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 Thanks to the work of Sacramento's center and point guard, the
lengthy streak ended Thursday.
Cousins and Rondo each recorded double-doubles, and the Kings topped
the Mavericks 104-101 at American Airlines Center.
Cousins had 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and two blocks.
Rondo finished with 18 points, 12 assists and three steals.
One player who was there in 2003 when Dallas started its 22-game
home winning streak over the Kings was Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki. He
hasn't had many performances against Sacramento as poor as the one
he had Thursday: 16 points -- including two at the buzzer -- on
7-of-16 shooting, including 0-for-5 from 3-point range.
Kings coach George Karl said, "Well, I think the nature of our
pregame was we gave them a game. The last time we played here, we
gave them a Christmas present, and we didn't want to do that again.
And we know we can beat this team. And I thought our focus had an
anger to it. I don't know if it was Rondo and/or what happened here
the last time we played here."
The loss ended Dallas' season-long, six-game homestand on a sour
note following a Tuesday blowout of the Orlando Magic. The Mavs
(33-29) won four games on the homestand, but with the loss to the
Kings (25-35), they fell into a tie for sixth place with the
Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference playoff race.
Dallas can be grateful it pulled out an overtime win earlier in the
homestand against the Nuggets. The Mavericks play at Denver on
Sunday afternoon.
"It's disappointing, but we didn't deserve it," Mavs coach Rick
Carlisle said. "We didn't play well enough. Even the first quarter
where we ended up on a very good run to end the quarter, we just
didn't have much traction at either end. We were lucky they were
missing some shots. From there forward, we allowed it to be their
kind of game and not our kind of game."
A 9-0 run early in the fourth quarter provided the Kings, who
snapped a four-game skid, some separation, growing a 73-71 to 82-71.
So many times before, Sacramento coughed up such leads, but this
time the Kings managed to keep their offense flowing, aided by three
3-pointers and 16 points from Marco Belinelli, while also pestering
Dallas with quick hands on defense, causing deflections and
ultimately 15 turnovers.
Trailing 94-83 with 4:06 to go, Dallas turned to a fouling strategy,
Hack-a-Rondo. On two trips to the free-throw line, Rondo, who was a
bust in Dallas after being traded there from the Celtics last
season, went 2-for-4, and after his first set, Cousins corralled the
offensive rebound and split his own free throws to push the lead
back to 13.
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Free throws though almost cost the Kings the game in the final
minutes. The Mavericks got to within 101-97 with 28.6 seconds to go
after Cousins missed two free throws that would have severely
crippled Dallas' comeback chances. Darren Collison and Belinelli,
both better than 80 percent foul shooters, each made one of two to
keep Dallas alive.
However, on Belinelli's missed second free throw, the rebound
squirted loose, rolled around on the floor and was finally snatched
by Collison, who was fouled with 4.2 seconds to go. He made both
free throws to secure the big road win and finish with 14 points.
"I thought we came together today," Collison said. "They are a
really good offensive team. It always feels good when you lose four
games and you're down, and then you win against a good team."
Mavericks forward Chandler Parsons continued his torrid shooting,
going 12-for-17 from the floor for a game-high 28 points. Deron
Williams had 15 points, and reserve forward David Lee added 12
points and 11 rebounds.
"It's obviously not ideal," said Mavs guard Wesley Matthews, who had
just four points on 2-of-9 shooting. "We just didn't play well
enough, long enough. Give credit to them. We fell into a trap of
playing the way they did, missed some shots, but we've got to
salvage what we did well, and go into Denver and make sure we take
care of that one."
NOTES: Kings G Rajon Rondo started Thursday's game at Dallas despite
struggling with turf toe and a right thumb injury and tweaking his
right ankle late in Wednesday's game at Memphis. Rondo played in
Dallas for the first time since being dismissed from the Mavs during
last season's first-round playoff series against Houston. ... Kings
F Rudy Gay decided to play through a sore shoulder against the
Mavericks after a positive pregame workout, and he scored nine
points in 36 minutes. Coach George Karl had expressed doubt that
Gay, who missed the previous two games, would play. ... The Kings
remain on the road through Monday with stops at San Antonio on
Saturday and New Orleans. ... The Mavericks concluded their
season-long, six-game homestand and will play Sunday afternoon in
Denver before beginning a three-game homestand Monday against the
Los Angeles Clippers.
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