ATLANTA _ In one of the classic pillow fights in recent NBA history, the teams with the two worst records in the league got together Saturday night and somebody had to win.
It's an NBA rule.
Once again, it was the Mavericks who reaffirmed their position as bottom feeders in the league with little hope of moving up the food chain.
Their old-timers, Dirk Nowitzki and J.J. Barea _ along with Harrison Barnes _ did their best to drag the Mavericks to a victory, but couldn't get enough help down the stretch as the Atlanta Hawks nicked the Mavericks, 112-107.
The Hawks still have the worst record in the league at 8-25, but the Mavericks are charging hard in the wrong direction in an attempt to overtake them. They fell to 9-25 with their eighth consecutive road loss.
Not much of a Merry Christmas for either of these teams, but they did prove that even two poor teams can put on an entertaining show.
Dennis Schroder had a career-high tying 33 points and he dominated the second half as he and Barea ran the show for each team.
Barea had 15 points and a season-best 12 assists while Nowitzki had 18 points and Barnes led the Mavericks with 22.
It was a night that the Mavericks have seen before in many forms. One night, the starters play well and the bench struggles. The next night, they start the game ice cold. Or suffer turnover after turnover. Or, as was the case against the Hawks, the starters couldn't carry their share of the load.
The starters were outscored 81-61 and every one of them was at least minus-six when they were on the floor. Four of the five primary bench players had positive plus-minus numbers.
"Look, we're a team," coach Rick Carlisle said. "It's not about pointing fingers one way or the other. Against Phoenix, our bench got wiped out. When you're a team, you pick each other up and give each other energy. Things aren't always going to be perfect. A lot of nights, there's going to be pluses on one side and minuses on the other side and you may end up winning.
"We just got to keep working at it _ one key stop at one particular time that turns the thing back the other way. Right now, those key stops or scores have been elusive."
Schroder was the Hawk that the Mavericks had no clue how to slow down in a 28-point second half.
"We didn't have an answer for Schroder," Carlisle said. "He beat us on drives, he beat us on pick and rolls, he beat us on traps. He had a great game, particularly in the second half and we just didn't have an answer."
And the losses continue to mount and clearly are taking a mental toll on a team that is transitioning to a younger roster, but still has veterans like Nowitzki, Barea and Devin Harris at its core.
"Tough losses, tough losses," Nowitzki said. "We got to learn how to close out games. If that's not the case, we're going to keep losing. We got to find lineups that work, ways that work and get a little traction. And some of our big-time players got to make big-time shots. That's what this league is all about at crunch time."
The Mavericks were outscored 27-17 in the final 9:25 and still had the game tied at 107 with 1:30 to go. But Schroder's 3-pointer was followed by misses by Wesley Matthews and Nowitzki as the Hawks scored the final five points.
