MAVERICKS 100, HAWKS 98: Rally comes up short

Dallas —- The Hawks’ first win in Texas in years won’t come in the last place they won in the Lone Star State.

Not this season at least.

But it wasn’t for a lack of a last-gasp effort.

The Hawks rallied from a 19-point deficit in the final minutes only to lose 100-98 to Dallas on two back-breaking dunks from the Mavs’ Brandon Bass in the final 45 seconds.

The rally came on some huge plays at both ends of the floor, with Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby hitting 3-point bombs to get the Hawks back into a game that looked lost at the end of the third quarter.

After Johnson and Bibby made back-to-back 3-pointers, Bibby converted a fast-break layup off a length-of-the-court pass from Josh Smith with 44.2 seconds to play to pull the Hawks within 94-92.

A Smith steal on the next possession had the Hawks in position to either tie or take a lead, but Jason Kidd stole the ball back and found Bass streaking down the floor for the first of his two late dunks.

“That [turnover] summed up exactly what kind of night it was for us,” Smith said. “It was so uncharacteristic of us to turn the ball over like that. I was trying to get a handle on the ball and just lost it.”

Bass finished off the Hawks with another fast-break dunk with 3.7 seconds left, giving the Mavs a 100-95 lead. Johnson answered at the buzzer with another 3-pointer.

Had the Hawks gotten out of their own way earlier, they might have had a better chance to snap their Texas streak, 0-13 and counting since the 2004 season.

They hastened their own demise with inexplicable turnovers —- 19 in all.

“That [late turnover by Smith] isn’t what cost us the game,” said Johnson, who finished with a game-high 32 points, including 5-for-10 from the 3-point line. “We turned the ball over all night, and we allowed them to get us on our heels in the third quarter and push that lead out …

“And yeah, we showed a lot of pride coming back the way we did in the last four minutes. But there are no moral victories for us this year. Those days are over.”

Unfortunately, the days of allowing an opposing guard to shred their defense remain. Jose Barea sparked the Mavs during a 13-4 run midway through the third quarter that broke the game open. He finished with 16 points in the quarter and left the game to a standing ovation with 6:53 to play in the fourth and the Mavericks ahead by 16.

Barea (22), Dirk Nowitzki (24) and Jason Terry (19) finished in double figures for the Mavericks, offsetting the double figures all five Hawks starters managed.

Bass added 14 off the bench for the Mavericks.

“The turnovers were huge,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “We had 19 turnovers, and that was 19 opportunities you didn’t give yourself to score. We made plays down the stretch to get back in it, but we had that dry, 16-point third quarter that just put us behind. And you can’t spot this team. They’re too good for that.”

NEXT FOR HAWKS

> Who: at Rockets

> When: 8:30 p.m. Tuesday

> TV; radio: SportSouth; 790 AM