December 28th, 2009 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
Typically when the Dallas Mavericks play, one would think that the offense would usually go through a couple players: Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry. During their game Sunday against the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center, they got some clutch offense from an unlikely source – Drew Gooden. And to put it mildly, the Mavericks needed all of his offensive contributions; Gooden came off the bench to score 19 points which enabled Dallas to hand Denver a rare loss at home, 104-96.
Denver trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half, but trimmed their deficit to 55-52 on a fast-break dunk by Arron Afflalo with 1.4 seconds remaining. Leading by 14 midway through the final quarter, the Mavericks saw their lead trimmed to four, 98-94, with 2:34 remaining. But Gooden hit a free throw and a layup to give the Mavericks some breathing room. Dirk Nowitzki sealed the contest with a deep 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining.
Seven Mavericks scored in double-digits, led by Gooden with 19 points, 10 rebounds and a block while Josh Howard added 17 with 9 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal; Nowitzki and Jose Juan Barea scored 13 apiece – with Nowitzki grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 2 assists while Barea grabbed 2 rebounds and dished out 4 assists.
The Nuggets were led by Kenyon Martin with 18 points, 11 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals and a block while Carmelo Anthony and Ty Lawson added 16 each – with Anthony grabbing 12 boards, dishing out 4 assists along with 2 steals and a block while Lawson grabbed 3 rebounds, dished out 4 assists along with 2 steals.
Dallas (22-9) plays again on Thursday when they travel to Houston to take on the Rockets while Denver (20-11) flies to Sacramento to face the Kings on Monday night.
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