Dallas Mavericks Team Report - December 23

(Basketball News) - One day after crushing the New York Knicks, the Mavericks hit the wall in a 113-100 defeat to Atlanta at Philips Arena on Wednesday night.

Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry all finished with 23 points for the Mavericks, who had won five in a row on the road and were coming off a 123-94 pasting of the Knicks on Tuesday.

Atlanta was clinging to a 59-57 lead midway through the third quarter before outscoring the Mavericks 16-6 over a 4:24 span. After Antoine Walker’s layup off a feed from Predrag Drobnjak put the Hawks in front 70-61 with 2:45 to go in the period, Kenny Anderson buried a three-pointer 30 seconds later to lengthen the margin to 12.

Dallas answered with seven consecutive points to get within five, but Tony Delk’s long-distance shot with 17 seconds left in the third staked Atlanta to a 78-70 lead heading into the final frame.

The Hawks maintained the momentum in the fourth quarter and went ahead by 14 points on Josh Childress’ basket with 4:46 remaining which made the score 98-84.

The Mavs closed to 108-100 on Michael Finley’s three-point play inside the final minute, but then missed five shots from beyond the arc to kill any comeback hopes.

Dallas’ Jerry Stackhouse sat out his third straight game due to sore right hand. It is unknown when Stackhouse will be able to return.

Walker and Delk were traded by Dallas to Atlanta for Terry and Alan Henderson in August.

Dallas has the next three days off before heading to Denver on Sunday.