Category: Games

Dallas didn’t have to worry about another close finish against the weary Golden State Warriors.

Shawn Marion scored a season-high 26 points, O.J. Mayo added 19 and the Mavericks handed the Golden State Warriors their fourth straight loss, 116-91 on Saturday night.

Dallas had lost its first two meetings to Golden State by a combined seven points. The Warriors beat the Mavericks 105-101 in overtime on Nov. 19 and edged Dallas 100-97 on Jan. 31. The narrow loss last week was still on Dallas’ mind, especially since coach Rick Carlisle was fined $25,000 for criticizing the late-game officiating.

Darren Collison, who had 18 points and eight assists, keyed a 21-6 first-quarter run. The Mavericks stretched the lead to 27 in the second quarter and were barely threatened after that.

”We were right in the game against Golden State when we played them at their place a week ago,” Collison said. ”I think everybody was upset about that game. We knew had to go at them in the first five minutes.”

Marion went 11 of 16 from the floor and grabbed 11 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki chipped in with 15 points for the Mavericks…

Golden State’s Stephen Curry had 18 points on 8-of-23 shooting and Carl Landry added 13. The Warriors were winless on a four-game road trip that started with a 140-109 loss to Houston on Tuesday night.

— Reported by the Associated Press

After a prolonged absence, Sacramento Kings fans did a long version of The Wave on Saturday night at Sleep Train Arena.

The Wave was embraced by Kings fans, but the question that lingers is will fans be sadly waving goodbye to the Kings after this season and moaning about their departure to Seattle?

Isaiah Thomas scored 25 points and Marcus Thornton had 24 for the Kings, who played one of their better games in a mostly dreadful season, defeating the Utah Jazz 120-109.

It was a boisterous crowd of 16,193 that was chanting ”Sacramento!” just before tipoff in support of the Kings, who could be sold and move to Seattle next season. The great fan support culminated late in the fourth quarter with The Wave taking more of the center stage than the game. Several Kings players were even doing it on the bench in the fourth quarter, including center DeMarcus Cousins.

”Their energy was crazy, nonstop,” Cousins said. ”I never had a chance to do The Wave so I made sure I included myself in that and it was an incredible experience. Yeah, I got a little fatigued at the end. I didn’t expect it to last that long.”

Sacramento led throughout most of the game and played an aggressive, up-tempo style that had the crowd loudly cheering throughout and displaying signs of support. There were more children at the game than normal, thanks to a grassroots campaign that raised more than $9,000 for kids to attend.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Hitting a clutch 3-pointer helped Charlie Villanueva forget a critical mistake.

Villanueva big shot with 9.7 seconds left and Rodney Stuckey’s two free throws led the Detroit Pistons past the Milwaukee Bucks 105-100 on Saturday night.

Brandon Jennings, who scored 26 points, took an inbounds pass from Monta Ellis and made a tough fadeaway shot with 47.8 seconds left, but Jose Calderon, who tied his season high with 23 points, came back with a running layup for Detroit that tied it at 100.

After a timeout, the Pistons worked the ball to Villanueva, who got it at the top of the key and swished a 3 with 9.7 seconds left. On the Bucks’ next possession, Jennings fired up a 31-foot 3-point attempt with 3.2 seconds left.

”I was kind of disappointed I made a turnover,” Villanueva said after making a bad pass with less than a minute to play and the game tied at 98. ”I was down on that for a little bit, but I jumped on the next play right away.”

Villanueva said his teammates just made the play happen.

”The guys made the right play. I don’t even know who passed it to me,” he said. ”Once it hit my hand, I wanted to make sure it went in so they could forget about that turnover I did.”

Stuckey’s two free throws with 1.6 seconds remaining were the final margin…

Calderon had 10 assists and three steals in his fourth game since coming to the Pistons in a trade on January 30.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Lavoy Allen had 14 points and a career-high 22 rebounds, and Jrue Holiday scored 20 points to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to an 87-76 win over the Charlotte Bobcats on Saturday night.

Evan Turner had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Jeremy Pargo scored 12 points in his Sixers debut. Pargo signed a 10-day contract this week after he was waived by Cleveland.

The Sixers improved to 5-2 on their eight-game homestand that ends Monday against the Los Angeles Clippers. The solid showing at home has helped the Sixers inch closer to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

Ramon Sessions scored 20 points, Byron Mullens had 16 and Gerald Henderson 13 as the NBA-worst Bobcats lost their seventh straight.

Wearing No. 0, Pargo was a pleasant surprise in his first game since he was waived at the end of last month. He started 11 of his 25 games played with the Cavaliers and averaged 7.8 points. He even scored a career-high 28 against the Sixers in November.

— Reported by the Associated Press