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Mavericks take over early, roll over Kings

Feb 22, 2009 - 5:38 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- The Dallas Mavericks' game plan might have looked something like this on Saturday night - get the ball out of Kevin Martin's hands, attack the glass, get Dirk Nowitzki some rest.

By that criteria, the night was a complete success. The Mavericks established control from the start and rolled to a 116-95 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

One night after suffering a tough defeat to the in-state and division rival Houston Rockets, the Mavericks quickly erased that memory, putting the game all but out of reach by halftime.

"We had a tough loss last night," Nowitzki said. "We definitely needed this."

After Sacramento pulled to within three early in the second quarter, Dallas staged a 21-7 run to seize control for good.

"I had hoped that we could find a way to rest some of our starters that had a heavy run (Friday)," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "I wasn't anticipating what happened in the second quarter when we got our bench into it."

The shorthanded Kings were still without some of their recent acquisitions - most notably Rashad McCants and Drew Gooden - and were no match for the Mavericks, who attacked the basket at will. Brandon Bass and James Singleton each drew contact and knocked down a pair of free throws to spark the run and Singleton drove to the bucket for a dunk moments later.

"I love it when the other teams go small and I get an opportunity to play," Singleton said. "Sacramento plays small so our bench had to be ready to play. It was the perfect opportunity for our bench to prove that we can really help the team out."

Bass, Singleton and Antoine Wright added easy hoops over the next few minutes to help Dallas open up a 57-40 lead. That was more than enough to carry the Mavericks the rest of the way. They had 70 points and a 20-point advantage by the end of the first half.

"It was big for us to come out and get off to a fast start," Bass said.

Not even the Kings' explosive leading scorer could bring them back into contention. Martin, who had 65 points and 32 free-throw attempts over the previous two contests, was badgered all day by the Dallas defenders and wound up with just 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting, plus 4-of-5 from the foul line.

"We never really got into these guys tonight, and they jumped on us early," Sacramento interim coach Kenny Natt said. "Our turnovers really, really hurt us early. They had a lot of dunks and got the crowd involved, and we were playing back on our heels."

Nowitzki had a quiet night, scoring just 12 points while his teammates did the lion's share of the damage. Bass and Josh Howard led six players in double figures with 20 points apiece and Singleton added 19 off the bench.

"The group in the second quarter earned the minutes, I thought. Coming off last night, Dirk had played 43-plus. We just thought it was an opportunity to let it ride with those guys," Carlisle said. "They had a good rhythm, they were defending, they were scoring and it allowed Dirk an unusual opportunity to rest."

Beno Udrih led the Kings with 18 points and seven assists.