DALLAS, TEXAS — Dallas grabbed a win Friday night in San Antonio and had full intentions of completing the Texas Two Step in the first game of their lengthy home stand, but lost 133-108 to a hungry Houston Rocket team tonight.
Dallas defeated the Houston Rockets earlier in the season but that team looked much different from the one that took the floor tonight. Houston has gotten over their James Harden problem after trading him to the Nets giving the saga a much needed end, and Houston a fresh start as a team.
The Mavericks came into this game with a change to their own lineup with Kristaps Porzingis out of the lineup to rest as a precaution. The Mavericks are no stranger to making adjustments due to player availability, they’ve had to do it all season long.
It was a tough start to the first quarter for the Mavericks on the defensive end of the floor. The Rockets had an explosive start and opened up the first quarter on a 11-3 run and Dallas continuously gave up easy buckets off second chance opportunities. The Mavericks offense didn’t have a bad start whatsoever after the Mavericks knocked down 55% of their shots, the Rockets were just more efficient from the field and converted on their opportunities to develop an early 38-27 lead.
Dallas’s offense saw a dip in production in the second quarter after having a pretty decent first quarter from the floor only converting on 39% of their shots. Luka Doncic accounted for most of their second quarter points finishing the first half with 20 points adding 4 assists and 3 rebounds to his stat line. The Rockets finished the first half shooting 48% from the field led by Demarcus Cousins who finished with a double-double. Houston had their highest scoring first half of the entire season going into halftime leading the Mavericks 70-59 after leading the game by 16 at one point.
The combination of Tim Hardaway Jr, Jalen Brunson, and Luka Doncic proved to be too much for the Rockets to handle in their early parts of the third. The three combined to score the first 10 points of the third quarter cutting the Rockets lead down to 3 points. Houston went on a mini run to extend their lead back to 10 after the Mavericks offense failed two score a field goal for almost two minutes midway through the third quarter. After a promising start the Mavericks defense began to unravel and didn’t take care of the ball towards the end of the quarter, which resulted in the Rockets securing their largest lead of the game leading the Mavericks 104-83.
Rick Carlisle inserted his aggressive youngsters into the game to see if they could provide a spark for the team and the Mavericks scored 8 straight points to start the fourth quarter, but the Rockets continued to dominate on offense crushing the Mavericks hopes of a comeback. Houston maintained control throughout the remainder of the fourth quarter and handed the Mavericks their 3rd home loss of the season.
