Mavs welcome Jazz to Big D
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(SportsNetwork.com) - The Dallas Mavericks will try to break into the win column Thursday night when they hold their home opener against the Utah Jazz at American Airlines Center.
The Mavs began the campaign in San Antonio on Tuesday night. On the evening the Spurs received their championship rings and hung a fifth banner, the Mavs played well, but came up a little short. The Spurs prevailed, 101-100, when Tony Parker made the go-ahead 3-pointer with a little over a minute left in the contest.
"I loved a lot of the things about the way we played, and it was a great basketball game," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "I mean, you can't kick off the season with a better game than this for the fans. There's no way. Unfortunately, the slim margins or winning and losing are all that anybody remembers. You know, if we get one more stop or one more basket, then we're all in here singing a different tune."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Monta Ellis paced the Mavs with 26 points on 11-of-21 shooting and Dirk Nowitzki added 18 points with six boards in the setback. Devin Harris scored 17 off the bench.
The Mavericks unveiled three new starters on Tuesday - center Tyson Chandler, who actually won a title in Dallas in 2011, point guard Jameer Nelson and forward Chandler Parsons. The trio struggled a bit as they combined for 22 points. Parsons especially had a rough go of it when he shot 2-for-10 from the floor.
Dallas signed J.J. Barea on Wednesday, bringing back the former Mavericks guard, who was with the team his first five seasons in the league. He spent the last three seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves before being let go.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Jazz played hard in Quin Snyder's debut as head coach Wednesday night. They fell to the Houston Rockets, 104-93, in Salt Lake City at EnergySolutions Arena.
Alec Burks led the Jazz with 18 points, while Derrick Favors deposited 16 points with seven rebounds and Trey Burke added 15 points in the setback. Trevor Booker scored 14 off the bench and center Enes Kanter tallied 10 points in the loss.
Dante Exum, the fifth pick in this summer's draft, scored five points on 2- for-3 shooting, but only played 9:37.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We did have some open looks, but it just didn't feel like there was a really good flow to the game for us offensively, except for that one period in the third where we got some good stuff off our defense and found a little juice," said Snyder.
The Jazz trailed by 13 in the third quarter, but Burke scored six points to help Utah close the period on a 10-0 run. Houston pulled away for the win in the fourth.
The Mavericks have won five in a row against the Jazz, including a regular- season sweep in 2013-14 (4-0). Utah has dropped seven straight and 12 of its last 13 in Big D.