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DALLAS, TX— Despite a season-high 25 points from Chandler Parsons on 10-14 shooting, the Dallas Mavericks (22-17) fell 110-107 to the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers (27-9) in overtime at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks are now 3-1 overtime this season.
Dirk Nowitzki chipped in 17 points, Deron Williams added 16 points, and Zaza Pachulia recorded his 20th double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
After leading by as much as 16 points in the first quarter, the Cavs used a 15-point run to help cut the Mavs lead to just 3 points to end the quarter. The Mavs shot 58 percent, while limiting the Cavs to just 35 percent shooting in the first half. Despite the Cavs’ shooting struggles, the Mavs only took a 5-point lead into halftime due in large part to nine Dallas turnovers.
“We knew we weren’t going to blow them out. We knew that the lead at some point was going to get chipped away,” Mavs guard Wesley Matthews told reporters. “But this was our game. We should have won it and we didn’t.
After scratching and clawing their way back into the game, the Cavaliers finally got their first lead of the game after a Kyrie Irving 24-footer put Cleveland up 76-75 with 9:26 left in the fourth quarter. Irving finished the game with 22 points.
Averaging 31.4 points in his previous seven games versus the Mavericks since the 2011 NBA Finals Game 6 loss with the Miami Heat, LeBron James continued to torch the Mavs, dropping 27 points on the night to go along with 10 rebounds and 7 assists.
Two free throws by Matthews put the Mavericks up 2 points, 93-91, with 1:21 left, but with 39 seconds remaining James drew a controversial foul from Parsons to help the Cavs tie the game.
Following a Dallas timeout, the Mavericks went to their closer. With the ball in his hands at the top of the key, Williams used a mismatch on a switch against Cavs forward Tristan Thompson to make a jumper in the lane to put the Mavs up 2 points. However, the Cavs came storming back and James hammered a dunk on the other end of the court with 20.9 seconds left to tie the game right back up. Following a Dallas turnover, the Cavs failed to get off a shot in time and the two teams headed into overtime.
Despite 6 points and two back-to-back three-pointers by Nowitzki in overtime, the Mavs just didn’t have enough firepower to pull out the win. After a Chandler Parsons put the Mavs up two with 1:09 left, a Lebron James layup followed by a clutch three-pointer at the top of the key by Irving with 13 seconds left and sealed the fate of the Mavs.
The Mavericks will now head north of the Texas border to face to Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder (27-12) tomorrow night.
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