Dallas find groove, Satnam finally finds feet in NBA

Dallas find groove, Satnam finally finds feet in NBAMUMBAI: The Dallas Mavericks registered their second consecutive win to enter the quarterfinals of the NBA Summer League after beating D-League Select 104-88 at Cox Pavilion.

India’s Satnam Singh was brought in with about two minutes left in the first quarter in place of last game’s top scorer Jeremy Tyler.

Immediately, the 7ft 2in Dallas center grabbed a defensive rebound. A minute later, after making an offensive rebound, he scored his first points in the game with a tip shot.

Satnam was in his zone as he managed to make another offensive rebound only to miss the following layup.

Coming back in the game with less than three minutes left in the third quarter, Satnam added to his tally with a layup from an assist from the game’s top scorer Justin Anderson.

Getting his feet in the game, 10 seconds later, Satnam grabbed his second defensive rebound of the game.

He finished the game with two offensive and two defensive rebounds besides scoring four points.

The Mavs were led by Anderson’s 23 points and 22 from Dwight Powell and Maalik Wayns. They shot 51 per cent from the floor while limiting the Selects to just 40 per cent shooting.

Dallas also held a 46-33 edge on the boards and had 11 steals.

After trailing 20-17 at the end of the first quarter, the Mavs took control and by halftime, were comfortably ahead 48-41. By the end of the third quarter, Dallas led 81-68.

Justin Denton had a big game for the D-Leaguer’s scoring 31 points, including going 6 of 10 on 3-pointers and going a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line. Matt Bouldin added 13 off the bench for the selects, who were 10 of 35 from long distance.

Dallas (2-3) will play the winner of the Atlanta-Denver game tomorrow at the Thomas & Mack Center.–PTI