After the tight bankruptcy against reigning champion Golden State, the Dallas Mavericks (13-27) are also in a good mood against the Chicago Bulls (14-25). Only against Kris Dunn the Mavs can’t find an answer, the Point Guard leads the guests with 32 points to the 127:124 victory (BOXSCORE) – despite a strong performance by Dirk Nowitzki.
The guests from Lake Michigan were able to cope with the match’s high pace much better than Dallas at the beginning. The Bulls sunk one basket at a time, almost 70 percent of their first-quarter field throwing attempts found their way through the Reuse. However, Dallas was able to recover relatively quickly from the resulting 13-point deficit.
The Mavs started several runs, led by the strong banker himself, so that the match was balanced at half time (57:53 for the Bulls). Shortly after the break, Dallas took the lead for the first time this evening with a 10:2 race. Thanks to the overall strong third round (35:23) the Mavericks even managed an 8-point lead.
But it was quickly gone again. Chicago confirmed the old Mantra that basketball is a game of runs. With the help of a 10:0 run of the guests the game was open again. However, in the final minutes Kris Dunn took control. One of his 4 three-way teams put the Bulls in front 60 seconds before the end with 10 points.
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Dunn scored a total of 32 points (12/17 FG), with the Point Guard distributing 9 assists and snatching 4 steals. Dunn received support from Lauri Markkanen (16 points, 9 rebounds), Justin Holiday (23), David Nwaba (13) and Nikola Mirotic, who played a double double (11 points, 10 rebounds) from the bank. Paul Zipser was only impressed by his 5 fouls (2 points, 3 rebounds) apart from an appealing baseline dunk.
So the guests turned out to be a spoilsport for a very strong Dirk Nowitzki. The German scuttled 8 of his 11 field throw attempts (3 out of 3 from a distance) for 19 points. The Mavs’ best thrower was Wesley Matthews, who scored 24 points, Harrison Barnes scored 23 points, and Maxi Kleber also performed well (8 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists). Dwight Powell also scored 13 points (6/6 FG) from the Bank. Due to a questionable foul call in the last minute of the game, however, the center took its sixth foul. In this phase, Dallas made it even more exciting thanks to quick fouls of effective offense, but the last attempt by Yogi Ferrell was too short.
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Kris Dunn. The No. 5 pick of the Draft 2016 showed a very strong performance in the offense. With its scoring, the Point Guard has always posed an enormous danger to the Dallas Defense, which Dunn could never really get under control with his mixture of three and strong drives. With his 9 assists, the 23-year-old also put his fellow players in the limelight time and again.
Devin Harris. The Guard was unable to set an accent this evening and thus could not provide any support for the otherwise so strong bank of the Mavericks. Harris presented himself offensively in no good rhythm (5 points, 2/6 FG) and remained pale.
After the Bulls’ offensive spectacle in the first quarter, the Mavericks changed again and again to zone defence in the second round. Chicago had enormous problems with this, the good flow of the offense was interrupted and Dallas was able to fight back. This was also due to the Bulls’ weak pick & roll defense. The ball handler was only attacked half-heartedly after the block, so that he was able to use the rolling Big Man relatively easily. As a result, the Mavs had some light finishes underneath the basket, for example through Alley-Oops by Powell.