Mavericks vs. Hawks Preview
ATLANTA, GA – The Atlanta Hawks had players other than Joe Johnson step up while recording consecutive wins. The Dallas Mavericks have probably been overly reliant on Dirk Nowitzki in consecutive losses.
The Hawks will try to saddle the Mavericks with their first three-game losing streak of the season on Saturday night at Philips Arena.
Johnson has made 9 of 24 shots for a total of 28 points in the last two games for Atlanta (8-4), including an 11-point effort that matched a season low in a 102-92 victory at Indiana on Tuesday. Josh Smith had 25 points, Mike Bibby added 16 and Al Horford 15 to help pick up the slack.
Oddsmakers from online sports book BroburySports.com have made the Hawks -3 point spread favorites for Saturday’s game against the Mavericks. Current NBA Public Betting Information shows that 59% of more than 231 bets for this game have been placed on the Mavericks +3.
“It shows the maturity of the team,” Horford said. “I think that the deeper you are, the better team you are. Now, they have to consider that they don’t know who’s going to come out and have a big night for the Hawks.”
The Hawks have lost three of Johnson’s four highest scoring games this season, and are 7-1 when he scores 22 or fewer.
“Everybody knows that Joe’s the key guy on the offensive end because he’s such a potent scorer,” coach Larry Drew said. “When other guys are touching the ball and when other guys are getting looks, it makes you tough to defend.”
Dallas (7-4) is finding out what happens when a team relies too much on its superstar. Nowitzki has put together his best two-game scoring stretch with 65 points, but the Mavericks have dropped both games.
He scored a season-high 36 on 15-of-26 shooting in Friday’s 88-83 home loss to Chicago. The rest of the Mavericks combined to shoot 30.6 percent (15 of 49).
“There are going to be nights when Dirk has a huge game,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s that great a player. But 20 offensive rebounds and 25 second-chance points is just tempting fate too much, simple as that.”
Dallas is 2-3 in Nowitzki’s five highest scoring games, going 5-1 in the other six in which he has averaged 19.5 points – 5.2 below his average.
Nowitzki has matched up in the past against Smith, who leads the NBA with 3.3 blocks per game and whose 39 blocks are tied for the league lead with Minnesota’s Darko Milicic. Smith blocked a career-high 10 in a game against Dallas during his rookie season, although Nowitzki averaged 34.5 points last season against the Hawks as the teams split two meetings.
Drew, in his first year after replacing Mike Woodson, wants the Hawks to start playing better team defense as opposed to relying on their athleticism.
“We have to be solid defensively every night we step out,” the coach told the Hawks’ official website. “Hopefully we will have nights where we shoot the ball really well or we will do a great job with our execution, but our staple has to be our defense every single night.”
Dallas, meanwhile, enters with the top defense in the NBA, limiting opponents to a 43.0 percentage from the field. The Mavs should be challenged by a Hawks team that ranks second in the league with a 49.3 shooting percentage.
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