12
Jan
2012
Bonner’s 17 points gave Spurs a win over Mavericks
Well the NBA’s compressed season has started to show its negative effects and it is evident from the performance of Dirk Nowitzki on Thursday night against San Antonio Spurs. This was the sixth game of Dallas Mavericks and was the lowest scoring result for the star forward team as he scored only 6 points on his 3-of-11 shooting leading to a 93-71 loss for the team. It seems that Nowitzki himself is admitting that the short turnaround has affected his game this season. Jason Kidd’s injury later in the game turned all the chances against the team. Now the team is planning to reevaluate him on the coming Friday.
Out of 77 shots in the game Mavericks were able to hit only 27 and just a single shot out of nineteen shots were from the three-point range. On the other hand, the Spurs took advantage of 34 shots out of 86 shots. The main reason behind the Spurs win was the 16 shots out of 33 long-range shots played in the game. Bonner also added that they have a good start in the beginning of the season and back to back wins has given them a boost and Bonner has also scored more than Nowtizki.
When Spurs started the play, everybody felt Neal’s presence in the opening possession. Neal started his game with hitting three 3-pointers just in the beginning of the first quarter, giving Spurs a lead of 18-points in the initial quarter of the game. The team also lacked Manu Ginobili, their leading scorer and when Nowitzki’s team started to trail with 66-42 in the fourth quarter, Coach Rick Carlisle opted Nowitzki out for the final session. Only two players from the Mavericks were able to reach double figures, these two players were Terry and Delonte West, and they scored 12 points and 10 points respectively.
On comparing the back-to-back of both the teams in this season, the Mavericks seem ahead of Spurs with 22 back-to-backs as compared to 20 back-to backs of Spurs. However, for the Thursday match Spurs coach feel that the real fire of the Mavericks was not present in the game and the team might get in a better shape later in the season. At the end of the day, Matt Bonner’s 17 points gave Spurs a nice victory over the Mavericks, and these points took him ahead of veteran Tim Duncan from Spurs as well. Better games seem to be slated in the coming time and hope that fans get to see better performance as well.
