Dallas, TX – Danilo Gallinari connected on 7-of-11 shots from beyond the arc en route to career-high 39 points as the Denver Nuggets clobbered the Dallas Mavericks, 106-85, on Friday.
Overall, Gallinari shot 14-of-23 and grabbed eight rebounds, while Andre Iguodala netted 20 points to go along with eight boards in the Nuggets' sixth win in eight games.
"I think we did our jobs," said Denver coach George Karl. "We knew they'd played last night, kind of had a tough loss, and we sustained a pretty intense, aggressive game for most of the night."
Kenneth Faried added 11 points and 19 rebounds in the victory.
O.J. Mayo scored 15 points to lead the Mavericks, who have lost five in a row and eight of their last nine games. Darren Collison, Vince Carter and Brandan Wright scored 10 points apiece in defeat.
Behind nine points and 11 rebounds from Faried in the first quarter, the Nuggets jumped out to a 29-18 advantage at the end of the period.
However, a 10-0 push by the Mavericks brought them to within 34-29 at the 7:15 mark of the second.
After Wright's dunk brought Dallas to within three at 43-40 less than four minutes later, Denver built its lead back up to eight by the end of the half, thanks to back-to-back scores from Gallinari. The Nuggets went into the break up by a 55-47 score.
"It turned out to be a big point," said Mavs' forward Shawn Marion on Gallinari's shots before the half. "But it felt like we could never get over the hump tonight. And they just opened the lead back up."
A strong third quarter from Gallinari and Iguodala put the game out of reach for Denver. They each netted 13 during the period, where the Nuggets extended their advantage to 17 points.
Gallinari hit on 5-of-7 shots -- including two 3-pointers -- while Iguodala sank all four of his triples during the stanza to put the Nuggets ahead 87-70 by quarter's end.
Denver's lead never shrank to less than 11 points in the fourth, with the Nuggets up by as many as 24 before the final buzzer.
Game Notes
The Nuggets' Ty Lawson and Andre Miller each scored 11 points ... Denver shot 45.7 percent (43-for-94) from the field, while Dallas made just 33 of its 88 shot attempts (37.5 percent)... The Nuggets outscored the Mavericks in the paint by a 52-34 margin for the game.
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