Nuggets 102 Mavericks 100: Game 14 Review

After giving away much of a big lead against Utah Friday night, on Saturday it was the Mavericks  this time storming back from a 17 point deficit in Denver. Although they had chances to win the game or force overtime late, they ultimately came up 2 points short in their comeback attempt, falling to the Nuggets by a 102-100 score.

The Mavericks got off to a sluggish start, as Denver was able to pick apart the Mavs' zone defense and led Dallas 35-22 after the first quarter. Things did not get a whole lot better in the second period and Rick Carlisle had clearly seen enough. Carlisle was ejected midway through the period on back-to-back technical fouls, upset that a flagrant foul call was not made against Denver on Monta Ellis.

The Mavs were able to get back in the game in the third quarter, thanks to Vince Carter emerging from a shooting slump to hit several big threes. Meanwhile Denver began to go cold from the field after hitting 9 first half threes they would only hit 2 after the break.

The Mavericks were able to stay within striking distance in the fourth, and led by 9 points in the quarter by Dirk Nowitzki were able to take a 100-98 lead after consecutive Dirk jumpers with just over 2 minutes to go. The lead was short lived however as Randy Foye's 3 gave the Nuggets the lead back with 1:11 to go. After a Dirk miss, Kenneth Faried split a pair of three throws to put Denver up 2 with 14.7 seconds to go. The Mavericks had 2 tries in the final seconds to force overtime but a Ellis  driving layup and a Dirk jumper were no good.

What Carlisle called the Mavs "big three" on offense, were just that, scoring 68 of the team's 100 points. Dirk has a game-high 27 points to go along with 9 rebounds. Ellis had another strong game, scoring 25 points while going 8-14 from the field. Meanwhile Carter had one of his best games of the young season, hitting 4-5 threes on his way to 16 points.

Hurting the Mavs was Ty Lawson, as the speedy guard led Denver with 20 points and 9 assists.  Faried was at his energetic best grabbing 14 rebounds to go along with his 17 points. In addition to hitting the game's biggest shot Foye hurt the Mavericks with his outside shooting, with 15 of his 17 points coming on threes.

The good thing is despite the tough loss there a lot of positives the Mavs can take away from this game. Getting down big on a second night of a back-to-back in a tough place to play, they showed a  lot getting back in the game and eventually taking a lead. With Denver coming to town Monday night, the Mavs should like their chance to get some payback in their home building.

Team Leaders
Points: Nowitzki, 27
Rebounds: Blair, 10
Assists: Calderon, 5

Player of the Game: Dirk (9-22 FG, 9-9 FT)

Play of the Game: Foye's go-ahead 3

Stat of the Game: Mavericks not named Nowitzki, Ellis, Carter or Calderon go 7-28 from the field.

Quote of Note: “I know Coach was very mad about it .That’s why we fought so hard to get back into the game, because he did a lot to get thrown out, so I think we owed that to him. Even though we weren’t playing good ball, when he did that I think we got a spark and got back in the game.” Monta on Carlisle's ejection

Next Up: The Mavericks (9-5) face-off again with the Nuggets (6-6) on Monday, this time in Big D at 7:30.