Mavs Lose In OT To Heat

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The Dallas Mavericks fell to the Miami Heat on Wednesday in a 119-109 overtime loss. This followed the Mavericks breaking their six game losing streak on Tuesday against the Washington Wizards.

Despite the loss, Wednesday’s game was a great improvement from the previous game against the Heat in December. The Mavericks led the game during the first half, leading by as many as 10 points as they made sure not to let the Heat get off to an early lead. The Maverick’s also did one more thing, they battled back when they were trailing by six in the third quarter, someting they failed to do in December.

Dallas led the game by six points with 3:26 seconds left in the game bafore a rally by the Heat brought the game into overtime. The Heat rode their late game momentum into overtime to get their second win against the Mavericks this season. Mavericks coach RIck Carlisle believes that his team should have been able to avoid going into overtime.

“It shouldn’t have gotten to overtime. We were up six with a couple of minutes to go and our inability to keep them out of the paint was our downfall,” said Carlisle, “In that position we [have] to be able to keep [LeBron James and Dwyane Wade] from getting to the rim, and they did two or three times.”

O.J. Mayo played a better game against the Mavericks on Wednesday, leading the team with 30 points and six assists. Dirk Nowitzki played 29:14 minutes in the game, his most since coming back from knee surgery. Nowitzki finished the game with 19 points.

The Mavericks hope to put the loss behind them as they take on the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday in Dallas. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.