Wolves-Dallas game preview
January 20, 2016 at 6:19AM
730 P.M. at Dallas • American Airlines Center • FSN, 830-AM
Preview: Wednesday's game is a rematch of Dallas' 93-87 victory at Target Center only 10 days earlier. Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points and had a pivotal three-point play with 1 minute, 30 seconds left that pushed the Wolves away the first time. The two teams will play twice more: Feb. 28 at Dallas and April 3 at Target Center. The Mavericks swept the season series 3-0 a year ago after the Wolves won the series 3-1 two years ago, the first time they had beaten Dallas three times in a season since 1996-97. … The Mavs have won four consecutive games, five of the past six and 26 of the past 34 between the two teams.
Players to watch: Nowitzki scored 31 points and Deron Williams 20 in Monday's victory over the Celtics. The Mavs are 9-1 when two players each score 20 points in a game and are 4-0 when Nowitzki and Williams both score 20 or more. Three of those four games have been overtime games. … The Wolves have two players under age 21 — Andrew Wiggins (20.8 ppg) and Karl-Anthony Towns (15.5) — averaging 15 points a game. The only other two players who have done that were Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant (25.3) and Russell Westbrook (15.3) in the 2008-09 season. … Wolves C Nikola Pekovic is expected to play after resting Tuesday in New Orleans on the first night of back-to-back games while Kevin Garnett played. Garnett is expected to rest Wednesday.
Injuries: Mavericks G Raymond Felton (eye) is questionable and F/C Zaza Pachulia (Achilles' soreness) is questionable.
JERRY ZGODA
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The team's superstar ranted, calling the players “a bunch of little kids” and saying “internally, we soft.” Mike Conley joined him in saying the Wolves are too negative with each other: “We got to be able to talk.”
