THE Dallas Mavericks pulled away in the middle quarters and coasted to an easy victory over the misfiring Oklahoma City Thunder, 104-89, at the American Airlines Center on Sunday (Monday, Manila time).
The Mavs started pulling away with a 14-6 blitz to close out the first half with a 60-50 lead. A 21-7 run to start the third gave Dallas its largest lead at 81-57, and cruised to victory the rest of the way as OKC launched a meaningless rally near the end of the game to cut the gap to as close as 13.
Seth Curry led the attack with 22 points for Dallas, who improved to 26-36 after winning their second straight game. Dirk Nowitzki had a double-double of 18 markers and 12 rebounds, while Harrison Barnes scored 17.
Dallas shackled Oklahoma City from beyond the arc as the Thunder only managed to hit 2-of-22 attempts from deep, all from Russell Westbrook who also saw his 40-point game streak end at four games.
Westbrook, who was also called for his 14th technical foul of the season and a flagrant 1, struggled with his shot as he ended up with 29 points from 8-0f-24 shooting. Steven Adams and Enes Kanter scored 19 and 16, respectively, for the Thunder, who have lost three in a row and fell to 35-28.