Mavs fall to Warriors 95-86

LAS VEGAS – The second game of day three at the NBA Summer League Presented by EA SPORTS inside the COX Pavilion on the campus of UNLV featured the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors.

(Click here for video hightlights from NBA TV.)

The victorious Warriors were led by their starting lineup, which scored 74 out of their 95 total points in the contest. Marco Belinelli poured in 25 points with Brandan Wright scoring 15 of his own.

"It was a solid performance," said Brandan Wright, Warriors forward. "We kind of let them get back into it but the biggest thing is that we got the win."

The opening quarter started out with the teams keeping pace with each other, but a few costly turnovers towards the end of the period hurt the Mavericks - the Warriors took a six point lead after the first 10 minutes; 25-19.

Dallas chipped away during the course of the second quarter causing 11 lead changes and seven ties in the half. The Warrior bench came in, though, and provided a spark pushing the lead back up to a comfortable margin. Belinelli punctuated the second period with a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give his squad an eight point lead at halftime; 46-38.

The Warriors carried their momentum from the break and pushed their lead up to as many as 16 in the third period. However, the Mavericks fought back and cut their deficit to five at 68-63 by the end of the stanza.

Powered by Belinelli, who scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, the Warriors were able to hold off the feisty Mavericks; 95-86.

The Dallas Mavericks scoring leaders were James Singleton with 17 points and Gerald Green with 15.

Dallas head coach Dwane Casey said, “We were much better tonight, we just have to work to clean up some things, make open shots, cut down on our turnovers and I think we’ll be okay.”

Next up: Dallas will square off against Minnesota in Monday’s final game of the night, while Golden State plays in the final game on Tuesday evening against Charlotte.

Check out Summer League Central 2008 for the box score and more info on the team, including stats, the schedule and standings.