Thunder at Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks dropped seven of their last eight games and will try to capture a win at home before hitting the road again when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday. The Mavericks are 14-3 at home but just 2-15 on the road and will hit the road for four straight starting Monday, when they visit the Thunder for the back end of the home-and-home set.
Dallas is in the midst of a stretch of nine of 11 on the road and beat New Orleans at home on Wednesday only to drop a 114-112 decision at the Pelicans on Friday. "We've got to find a way to win some of these close games on the road or it's going to be tough to look around in April and look back and a lot of ones we shoulda, coulda won and we didn't," Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki told reporters. "We just got to find a way somehow to get that extra stop, be a little smarter, don't turn the ball over, take good shots, put the ball in our playmakers' hands." The Thunder left the ball in their playmakers' hands on Friday and were rewarded with 40 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists from Russell Westbrook in a 118-102 win at Phoenix on Friday. "(Westbrook) was really efficient tonight in the absence of Paul (George)," Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan. "He was good at connecting our team, getting guys involved. Overall, he played really, really well."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Oklahoma, FS Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE THUNDER (22-12): George, who leads the team in scoring at an average of 26.3 points and is riding a streak of four straight double-doubles, sat out Friday with a quad injury that leaves him day-to-day. That opened up extra playing time for small forward Abdel Nader, who responded with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting in 33 minutes off the bench. "(Nader) was the reason we won the game, honestly," Westbrook told reporters. "He came out, competed, did his job very, very well. It's very, very thrilling for me to see a guy, a teammate who works hard every day come to play. I'm so happy for him and the things he was able to accomplish tonight."
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (16-18): Rookie small forward Luka Doncic scored a season-high 34 points on 10-of-16 shooting and hit 7-of-10 from 3-point range on Friday but was disappointed to miss six free-throw attempts. "We had some great looks, but personally I missed a lot of free throws," Doncic told reporters. "I'm missing a lot, so I've got to work on that. It's tough, especially for me. I hate losing. I hate it so much. I hate losing, so it's frustrating for me, especially today. I think we did a great job." Doncic leads the team in scoring at an average of 19.5 points and is putting up 25.7 points over the last seven contests.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Thunder PG Dennis Schroder is 4-of-17 from 3-point range over the last four games.
2. Mavericks PG Dennis Smith Jr. returned Friday after missing 10 of the previous 11 games with a wrist injury and contributed 14 points in 30 minutes.
3. Dallas earned a 111-96 home victory over Oklahoma City on Nov. 10 behind 22 points and eight assists from Doncic.