LeBron James (23) of the Cleveland Cavaliers handles the ball against Chandler Parsons of the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The Cleveland Cavaliers won 110-107.
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The Mavericks (22-17) play at Oklahoma City tonight and visit rival San Antonio Sunday.
Dallas almost beat Cleveland at the AAC, falling by a disappointing three-point margin in overtime. But ask anyone who knows Nowitzki well to describe him and they all say the same thing: as he nears his 38th birthday, he still approaches the game the same way he did as a kid growing up Germany dreaming about the National Basketball Association.
Cleveland was the first of three division leaders the Mavericks play in four games over a six-day period – and the next three games are on the road.
Rockets 107, Grizzlies 91: James Harden scored 25 points and Terrence Jones added 20 off the bench to lead the Houston to its fourth straight win.
The Cavaliers are at the tail end of a seven-game road trip, with their next contest a battle of the juggernauts when they meet the San Antonio Spurs (Friday: 05:00).
That’s not to say they’ll sweep the next three games of this murderer’s row to extend their streak to double digits while handing the Spurs their first home loss of the season in the process.
“He’s getting there”, LeBron James recently said about Irving’s re-implementation in the starting lineup. “We knew that the lead at some point was going to get chipped away”, Mavs guard Wesley Matthews said.
Irving sank a 3 to put Cleveland up 109-105 with 13 seconds left Tuesday off a pass from James, who has averaged 27.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and 7 assists the last four games but passed up an open jumper. It’s just having fun on and off the court. The Spurs hold a plus-16.1 points per game differential at home, on pace to be the second best of all time behind the 1995-96 Bulls’ 17.1.
“It’s not uncommon for Dirk to catch the ball at the nail, right at the middle of the foul line because of his great sense and feel to be able to maneuver himself for a pretty good look”, Cavs coach David Blatt said. LeBron James scored 37 points to lead the Cavs.
Tony Parker scored 31 points, LaMarcus Aldridge added 22 points and 13 rebounds, and San Antonio beat Detroit for its ninth straight victory. They are trying to expand their lead in the Eastern Conference.
The Cavs did not crack 40 per cent from the floor until overtime, heaved 44 three-point attempts and for much of the night, Irving and forward Kevin Love could not buy a basket.
The main catalyst of the Cavs’ winning has been scoring off turnovers, which they are now averaging 22.4 PPG. Nowitzki became the 14th National Basketball Association player to reach 46,000 career minutes.
Mavericks: at Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
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The power outage, which took place with 4:32 remaining in the second quarter, delayed the game for 21 minutes, but in rallied from a two-point deficit when the lights came back on to lead by 10 at halftime, seizing the momentum when played resumed.
