After Sluggish Start, Mavs Make It Eight Straight

When your team has played two complete games in less than 24 hours, no one expects a victory in the second night of the back-to-back; therefore, Monday night's game in Charlotte was a scheduled loss. And although they were physically depleted and had little energy through much of the game, the Dallas Mavericks still found a way to come out of Charlotte victorious, riding the league's longest current winning streak at eight games.

After a somewhat sleepless night, not arriving at their hotel until 4am Monday morning, the Mavericks appeared to be a tired bunch early on. Mental mistakes were clearly visible all night long as Brendan Haywood was called for defensive three seconds, resulting in a technical foul and free throw for the Bobcats, on more than one occasion. The Mavs' lack of energy and effort was most evident during the final minutes of the first half, when Charlotte scored the final thirteen points to tale a 10 point lead into the locker room.

But the Mavericks refused to give up on themselves. In the third quarter, their defense began improving, as did their offense. Caron Butler and Dirk Nowitzki put on a brilliant show, combining for 18 of the Mavs' 23 points scored. And although he had a rough shooting night to begin with, Jason Terry took it to a whole different level in the final frame, scoring 13 of his 20 total points, which included nine points during a pivotal 13-1 run by the Mavericks. The reigning Western Conference Player of the Week, Dirk Nowitzki, had another MVP type performance with 27 points and 13 rebounds, leading the Mavs in both categories.

The second half defense played by the Mavericks was remarkable, as they held the Bobcats to only 31 points over the final 24 minutes. The Mavs' made it a point to help each other out when covering Stephen Jackson, who has routinely been a thorn in the Mavs' side, and started rotating better to cover the open man. Charlotte's 19 turnovers also helped the Mavs spur their comeback victory on Monday.

Going into Monday night's matchup, the Mavericks were the only team that Charlotte had never beaten since its inception in the 2004-2005 season. And coming out of the game, that statistic hadn't changed. There's always next year, Charlotte!