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 Ellis scored 21 points in the Mavericks' third straight victory.
Dallas (23-16) is a season-high seven games above .500, and it beat
Orlando for the 12th time in the teams' past 15 matchups.
"We need wins," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "(Orlando) is a
team that is depleted because of injuries, but they're an NBA team.
They have athletes, they're well-coached, they play hard. They're
going to make it hard."
The Magic (10-28) finished a forgettable five-game road trip through
the Western Conference without a win, and their overall losing
streak is up to eight. Orlando, 3-17 on the road, returns home on
Wednesday to play the Chicago Bulls.
"Right now as a competitor, I'm not happy at all," Magic forward
Glen Davis said. "It's good to go home, but at the same time it
doesn't mean anything if we don't go out there and do what we need
to do. We can be home all we want, but fans can't play for us."
The Mavericks had their way with Orlando from the start by pushing
the tempo and filling up the basket from long distance. Dallas made
13 of 27 3-point attempts and shot 50.6 percent overall from the
floor.
In addition to Ellis, five other Mavericks scored in double figures.
Forward Dirk Nowitzki had 15 points, forward Jae Crowder added 14
and guard Jose Calderon scored 13. Guard Vince Carter and guard
Wayne Ellington scored 17 and 12 points, respectively, off the
bench.
"We had quite a few guys who played well," Carlisle said. "We didn't
have a lot of great performances, but the important thing was to get
the win and try to keep everybody's minutes reasonable. We got
through it."
Orlando was without two starters, including guard Arron Afflalo, its
leading scorer. The Magic turned to guard Jameer Nelson and Davis to
pick up the scoring slack.
"They took good shots throughout the course of the night," Magic
coach Jacque Vaughn said of Davis and Nelson. "They were good looks
trying to create for themselves and create for their teammates."
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Davis scored 10 of his 19 points in the third quarter as
Orlando briefly pulled within six points before Dallas regained
control. Nelson scored 21, with 16 coming in the first half.
Dallas returns to the road in search of its fourth consecutive
win on Wednesday night in Los Angeles against the Clippers. The
Mavericks are also at Phoenix on Friday before returning to
Dallas to face Portland on Saturday.
"We've got a lot of big games coming up," Carlisle said.
The Mavericks had the game well in hand in the first half by
shooting 54 percent from the field. Dallas held as much as a
22-point lead in the second quarter and cruised into the
halftime break up 59-41.
Dallas got out to a quick lead behind an aggressive Ellis and
took a double-digit lead late in the first quarter after a 14-4
run. Orlando made a push in the final minute to pull within
28-20 at the end of the quarter.
A 14-3 surge in the second quarter allowed Dallas to open a
44-27 advantage. Ellis had 14 points going into the locker room,
and Nowitzki and Carter had 10 each.
NOTES: For the second time this season, the NBA acknowledged an
officiating error at the end of a Dallas win. The league said a
foul should have been called against Mavericks G Monta Ellis on
New Orleans Pelicans G Austin Rivers' 3-point try Saturday.
Dallas won 110-107. The league previously said that officials
missed a foul on Dallas F Shawn Marion against Minnesota F Kevin
Love in the final seconds of a Dec. 30 game. ... Dallas F Shawn
Marion (shoulder/ribs) missed his fourth consecutive game. ...
Orlando was without leading scorer G Arron Afflalo (foot) and
leading rebounder C Nikola Vucevic (concussion). G Jameer Nelson
(sprained finger) and F Maurice Harkless (knee) were both in
starting lineup despite injuries. ... Dallas F Dirk Nowitzki
became the 12th player in NBA history age 35 or older to score
at least 40 points in a game when he reached that threshold
Saturday.
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