Mavericks 105, Bucks 103

6-0 on the road trip, coming home, relax, and almost lose to the Milwaukee Bucks? You've got to be kidding me, right? Wrong. Gut check time. Thankfully the Mavs pulled it off.

It didn't help having Nowitzki out the second half with an ankle injury. It was scary times, though we have seen it before. He just came out late in the second quarter but eventually returned, so people thought it was okay. But he couldn't get it going in the second half, so people were scared again. Apparently where it stands now is that he is fine and ready to go but his ankle is not good. He's going to play on it regardless. We'll see how they handle him for the rest of the season. And he wasn't the only one, Josh Howard tweaked his ankle late in the game. Aaaahhhhh!!!!!

The good news is the first to 60 wins. Both in terms of the Mavericks are the first to 60 wins, and the team that gets to 60 first wins. Maybe.

After Nowitzki was injured out, the Bucks went on a tear to lead the game at halftime. Even though the Mavs struggled at times late, they eventually closed it out thanks in large part to Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse. Terry ended up with 27 points. He knew he had to lead this team and he did a dang good job of it making many key baskets down the stretch. Stackhouse's 21 points were also crucial and he was 5/8 on 3's. Howard & Nowitzki ended up with 17 a-piece, Howard also getting 9 rebounds.

For the Bucks, Michael Redd took over and it wasn't hard to see coming. He ended up with 34 points, but the great part of that stat was that he scored 0 points in the fourth quarter. The Mavs made it their top priority to get the dang ball out of his hands and it worked wonders. Thankfully. But he still owned the game for the first three quarters, that's for sure.

Dallas launched a lot of 3's and ended up making 11 of them. The free throws weren't great, especially down the stretch. That could have allowed the Bucks to come back and win it, but thankfully there were strong defensive plays late in the game. The best free throw shooting team will have their off nights, but it's still tough to watch clankers late in the game. Once again the Mavs surpass 20 assists and win the game, this time with 24.

The Mavs got outshot, outrebounded, outassisted, outstealed, and outblocked, but they won the game. 60 wins. The first to 60 wins.