New Jersey Edges Dallas 93-92: Fan Reaction

The Dallas Mavericks ran into a buzz saw on Tuesday night as Brooks Lopez exploded, dropping 38 points on the Mavs in leading the New Jersey Nets to a 93-92 road win over the defending champs. Dallas fans have to be disappointed with a home loss to the lowly Nets, but they are clearly a different team with Brooks Lopez back, and Deron Williams becomes much more effective when he is not the focus of the offense.

New Jersey came out focused and the Mavs knew they had a battle on their hands from the opening tip. The Nets took a 28-23 lead after the first quarter and had upped the lead to 11 points by halftime. Dallas responded in the third quarter, outscoring New Jersey 31-23, and cutting the lead to three. Dallas went cold a few minutes into the fourth and missed 14 straight shots to fall behind by double digits. Things looked bad, and a few fans even packed up and left early, but the Mavs came storming back to take a 92-91 lead with less than a minute left. Lopez was fouled on the other end, however, and made both free throws to seal the win for the Nets. Jason Kidd's desperate three-pointer at the buzzer was well short.

Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Brendan Heywood added 18 points and 10 rebounds and Jason Terry scored 12 points and chipped in 4 assists. Brooks Lopez led all scorers with 38 points and 6 rebounds, Deron Williams added 12 points and a dozen assists, and Kris Humphries added 10 points and 15 big rebounds.

Dallas drops to 21-14 with their second consecutive loss, and have to play back to back games as they travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies Wednesday night. The Nets move to 11-25 with the road win, and get a couple of days off before taking on the Celtics in Boston on March 2nd.

Clayton Browne lives in Austin, Texas and is a big-time NBA fan. He follows both the Mavs and the Spurs closely.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.