Mavs stall in Motown

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Avery Johnson loves a good fight. Especially when his team throws its share of punches.

There wasn’t much for him to love Sunday afternoon at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Pistons laced up their gloves, went into the ring with that “hit-first” mentality that Johnson craves and pounded out a 90-67 win before a capacity crowd and a national TV audience.

“They really came out aggressive,” Johnson said. “They were aggressive from the start. They looked like the Mavericks when we played them in Dallas.”

The Mavericks’ three-game tour of Eastern Conference powerbrokers ends Monday at Orlando. The first two stops haven’t been kind. Boston pulled away in the final minute Thursday. After two days off, the Mavs were floored before the third quarter was done. Dallas (31-15) beat the Pistons 102-86 last month.

Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry collectively suffered through what had to be their poorest performance of the season. Nowitzki scored just two of his 15 points in the second half, ending his string of 20-point games at 15.