Mavs attempt for fourth straight win falls short vs Miami Heat

 

 

Just like that, the Dallas Mavericks season-high three-game win streak is over after they fell 99-95 to the Miami Heat in a game that saw four lead changes and eight ties.

 

The Heat (13-30) led the Mavs (14-28) by five headed into the second quarter behind 20 points in the paint. They played the final 8:42 of the quarter without center Hassan Whiteside, who injured his left ankle while defending a Dirk Nowitzki jumper. Whiteside later returned in the second quarter, finishing the game with 13 points and 8 rebounds.

 

After concluding the first quarter without a turnover, the Mavs used a 12-2 run to begin the second quarter to give them their first lead of the game on a J.J. Barea three-pointer. The Mavs went on to score 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting in the quarter behind 9 points from Harrison Barnes, while holding Miami to just 15 points to take a nine point lead into halftime.

 

Barnes finished the game with 15 points, but had just two points in the second half. Nowitzki lead the Mavs with a team-high 19 points while guard Wesley Matthews added 18 points and 5 rebounds.

 

The Heat used an 11-0 run midway through the third quarter to take their first lead since 10:03 in the second period. Barea scored the Mavs final seven points including a buzzer-beating jumper to give Dallas a 73-70 lead headed into the final period. Barea finished the game with 13 points off the bench.

 

J.J. beats the buzzer! ? pic.twitter.com/ZsPZ2h5IGR

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) January 20, 2017

 

The Mavs began the fourth quarter on a 12-2 run to go up by as much as 7 points, but the Heat continued to battled back behind guard Goran Dragic to regain the lead. As part of a 7-0 Mavs run, Barnes hit a jumper with 7:13 left, just his second field goal attempt of the half, to put the Mavs within three points. The Mavs run was ultimately capped by a Matthews three-pointer to tie the game at 82.

 

Then, with the Mavs down five with 18.5 seconds left, Nowitzki was fouled on a three-point attempt to put the Mavs within three points, but Dallas ultimately ran out of time. Dragic sank two free throws with 3.6 seconds left after the Mavericks intentionally fouled him to send the Heat into victory.

 

“It was a really tough stretch for us,” Nowitzki said. “We went from being up a couple to down seven or eight and then we put the starters back in or the other unit, so that was a bad stretch… and after that we had to play catch-up.”

 

Dragic finished with a game-high 32 points including four three-pointers and Tyler Johnson scored 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to put Miami over Dallas in the two team’s first meeting of the season. The teams will meet again on February 27 in Dallas.

 

The Mavs are now four games behind the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets.

 

Up Next:

The Dallas Mavericks now head back home for the second night of a back-to-back on Friday night against the Utah Jazz at 7:30 p.m. at the American Airlines Center. The Mavs is 0-7 on the second night of back-to-backs this season.