Mavs Upset By Pelicans
DALLAS – Anthony Davis poured in a game-high 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the struggling New Orleans Pelicans to a road victory, knocking off the Dallas Mavericks 105-98 Saturday night at American Airlines Center.
Most impressive for the Pelicans, who were just 3-15 on the road entering this game, was their poise at each end of the floor down the stretch after Dallas quickly rallied from a 12-point deficit to tie the game at 85-85 midway through the fourth quarter.
“I think the difference tonight was the defense,” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said. “We did a really great job. Even when (the Mavericks) made that really big run, if you go back and look, they made some really tough shots.”
After Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson and guard Eric Gordon each delivered 3-pointers, Davis put home an alley-oop and Anderson canned four free throws to help extend the lead to 101-96 with 1:10 to go. Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki swished a jumper to make it 101-98 with 29.8 seconds left.
The Pelicans then put the game into the hands of guard Jrue Holiday. New Orleans isolated him on the left side against Mavericks guard J.J. Barea. Holiday lulled Barea with the dribble out by the 3-point arc and then made a burst for the basket, getting around Barea and scoring the decisive lay-up.
“We just played really good defense,” Gordon said of closing out the game. “When we play well on defense and convert on offense then we are a tough team to beat.
“It’s big for us. We’ve lost a lot of close games and we’ve won a lot of close games. A lot of games are
coming down to the wire for us. We just have to keep closing.”
New Orleans (11-22) had lost three of its last four, and is now off until Wednesday when they again face the Mavericks. Then, like now, Dallas will be on the tail end of a back-to-back. Dallas (19-14) was blown out Friday night at Miami.
“It’s annoying,” Mavericks guard Wesley Matthews said. “We didn’t play well in Miami. We didn’t play well in too many stretches here (tonight). To be where we want to be and to be who we know we can be, we have to pick it up. We have to leave it all on the court every single night. Defensively, we didn’t come up with the timely stops. We can’t be an offense-driven team. We need to be a team that gets our stuff going from the defensive end and let that be our offense.”
Holiday came off the bench and seems to be accepting that challenge with 20 points and six assists. Gordon and guard Norris Cole, who started, both had 16 points. Anderson added 16 off the bench.
Dallas had six players score in double figures, but shot just 43.4 percent from the floor. The Mavericks were led by Nowitzki’s 24 points. However, he was just 8 of 21 from the floor.
Matthews had 18 points and center Zaza Pachulia finished with 14 points.
The Pelicans led 48-47 after an evenly matched first half in which neither team led by more than seven points. New Orleans benefited from 14 fast-break points compared to Dallas’ six, which helped the Pelicans shoot 46.7 percent in the opening half.
Dallas guard Deron Williams re-injured his left hamstring and had to leave the game in the third quarter.
“I’d say it is an issue right now,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “But look, when we were playing in Toronto it was tight during a timeout and he insisted on staying in the game and that’s when he pulled it. So tonight it got tight and we got him out. My hope is that it’s not serious. Maybe it is a blip and maybe we can work through it. I don’t know, that that’s my hope.”
