HOUSTON, TEXAS — The Dallas/Houston rivalry is a special one. The two cities are divided by Interstate 45, but what truly divides the two cities are where their loyalties lie in sports.
Competition is the focus, the sport itself is just the activity and task at hand.
The game against the Mavericks and Rockets lived up to the expectations of their historic rivalry and maintained intensity throughout the entire game. Both teams played hard but both couldn’t leave the Toyota Center tonight with the luxury of bragging rights.
The Mavericks made some changes to their starting lineup after their loss to the Bulls. Instead of going with Tim Hardaway Jr at the 2 and Dwight Powell at the center position, Rick Carlisle opted to go with Maxi Kleber at the 4, Willie Cauley-Stein at the 5 and moved Dorian Finney-Smith to the 3. Carlisle also announced that Luka Doncic will be making his return to the starting lineup after missing the Mavericks game against the Bulls on Sunday.
Shifting the starting lineup paid off for the Mavericks in the first quarter. Dallas started the game like oil in a hot skillet.
Dallas attacked Houston quickly on the defensive end and overmatched their pace from the jump, attempting to find the initial spark of the game. Four minutes into the game Dallas developed a 12 point lead and sat in the driver’s seat much longer than the Rockets intended.
Luka Doncic got back to his old ways and scored 12 points and accumulated 5 rebounds in the first quarter. Josh Richardson scored 7 points and Willie Cauley-Stein his first start of the season scored 6 first quarter points but contributed where he was needed most which was on the boards notching 3 first quarter rebounds.
After scoring only 2 points in the first four minutes Houston continued to struggle on offense and the Mavericks energy seemed to overwhelm the Rockets as Dallas ended the 1st quarter with a 33-21 lead. James Harden was the leading scorer for the Rockets 9 points and hit 50% of his shots from the field.
Going into the 2nd, things started to get chippy between the in-state rivals. Former Kentucky Wildcats John Wall (Rockets), Demarcus Cousins (Rockets), and Willie Cauley-Stein (Mavericks) had a few exchanges after Cauley-Stein and Cousins got tied up on a play. Eventually Demarcus Cousins received his 2nd technical foul of the game and was ejected. The intensity trickled down to players on both teams and played a small part in a Rockets 17-4 run to open the second quarter decreasing the Mavericks large lead to only 6 points in the middle of the 3rd quarter.
Dallas regained their focus before the end of the first half and continued to increase their lead. Houston made the most of attacking the Mavericks mentally and it helped, but it wasn’t enough for them to retain momentum they gained in the early parts of the 2nd quarter as the Mavericks continued to increase their lead going into halftime leading the Rockets 61-49. After struggling with the three ball through the early part of the season, Doncic knocked down 2 three pointers in the first half and scored 20 points and almost hit double digits in the rebound column with 8 total rebounds.
In the third James Harden and the Rockets started cooking.
Harden did what Harden does and that is make buckets and pass the rock when necessary. It was necessary for Harden to be more of the distributor in this scenario, the Mavericks defense double teamed Harden all night forcing him to get his supporting cast involved. His contribution helped the Rockets narrow the Mavericks lead from 12 points entering halftime down to 7 points.
This was the second time this season the Mavericks maintained their lead through 3 quarters of play.
In the 4th, the most unstoppable player on the floor was Tim Hardaway Jr. Hardaway scored 13 of his 30 points in the 4th quarter and he and Luka finished the night with 33 points, 11 assists, and 16 rebounds. The pair combined to score a total of 63 points in this game which hasn’t happened all season and Willie Cauley-Stein and Josh Richardson combined to score 30 points helping the Mavericks secure their third win of the season with one more game to play on this 3 game road trip.
Dallas sits at 3-4 and has the potential to bounce back after a shaky start to the season. Beating an in division rival is no simple task and the Mavericks were able to do it on the road after a bad loss. The Mavericks will travel to Denver in their final game of the road trip with hopes of starting their first win streak of the season and getting back to that .500 mark.
