Mavs’ Nowitzki sits to rest vs Suns to start back-to-back

The point guard position was a real issue for Atlanta on Sunday night, with Jeff Teague and Dennis Schröder combining to make only 7 of their 23 field goal attempts, and Kyle Korver struggled to an 0-for-6 night in his own right.

Dallas still has remaining games against the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies this week, so there’s not much room for error during this stretch of five games in seven days and also as lots of home games loom during the rest of the season. “Hopefully it’s not too bad, but right now it hurts and it’s too early to tell”. Dirk Nowitzki is still trucking for the Mavs at the latter end of his career, but he’ll need the likes of Chandler Parsons and Deron Williams to step up and join him if they are going to go on the road and topple the Hawks.

Dallas made one of the National Basketball Association season’s best offseason acquisitions when it missed on DeAndre Jordan and wound up trading a second-round pick to get Zaza Pachulia as its starting center.

Ever since Dirk Nowitzki came into the league, he has been loved by Dallas Mavericks fans. “He’s such a clever passer, screener and ball-mover”, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told reporters of Pachulia. Phoenix lost to Philadelphia, Cleveland and the New York Knicks by a total of 50 points in the first three games of the road trip and posted its second-lowest point total of the month in a 102-84 setback to the Knicks on Friday.

“I felt like he was the difference tonight”, Horford said.

The Hawks haven’t lost four or more in a row since dropping six straight last March 21-29. Past year the Hawks were 17-0 during January and led the Eastern Conference.

Their last 7-0 run was what helped the Hawks get the big victory over the Mavericks and Paul Millsap was their best player of the night as the Hawks forward finished with a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. “I knew when he started making outside shots, it’s tough, because he’s a good driver”.

Mavericks: Williams fell hard to the baseline on his right side while driving to the basket midway through the first.

Atlanta is shooting a combined 40.1 percent in its last three games and connected at 41.8 in an 85-83 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.

The Dallas Mavericks look to keep rolling after winning five of their last eight games.

The Mavericks (28-22) went on a 21-3 run in the fourth quarter to pull away and finish off a three-game sweep of the season series with Phoenix. Atlanta went 14 for 35 beyond the arc. Dallas G Devin Harris (sprained toe) missed his fourth consecutive game due to a sprained toe….