NEW YORK — After blowing a 25-point lead two nights earlier, the Dallas Mavericks seemed like they were on their way to another collapse.
Trailing by 20 with 8:23 remaining, Brooklyn stormed back to get within four points with 37 seconds remaining.
But the Mavericks dodged a repeat of Wednesday night’s loss at Memphis, closing out the Nets for a 98-90 victory on Friday night behind 20 points apiece from Dirk Nowitzki and former Nets guard Vince Carter.
“We played a lot more good minutes than we played in Memphis for sure. It’s hard to play a perfect 48 minutes in this league, I’ll admit that,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.
“But we took advantage of our runs. We were able to stave them off a few times. We had some guys step up and hit some big shots. Vince hit one shot off a timeout that was big. O.J. (Mayo’s) 3 in the right corner was a huge play. We made a few mistakes, obviously. So hey, we’ll take it and run.”
Brooklyn’s season-long, second-half deficiency caught up to them again. The Mavericks held the Nets to just 5-of-17 shooting from the field in the third quarter before they found their shooting touch in the fourth quarter, hitting 10-of-22 shots.
“We came out and we had a couple of turnovers early and we got really flat after that,” Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said.
“We didn’t execute well but worse we just didn’t play with any defensive energy and the score went from like 10 to 20 in a very short time.”
It was a big win for the Mavericks, who still maintain hopes of somehow claiming the eighth spot in the Western Conference despite trailing the Houston Rockets by five games. The Mavericks, who had lost their last three games, will face the Rockets on Sunday night in the opener of a home-and-home set at Houston.
“It’s been a frustrating and disappointing season obviously overall. We lost a couple of close games that we thought we should’ve had,” Nowitzki said. “We have to go in with a free mindset and kind of forget what happened so far and let it all rip. Houston is a great team. (James) Harden is having a phenomenal year. They’re a tough team. They’re fast, athletic. So we got our hands full.”
Mayo, who added 17 points, is looking forward to the matchup at Houston after pulling off a road win in Brooklyn, just the Mavs’ 10th in 30 tries this season.
“That’s a (team that’s) ahead of us and gives us the opportunity to gain ground and make them back track a little bit,” Mayo said.
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