The Mavericks found out Friday that you can only tempt fate so many times before the odds catch up with you.
For the fifth consecutive game, they fell into a first-quarter hole. In the last three contests, they were able to dig out of it.
Not this time. They couldn’t run down the Denver Nuggets, who got a superb overall game from reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and balanced scoring throughout the lineup to inflict a 106-75 thrashing on the Mavericks at Ball Arena.
The Mavericks were down 20-9 early, 54-37 late in the second quarter and by 30-something in the fourth quarter.