Mavericks 106, Bucks 93
DALLAS -- Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle and forward Dirk Nowitzki were too ill to make it to the American Airlines Center for Saturday night's game, but it hardly mattered against the hapless Milwaukee Bucks.
The Mavs scored 38 points in the first quarter and cruised to a 106-93 victory.
Dallas (14-10) needed a big win to rid itself of a sour taste from its 2-2 road trip. The Mavs ended it with a blowout loss at Sacramento and then losing on a Steph Curry buzzer-beaten at Golden Staten.
Those defeats lingered for two days while waiting for struggling Milwaukee (5-19), which suffered its own gut-punch loss at home on Friday night to Chicago with a banked-in 3-pointer.
Without Nowitzki, Mavs point guard Jose Calderon picked up the slack and led the early scoring explosion with four 3-pointers in the first quarter. Calderon had 16 of his 18 points in the first half.
Reserve center Brandan Wright, who made his season debut after fracturing his shoulder during training camp, scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the first half as Dallas stretched a 12-point first-quarter lead to a 59-41 advantage at halftime. Wright, who logged 19 minutes, was 9-for-10 from the floor and also had six rebounds.
The Mavs scored the first six points of the third quarter to quickly extinguish any hope that Milwaukee might have harbored for a comeback. Midway through the quarter, Dallas led 75-45. At the end of the third, the margin was 93-61.
Dallas' season scoring leader, shooting guard Monta Ellis, was barely needed. He had just seven points on 3-for-7 shooting from the field and played only 23 minutes. It was only his second game of the season scoring in single figures.
Mavs forward Shawn Marion contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds, DeJuan Blair had 11 points and nine rebounds and Vince Carter added 13 points and nine assists.
The Bucks were led by center John Henson's 18 points and 13 rebounds. Guard Brandon Knight had 16 points and forward Khris Middleton finished with 10 points.
O.J. Mayo had a nightmarish return to Dallas where he played last season, scoring four points on 1-for-6 shooting from the field. Rookie forward Giannis Antetokounmpo had 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Through three quarters, Milwaukee managed just five assists on 21 field goals while shooting 36.2 percent. The Bucks finished the game with one more turnover (16) than assists. Thanks to outscoring Dallas 32-13 in 12 minutes of garbage time, Milwaukee made the final score look a little less lopsided than the game really was.
Dallas has a chance to pile on a few wins with a light home schedule this week against sub-.500 teams in Memphis and Toronto. That sets up a more challenging three-game set at Phoenix, at Houston and back on Dec. 26 for their first of four meetings against Southwest Division rival San Antonio.
NOTES: Mavs C-F Brandan Wright made his season debut. Wright sustained a small, non-displaced fracture in his left shoulder during the second week of training camp. ... Mavs assistant coach Monte Mathis filled in for head coach Rick Carlisle, who missed the game with an illness. The last time Carlisle missed a game was Dec. 27, 2010, when he didn't travel to Oklahoma City after having knee surgery. ... Mavs reserve F Jae Crowder made his second start of the season at small forward and Shawn Marion started at power forward as F Dirk Nowitzki also missed the game because of illness. ... The Bucks played without C Zaza Pachulia (foot) and F Caron Butler (knee). Bucks SG O.J. Mayo made his first return to Dallas since leaving the Mavs last summer as a free agent. Mayo was Dallas' second-leading scorer last season, but in his only season with the Mavs he was a member of a team that ended the franchise's streak of 12 consecutive playoff appearances.
