DALLAS _ Counting the last half of Friday's game against Milwaukee and the first half of Saturday's game against the Sacramento Kings, the Dallas Mavericks allowed a measley 54 points during that fourth-quarter stretch.
Grantged, the Bucks and Kings lielly won't be in the playoffs this seaosn. But they're still an NBA team.
Heck, the Kings even own a victory this season over the Los Angeles Lakers. But against the Mavs, the Kings were one point shy of the franchise-low for points scored since they moved to Sacarmento in 1985.
Also, the 23 points and 17.4 percent shooting the Kings had in the first half were low-water marks for the Kings since they moved to Sacramento.
"We're doing better things defensively and we were good defensively in the first half,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "They had some struggles -- their shot-making wasn't great -- but I thought we had something to do with that.
"We're placing our major emphasis on energy, defense and rebounding. The guys are responding.''
After opening the season with three losses, the Mavs (8-5) have won eight of their last 10 games. That includes posting a five-game winning streak with victories in four games over the past five days.
"Nobody is playing long minutes,'' Carlisle said. "Everybody goes out there and plays hard to exhaustion and then we get somebody else in.
"It's a game against a team that we should beat. But we played to the level we needed to play at consistently through the game and that's important to do.''
-- Dwain Price
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@dwainprice
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