NBA: Dallas Mavericks 99 San Antonio Spurs 93 recap and analysis

Coming off an hard loss at home on friday against Portland after triple overtime, San Antonio was looking to bounce back against their instate rival, the Dallas Mavericks. This was the 1st game for the new Mavs acquisition, Rajon Rondo, the All Star point guard, who debuted a new era of his career after his stand with Boston, where he won the title in 2008.
The Spurs were without their starting 5 + Ginobili, so this game supposed to be easy for Dallas. But as always with San Antonio, the collective was at the top in the 1st half. The Spurs started very well this game, and thanks to a 18-2 run, they took a good lead in the middle of the 1st half. SG Marco Belinelli was very good with 14pts in this 1st period, but that was all the Spurs who played well like Cory Joseph or Boris Diaw. But Rondo started to find his partners, as he finished the half with 5ast, a couple of them to Monta Ellis who just started his night. The Spurs leaded by 5 after a superb first half by the San Antonio reserve.
But with 2 triple OT loss since wednesday, the Spurs looked very tired in the second half and the Mavs took advantage. Rondo did what the Mavs hoped he will do, as he created lot of easy buckets for his teammates, as the Mavs had a good balance scoring, with 16 by Parsons, 13 for Nowitzki and Harris of the bench. But the story was SG Monta Ellis, as he caught fire and scored 20 big points in the 2nd half. The 2 teams were almost tied at the end of the 3rd, but the Spurs looked really really affected and Rick Carlisle team took advantage, outscored by 8 in the last period to win by 6, 99-93. In the final 4min, Ellis scored 11 points to spark the Dallas late run.
Rondo did not have a huge game but he was useful for his squad, as the former Kentucky Wildcats scored 6, grabbed 7 boards and dished out 9 dimes. But with the acquisition of him, the Dallas D is now much better and they can also split their defense with more zone defense, a thing they did a lot during their run to the title in 2011 with Jason Kidd in the place of Rondo. For San Antonio, well we know their season really start when the postseason start, but with the density and the level of the Western Conference, they need to get back on track and to get back their stars, as Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard are really missed by Popovich. My MVP is for sure Monta Ellis, as he was sensational in this game with 38pts with 5 threes and also 4 steals.

With the collaboration of Alan Guillou