CHARLOTTE – All it took for the Dallas Mavericks to finally get their act together on the road was for the calendar to change from one year to the next.
Hamstrung by a nine-game road losing streak, the Mavericks opened the new year by nearly pitching a perfect game Wednesday night as they ran away and hid from the Charlotte Hornets, winning 122-84 before 16,955 at the Spectrum Center. With the road losing streak snapped, the Mavericks increased their overall record to 18-19 heading into Friday’s game at Boston.
Nearly everything the Mavs touched turned into gold against the Hornets as they made a franchise-record 10 3-pointers in the first quarter, committed just 12 turnovers, won the rebounding battle by 11 and led by as much as 47 points during garbage time.
“We played a very good game and showed what we’re capable of,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “The ball moved great, the mindset was good.
“We started off a little bit trading shots with them, and we got that straighten out and then we did a good job defending after that.”
The Mavs also did a very god job of putting that nine-game road losing streak to bed.
“We’ve been talking about (the road losing streak), and we were certainly due, but these things don’t just happen,” Carlisle said. “You’ve got to make it happen.
“The guys were ready to play. I could sense it in the locker room beforehand. It was just going to be a matter of how we managed the game and managed turnovers and rebounds and stuff, and we did a terrific job.”
With about three dozen of his family members and friends in the arena, point guard Dennis Smith Jr. bolted out of the starting blocks like he had a point to prove. Smith, who hails from Fayetteville, N.C., and attended college at North Carolina State, either scored or assisted on the Mavs’ first 19 points.
In the first quarter, Smith tallied 10 points on 4-of-5 baskets – he also made a pair of 3-pointers. In addition, he had three assists on three 3-point baskets – two of those were to Luka Doncic and another to Wesley Matthews.
“He was active, he penetrated and got some assists,” said forward Dirk Nowitzki, who had six points in seven minutes. “He looked comfortable shooting the ball and I thought offensively we had a good rhythm with our point guard sharing the ball.”
Smith finished with 18 points, seven assists and three steals while playing only 22 minutes, and Doncic tallied 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Also for the Mavs, Harrison Barnes poured in 17 points, Dwight Powell had 15 points and eight rebounds, Mathews scored 11 and DeAndre Jordan added eight points and 13 rebounds.
By halftime the Mavs’ lead had already mushroomed to 65-41, and it reached 94-65 after three quarters. None of the Mavs starters played in the fourth quarter, but the lead still skyrockets to 120-73 after a fast break layup by rookie Jalen Brunson with 4:17 remaining in the game.
“It was good to get a win like this,” Barnes said. “Not just on the road, but one in which everything was clicking on all cyclinders offensively and defensively.
“Forty-two points in the first quarter, it went good and I think that got us off to a good rhythm. And offensively and defensively I felt like we were on-point.”
It was just the third road win of the season for the Mavs and padded their road record to 3-16. More importantly, this was a game where the Mavs were in control for the better part of three quarters.
In the locker room afterwards, Jordan was joking with Doncic about the sky hook Doncic threw down in the first half. “Kareem Abdul La Doncic,” said Jordan, adding that Doncic got the sky hook from J. J. Barea.
“We did a great job,” Doncic said. “We just got to play like this every time.
“I think we were moving the ball great, so we got a lot of open shots and we have players who can hit those shots.”
All 13 Mavs players scored at least two points and they all finished the game in the plus column in the plus/minus category. In the end, it turned out to be the Mavs’ second-largest blowout win of the season behind the 118-68 defeat over Utah on Nov. 14.
“I thought everybody played well – everybody that stepped on the floor,” Carlisle said. “And I thought Dirk was a big factor. When he went in and hit a couple of shot it spread everyone out.
“Look, this thing’s all about team right now and that’s where it’s at. When you’re on the road you’ve got to do it together.”
The Mavs certainly did that on Wednesday night.
NOTES: Point guard Dennis Smith Jr. hails from the same town – Fayetteville, N.C. — where assistant coach Darrell Armstrong was a star collegiate athlete. When he was a kid, Smith recalls hearing about Armstrong. “He’s a legend in Fayetteville,” Smith said. “I was hearing about a guy name Darrell Armstrong when I was in the fifth grade. He’s somebody who made it to the NBA from Fayetteville State. My sophomore year I basically went to Fayetteville State in high school because I was on campus every day. My junior year, the same thing. I saw his jersey in the arena. I think it’s pretty cool now that he and I are together every day.” Armstrong thinks that’s pretty cool, too. “I guess my name was still good and big in Fayetteville, especially coming a black college Division II. I guess he saw something that he liked in how I used to play. It’s always an honor when you hear people in the community talk about your game and that they like your game.”. .There were an inordinate amount of the Mavs fans at Wednesday’s game. And they were boisterous. In the fourth quarter a lot of fans started shouting: “We want Dirk, We want Dirk, We want Dirk!” Finally, Nowitzki stood up off the bench, clapped and waved to the crowd, and they cheered. . .The 10 shots from 3-point range the Mavs made in the first quarter are the most they’ve ever made in one quarter in a game. . .The 42 points the Mavs scored in the first quarter ties a season high for points n the first quarter. They also scored 42 points the first quarter of the Oct. 24 game in Atlanta. In addition, the Mavs tallied 43 points in the fourth quarter during a 140-136 win over Minnesota on Oct. 20.
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