The Mavericks are six games below five hundred, but have a two game winning streak during the start of a five game home stand.
Golden State came to American Airlines to play their fourth road game in five nights, and the Mavericks never allowed them to get settled, running the Warriors out of the gym 116-91 on Saturday.
The Mavericks pushed the tempo all night long and outscored the Warriors 29-8 in fast break points.
Shawn Marion led the way for Dallas with a season-high 26 points and 11 boards. It was his fourth double-double in his last five games and was also his fourth twenty point game of the season. He hit 11 of his 16 shots and was 2-3 from downtown. “The Matrix” added two steals, one block and one assists to complete his night.
In total, the Mavs has five players in double digits-OJ Mayo(19), Darren Collison(18), Dirk Nowitzki(15), and Elton Brand(11) joined Marion to complete the rout.
The Warriors were tired and it showed. In the first half the Mavericks shot 51.2 percent from the field and hit 6 of 11 from behind the arc. They led by as many as 27 points at the half.
The Mavericks jumped on Golden State early with Collison scoring 13 points in the first quarter- eight of those coming in a 14-0 run that put the Mavs in front of the Warriors for good.
Golden State turned the ball over twice and missed seven consecutive shots to go scoreless for 4:29. During their current losing streak the Warriors allow an average of 33.5 points in the first quarter alone.
The Mavericks will take any win they can get right now. Dallas will look to extend their winning streak when they face Atlanta on Monday.
The contest will be the first time the two teams will face each other this season. It won’t be anything like playing Golden State. The Hawks are a better team and are more rested.
Atlanta is third in the NBA in assists per game at 23.8 and are 20-5 when recording 24 or more assists and 7-1 with 30-plus. Atlanta records assists on 64.2% of their made baskets on the season (2nd in the NBA).
The Hawks also rank fourth in the NBA in three-point-field goal percentage (.385).
Seven players are making over .350 from distance – Kyle Korver (.464-first in the NBA), John Jenkins (.410), Jeff Teague (.401), DeShawn Stevenson (.385), Anthony Morrow (.378), Lou Williams (.367) and Jannergo Pargo (.350 in eight games with Atlanta).
Good news for the Mavericks is that they will be coming off a day of rest. That means Nowitzki will have an extra day to recover- he averages 15.8 points per game when he has one day off and he averages 15 points in Maverick wins.
Mayo averages 21.8 points per game in Maverick wins and 19 points when he has a day of rest.
If Mayo gets his twenty and Dirk gets his fifteen the Mavericks should have a better chance of winning. If Marion decides to drop 20 points again, it’s probably safe to say a Mavericks’ win is fairly certain.
Tuesdays game is set to tip off at 7:30 at the AAC.
