Mavericks all heart in staving off elimination
Ellis’ 31 points, two new starters power Dallas past Houston
DALLAS — Monta Ellis pointed to heart as the reason the Dallas Mavericks are headed back to Houston.
“It was 100 percent,” the Mavericks guard said. “We weren’t ready to go home.”
Ellis scored a game-high 31 points, and Dallas got a big lift from two new starters to stave off elimination by blasting the Houston Rockets 121-109 Sunday night.
Needing a win to keep their postseason alive, the Mavericks responded in a big way in Game 4 of the best-of-7 Western Conference first-round series. The Rockets, up 3-1, are still in position to close out the series Tuesday night in Houston.
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Ellis backed up a 34-point performance Friday with 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting two nights later. He scored 12 points in the third quarter as the Mavs blew the game open by running out to a 24-point lead.
Guard J.J. Barea, starting for the first time in the series, provided the kind of effort that Dallas hoped to get from banished point guard Rajon Rondo. Barea scored 17 points — 12 in the first half — and dished out 13 assists.
“I’m trying to win,” Barea said. “I’m trying to play hard. We live to fight another day.”
Small forward Al-Farouq Aminu, the Mavs’ other new starter, also contributed a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. He was instrumental in slowing star Rockets guard James Harden.
Dallas power forward Dirk Nowitzki had 16 points, and backup center Amare Stoudemire scored 12. Starting center Tyson Chandler finished with 14 rebounds and 10 points.
“It was a total team effort all the way down to the last man on the bench,” Ellis said. “We all came together. Even when we got down 10, we were all able to keep our composure.”
Harden scored a team-high 24 points, but he didn’t have near the impact he made while going off for 42 points in Game 3. The Most Valuable Player candidate, guarded for large stretches by Aminu, made just 7 of 15 shots from the floor, including 1 of 7 from beyond the 3-point arc.
■ Cavaliers 101, Celtics 93 — At Boston, Cleveland completed its four-game, first-round sweep of the Celtics but lost forward Kevin Love to an injured left shoulder.
Love sustained a dislocated shoulder in the first physical event of a physical day that also saw Cleveland guard J.R. Smith ejected for smacking and injuring Boston forward Jae Crowder in the third quarter — after Crowder had been flat- tened by center Kendrick Perkins in the first half.
The second-seeded Cavaliers moved into the Eastern Conference semifinals against the winner of the Chicago Bulls-Milwaukee Bucks series.
Forward LeBron James scored 27 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out eight assists as the Cavs built a 21-point halftime lead and held off a Boston charge that brought the Celtics as close as eight early in the fourth quarter. Cleveland guard Kyrie Irving added 24 points and 11 rebounds.
Guard Isaiah Thomas led Boston with 21 points and nine assists.
■ Wizards 125, Raptors 94 — At Washington, guard Bradley Beal scored 23 points, and center Marcin Gortat added 21 points and 11 rebounds as Washington destroyed Toronto to finish off a 4-0 sweep of the teams’ best-of-7 Eastern Conference first-round series.
Guard John Wall contributed 14 points and 10 assists for the Wizards, who led by at least 14 points after every quarter and by as many as 37 in the second half thanks to a 3-point shooting barrage. Seven players for scored in double
Toronto got 21 points from guard Kyle Lowry.
Washington had never swept a bestof-5 or best-of-7 series in franchise history. The fifth-seeded Wizards will face the winner of the Atlanta Hawks-Brooklyn Nets series.