The Dallas Mavericks survived a late claw-back by the league-worst Charlotte Bobcats to give the NBA champions a 101-96 victory on Thursday.
Remarkably, it was the first time in nearly a month the Mavericks had recorded back-to-back wins.
“It is two wins and we’ve done good things, but if you look at our schedule it gets significantly more difficult now,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle told reporters. “We’ve got to carry that good stuff into Saturday. We’re having to work for everything and that’s the way it should be.”
Charlotte (6-36) went on an early 20-4 run and built a 14-point lead in the second quarter, before the Mavericks narrowed the deficit to six points at halftime, scoring the final seven points of the second quarter.
“We talked about we need better starts, but that was a slow start again,” Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki said. “We were a step slow to everything. They got whatever they wanted — they got hot and made some threes. I just thought our defensive energy wasn’t there.”
The Mavericks (25-20) carried the momentum into the third, led by Nowitzki, who hit consecutive three-point baskets to give them a 65-62 lead, which they extended to a 17-point advantage with four minutes left in the game.
Charlotte regained their shooting touch and rallied to within three points with only 20 seconds left, but Nowitzki hit two free throws to put the game out reach.
“We played as well as we can play,” Charlotte coach Paul Silas said. “It was just the third quarter that gives us problems, but everything else was almost picture perfect. When they put the zone on us, we couldn’t make shots. You’ve got to give them credit. They came through in the end, but I like the way we played.”
Nowitzki finished with 27 points to lead Dallas, who have never lost to the Bobcats, winning all 15 games between the two teams.
Jason Terry hit three three-pointers off the bench, while Corey Maggette led the Bobcats with 21 points and Tyrus Thomas added a season-high 14.
WIZARDS 99, HORNETS 89
In New Orleans, John Wall had 26 points and 12 assists to lead the Washington Wizards to victory over the New Orleans Hornets.
Roger Mason scored 17 of his season-high 19 points in the second half to help the Wizards end a three-game losing streak and win for only the 10th time this season.
Chris Kaman scored 20 points for the Hornets, who erased a 16-point deficit and took a brief lead in the fourth quarter only to watch Mason hit three three-pointers during a 13-0 Washington run that put the game away.
THUNDER 103, NUGGETS 90
In Denver, Colorado, Kevin Durant scored 24 points, while Russell Westbrook had 23 as Oklahoma City beat short-handed Denver.
James Harden scored 18 off the bench for the Thunder, who bounced back from a loss to Houston at home Monday.
Andre Miller had 17 to lead the Nuggets, who played the game while a trade sending Nene to Washington for JaVale McGee and Ronny Turiaf was finalized.
Nene was averaging 13.4 points and 7.4 rebounds in an injury-plagued season, but the recent play of rookie forward Kenneth Faried made Nene expendable.
In other games, it was:
‧ Jazz 111, Timberwolves 105, OT
‧ Suns 91, Clippers 87
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