Lightning didn’t strike.
The Mavericks were the ones rediscovering their storm, striking down the team with the thunderbolt in its logo 112-99 Wednesday night before a rocking AAC crowd.
The runaway victory over Golden State evened up the first-round series 1-1, as the best-of-seven shifts to Oakland for the next two games Friday and Sunday.
“When we have a healthy respect for our opponent and when we play at a high level, we can be pretty good,” Avery said.
Johnson reverted to an old standby, his usual starting lineup with Erick Dampier in the middle. Going big -- and staying big -- against the small-ball Warriors reversed several trends from the opener.
The Mavs shot better, rebounded better and controlled tempo better. Dirk Nowitzki (23 points) did more. So did Jerry Stackhouse (17) and Jason Terry (28).
And more than rebounds or blocks, having Damp and Gana in for the majority of the night provided a presence in the middle that just felt right. They were on the court the first 19 minutes of the game. They played 18 minutes total in Game 1.
“We looked like the Mavericks,” General said.
G-State still left Texas with a sense of accomplishment having stolen the home-court edge heading to the West Coast. The Mavs also have reason to be confident as the league’s best road team (31-10) during the regular season.
“We dug ourselves in a whole by letting homecourt get away from us, so we had to come even it out,” Devean George said. “We can start the series over at zero again. We just crawled out the hole somewhat.”
-- Art
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