Allowing 40 points in the second quarter is never a good sign. Even worse was a seven- minute scoring drought in the third and a season-low 11 points in the quarter. The mismatched combination led to a 99-86 win for a resurgent Oklahoma City Thunder squad and other loss for the sinking Mavericks.
The Mavs shot an abominable 32.3 percent for the game, including 14.3 percent in the third, when Oklahoma City doubled Dallas’ output 22-11. The Thunder put the ball in the basket at a 42.7 percent clip for the game.
The Thunder (31-21) are within half of a game of the Mavs (32-21) in the standings.
Offensively, Oklahoma City was let by its star forward and former UT standout Kevin Durant with 25. The 25-point mark, which he reached on the final shot of the game, gives him 28 straight games with at least 25 points, dating back to December 18th. Durant only bucketed 12 on December 16th against the Mavericks but had 30 in a January 15th rematch.
Durant, who is coming off 15 in Sunday’s All-Star Game in front of a record-smashing 108,713 fans, sits second in the league in scoring at 29.7 points per game, barely behind LeBron James at 29.9. But Durant got help Tuesday night as Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all chipped in 17.
Over the break, the Mavs lost Quinton Ross and James Singleton along with Josh Howard and Drew Gooden, two active presences off the bench. The Mavs acquired Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson from the Wizards in the trade. Butler scored 13 points in the starting role while Haywood looked good with 7 off the bench. Stevenson added 4 in 4:30 minutes. Jason Terry, bumped from a starting position he had grown to like, netted 14 from the bench. Remember that Terry is the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
Hopefully, the 11-point quarter will not resurface against the offensively-minded Phoenix Suns tonight. Such a thing could signal disaster.
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