave Joerger said. “We played out of too much random offensively and just didn’t play with enough force defensively. That’s about it.”
Six of Dallas’ seven wins on the season have come on their home floor.