Magic at Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks have overcome a recent downturn and are enjoying a
change of fortune during a six-game homestand. Dallas will attempt to
improve to 4-1 during the stretch when the Orlando Magic visit town on
Tuesday.
The Mavericks have scored at least 122 points in each of their three victories on the homestand and rolled to an easy 128-101 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday. "Games like this are hard to come by. We haven’t had many of them this season," Dallas small forward Chandler Parsons told reporters. "To have a game where we can really handle a team and not have anybody play too high of minutes and get some rest in the fourth quarter is obviously huge for us going forward." Orlando is 5-4 over its last nine games - one of the victories came against Dallas - and had the offense clicking on all cylinders in Sunday's 130-116 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. The Magic shot a season-best 57 percent from the field and were 10-of-16 from 3-point range.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FSN Florida (Orlando), FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE MAGIC (26-32): Orlando rolled off 77 first-half points in the win over Philadelphia but allowed the 76ers to cut a 29-point deficit down to eight before holding off the comeback. "We got a little complacent. We were up a lot and we kind of relaxed and we can't do that," forward Aaron Gordon told reporters. "It's one of the things that we've got to get better at doing - playing with the lead and being consistent on defense regardless how the offense is going. It's something that we need to work on. We'll work on it and it'll be better by Dallas." The 20-year-old Gordon scored a career-high 22 points against the 76ers and is averaging 15.8 points and nine rebounds over the last five games.
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (32-28): Parsons is averaging 28 points over the past two games and has scored 24 or more points in five of the past seven contests during his top stretch of the season. He started off slowly after offseason knee surgery but has been pretty solid over the past six weeks to raise his season average to 13.3 points. "It was just a mess," Parsons told reporters after the Minnesota game. "It was something that was very hard to go through, but I'm glad because all the pain, all the struggle, all the work I put in, I use that every time I step on the floor. I realize no one's worked as hard as me to get here."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Magic posted a 110-104 overtime victory over the visiting Mavericks on Feb. 19 to end a seven-game series losing streak.
2. Dallas backup PF David Lee is averaging 13.5 points and 11.5 rebounds over the past two games.
3. Orlando SG Evan Fournier (wrist) could miss his second straight game.