DALLAS — The roadblock to six consecutive wins stood a combined 20 feet tall and an eternity of length wide.
Dirk Nowitzki. Tyson Chandler. Rajon Rondo.
The trio changed the look of everything for the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night.
They missed Wednesday’s game between the two teams to rest injuries, and in Nowitzki’s case, to just rest, period. But they were back to square things with the Nuggets, who knocked off their teammates two nights earlier.
And so, the Mavericks’ 97-89 win was mission accomplished.
“(Rondo) finds whoever’s open,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. “So that was huge, getting them off to a good start. He was finding Dirk early on in transition when we didn’t match up with them. And Tyson Chandler, his savvy in his ability to help off his defender, basically gives them another defender. That was the difference tonight.”
With the Nowitzki-Chandler-Rondo combo, shots were made that weren’t two days ago. Shots were blocked that weren’t two days ago. Plays were made that weren’t two days ago. And while the Mavericks were better off for it, the Nuggets found the reinforcements a bit too much to handle.
As a result, their five-game win streak was snapped on the American Airlines Center court, and it went down in a sea of missed shots and untimely sloppy play. Dallas forced a good number of those off-target looks and dispiriting turnovers, and, most discouragingly for the Nuggets, forced leading scorer Ty Lawson into one of his worst shooting performances of the season.
Two days after he scored 29 points, Lawson was smothered and harassed into 3-of-13 shooting from the field and just 11 points.
“We got the shots we wanted; it wasn’t like we were forcing shots,” Lawson said. “They just didn’t fall. You’ve just got to keep your confidence and keep shooting.”
How much did the Nuggets struggle shooting? For the game, Denver shot 41 percent from the field and 48 percent from the free-throw line.
And yet, they were never out of it. They trailed by as much as 13 in the first half and by as much as 16 in the second half but each time rallied to get within striking distance. But offensively, they just couldn’t find a consistent touch enough to truly make things tight.
And the Nuggets couldn’t stop Nowitzki. The future Hall of Famer scored 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting with nine rebounds, looking every bit as brilliant as he has throughout his career.
The Nuggets were led by Arron Afflalo’s 16 points. Kenneth Faried had 11 points and eight rebounds, and the team got 14 points and seven assists in the debut of its newest guard, Jameer Nelson.
“It was a little weird,” Nelson said. “One, playing against a team I played for, and two, I hadn’t played basketball in a couple of weeks. But when you step on the court it’s basketball. All that other stuff just goes out of the way.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
