Mavs Win 5th Straight
BOSTON — The Dallas Mavericks rode a roller coaster and managed to come away with their fifth straight win on Wednesday night.
“I mean, we were getting our — kicked,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after his team fell behind by 18 points in the first quarter, rallied and fell behind again, took a lead and then held on for a 106-102 victory over the Boston Celtics.
“Guys hung in. Stayed persistent.”
The Celtics, who saw their three-game winning streak snapped, ran and shot their way to a 31-13 lead in the first quarter — a spurt that included 12 points by guard Avery Bradley in a 1:42 span.
he home building was going wild and the Mavs looked lost as owner Mark Cuban continually threw his head back in the front row.
Things changed.
The Mavs (8-4) didn’t take their first lead until guard Deron Williams scored seven points during a 9-0 run. They wound up ahead by seven with 30.3 seconds left, but the Celtics (6-5) didn’t go away and it took a turnover by guard Isaiah Thomas — the ball deflected by guard Raymond Felton after Felton had just missed two free throws at the other end — to seal the Dallas win.
“I can’t say enough about the play that Felton made at the
end of the game after he missed two free throws,” Carlisle said.
Williams, in his first season with the Mavs, scored 11 of his 16 points in the final 6:02 and got help from his friends.
“(Guards) Deron Williams, Wesley Matthews, (forward Chandler) Parsons, (forward Dirk) Nowitzki — those guys are ‘player’ players,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “Those guys are good players, let alone all the other guys that made great plays for them.
“So that’s a good basketball team. They’re 8-4 for a reason. And we played well for a quarter and then snippets after that, but not well enough to win.”
Dallas trailed by seven with 7:58 left.
It was 102-95 when former Mavs forward Jae Crowder hit a 3-pointer and was in on a pressing steal before being fouled with 21.9 seconds left. He sank the free throws to make it 102-100.
Williams hit two free throws with 20.9 seconds left — and the Celtics would get a chance to tie or go ahead after Felton’s misses, but he made the key defensive play.
Nowitzki, who was taken out with 30.3 seconds left only to have to come back in, led all scorers with 23 points and added seven rebounds. Matthews, also clutch down the stretch, finished with 18 points. Williams had six assists and center Zasa Pachulia added 14 points and 12 rebounds.
“I think we just turned up our energy levels on both ends of the floor in the second half,” said Williams, who also made all four of his free throws and has made all 30 he has taken this season.
Thomas, who was 1 of 8 from 3-point range, led the Celtics with 19 points and six assists. Forward Jared Sullinger had 18 points and 12 rebounds, guard Avery Bradley also scored 18 — 12 of them in a 1:42 span of the first quarter — and Crowder added 14 points, six rebounds and three assists.
“We slowed up, stopped playing up and down and started playing in a half-court offense,” Crowder said.
