Preseason Game 8 Review: Pacers 98 Mavericks 77

Things looked good for the Mavericks for a half and some change against one of the East's elite teams in last night's preseason finale. Then things came apart quickly as a 13-0 Indiana spurred the Pacers on to a dominant second half performance and a 98-77 loss for Dallas. The Mavs completed the preseason with a record of 4-4.
During that first half the Mavs played excellent defense and held their own on the boards against a team known for their strength in those two areas. Key to that effort was the continued good play form new Mavs starting center Samuel Dalembert (9 rebounds and 3 blocks), who matched up well against Pacers star big man Roy Hibbert. Unfortunately Dalembert picked up his fourth foul early in the 3rd quarter and after that Indiana took over as the Mavs forced to play undersized Dejuan Blair at center. Pacers all-star Paul George really asserted his will on the game as he played spectacularly on both ends on his way to a game high 28 points.
Dallas struggled to take care of the ball finishing with 24 turnovers as well to being held down from the field (37%) by a stingy Pacer defense. Only 2 Mavericks finished in double figures in scoring led by Dirk Nowitzki's 14 and Shawn Marion's 10. Thankfully it was only preseason and the Mavs won't have to see defense like the Pacers very often, as the Mavericks will have to score plenty of points this season to make up for a defense with a lot of question marks.
So starting on Wednesday the game will start counting for real and we will see what this year's Maverick squad is really made of. There are lot of reasons for optimism for the group that has been assembled but also a lot of questions to be answered. A long season of basketball awaits. Hopefully it will go well beyond just 82 games.

Team Leaders: Points: Nowitzki, 14 Rebounds: Dalembert, 9 Assists: Ellis, 6
Player of the Game: Dalembert
Quote of Note:  “Yeah, we’ve got to do a better job protecting the ball, but they’re a very good team. They’re long at every position. They’re smart, they’ve been together a while, and they just stepped up a little bit in the second half, turned the pressure up and we didn’t react the right way. … That was a brutal second half, but that’s a good team showing us that we have a long way to go, so maybe this wasn’t all bad.” Dirk Nowitzki
Next Up: The Mavs open the season at home Wednesday night at 7:30 against the Atlanta Hawks.
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