Dallas Mavericks’ Harrison Barnes (second from right) manoeuvres to get past the Milwaukee Bucks’ Mirza Teletovic on Sunday. (Photo: AP)
The Dallas Mavericks put the worst start in franchise history behind them on Sunday, downing the Milwaukee Bucks 86-75 in overtime for their first win of the NBA season.
The Mavs had opened the season with five straight defeats, a skid that billionaire owner Mark Cuban said was “driving me nuts.”
With a first win in the books the Mavs can now, perhaps, begin fulfilling Cuban’s aim of building momentum, even with longtime star Dirk Nowitzki still sidelined by injury.
With Nowitzki looking on, Harrison Barnes scored a career high 34 points and Juan Jose Barea added 21 — including five in overtime.
In Los Angeles, the Lakers survived a second-half scare en route to a 119-108 victory over the Phoenix Suns.
The victory moved the Lakers to 4-3, and a perfect 3-0 at home. It’s the first time the once-proud club has had a winning record through seven games since a 4-3 start in 2011-12. Lakers coach Luke Walton had voiced concern that his team would feel an “emotional hangover” after an upset of the Golden State Warriors on Friday.
But the Lakers were far from flat, taking the lead midway through the first quarter and leading 54-43 by halftime. Phoenix responded in the second half, out-scoring the Lakers 9-2 in the first two minutes of the third period. They narrowed the gap to 93-92 in the fourth period before the Lakers regained control.
Trail Blazers take down Grizzlies Portland guard C.J. McCollum matched his career high of 37 points — 16 of them in the fourth quarter — to lead the Trail Blazers to a 100-94 victory over the Grizzlies in Memphis.
McCollum connected on 13 of 23 shots, including six of 12 from three-point range. He scored 10 of Portland’s last 11 points in the game.
The Grizzlies led by four at halftime and took a 61-51 lead in the third quarter, but Portland managed to respond.
Chandler Parsons, who inked a four-year, $94 million contract with Memphis, made an inauspicious debut after off-season knee surgery. He missed all eight of his attempts from the floor and didn’t score a point.
Gordon Hayward made a much better showing in his first outing of the season, scoring a team-high 28 points as the Utah beat the Knicks 114-109 in New York.
In Toronto, Rudy Gay scored 23 points to lead Sacramento to a 96-91 victory over the Raptors that ended the Kings’ four-game losing streak.
DeMarcus Cousins added 22 points and 14 rebounds for the Kings, who ended Toronto’s three-game winning streak.
