DENVER _ The Dallas Mavericks made the decision way before the season began to break up this road trip.
They returned to Dallas after losing Tuesday night to the Denver Nuggets 105-102 at Pepsi Center. They will have an off day Wednesday and practices Thursday and Friday before traveling four hours to Portland, where they play the Blazers on Saturday.
They return to Dallas on Sunday.
It's a lot of traveling, but the team felt it was preferable to spending three days in Portland waiting for Saturday's game. And really, there is no easy way to do it. This clearly was a tough way by the NBA to schedule a two-game trip.
Slice it however you want to, however, and you'll still get the same result in that the Mavericks did not handle the first half of the disjointed journey well at all _ in spite of the closeness of the final score.
They fell behind by as much as 82-59 in the third quarter and while the Nuggets fell apart down the stretch to make things interesting, the Mavericks had too big of a deficit to erase.
They lost the game in the second quarter after they'd crept within 40-36. After a Denver timeout, the Nuggets scored seven in a row to push the lead to 11.
Nikola Jokic, who missed the Mavericks win over Denver in Dallas in early December, toyed with the Mavericks with a behind-the-back pass to Wilson Chandler for a wide-open layup. And the Mavericks were down 61-48 at halftime after Jokic tipped in a miss at the buzzer. He had 20 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists in the half, which he dominated every bit as much as the numbers would suggest.
The deficit reached 23 points in the third quarter, when the Mavericks' only highlight by that point was a Dennis Smith Jr. lob pass that Maxi Kleber threw down with one hand.
And Jokic was proof all night that size still matters in the NBA. The 7-foot Serbian finished with 29 points, 18 rebounds and 7 assists.
The Mavericks did close to within 101-97 with a 14-2 blitz fueled by Smith and Yogi Ferrell. The teams traded buckets and then Gary Harris missed for Denver and the Mavericks had the ball with 23.3 seconds left, down 103-99.
Smith then went to the rim and was fouled, cutting the lead to 103-102.
Harris made two free throws for the Nuggets and the Mavericks were incensed that no foul was called until 1.7 seconds was left. Wesley Matthews and Smith both hacked Harris on the arm as he tried to go upcourt, but the whistle did not blow.
He made the final two free throws and the Mavericks didn't get a shot in the final 1.7 seconds.
