White hot. Make that Bar Rafaeli hot. That's how you could describe the Dallas Mavericks offense tonight at the Garden.
The Mavs beat the Celtics 99 - 90 behind Dirk Nowitzki's 37 points.
Trailing 50-41 at the half, the Mavs came out of the locker room and torched the Celtics in the 3rd quarter (34-18). Dirk dropped 13 from the perimeter, while Erick Dampier pounded the paint for 11 points. The Mavs shot 16-for-20 in the quarter.
The aging spry Jason Kidd (13 points, 17 assists in 42 minutes) outplayed Rajon Rondo (7 points, 12 assists). I believe Rondo scored all his points off jump shots. Did he make or even take any lay-ups or floaters? Rondo did fall hard on his hip in the 1st quarter. Although he wasn't visibly limping, it's possible the injury hampered his play the rest of the game.
Paul Pierce lead the Celtics with 24 points. Perk had 14 points (7-10 FG), 12 rebounds.
Another stinker by Rasheed Wallace - 11 points, 3 rebounds. For the second time this season, he missed an easy dunk.
I refuse to believe the Celtics had just 12 TOs. It seemed like every other pass ended up in the hands of a Mavs player in the 2nd half.
Perk needed two stitches to close a cut on his face caused by an inadvertent Nowitzki elbow. Perk had a brief skirmish with Jason Terry and Jason Kidd as he approached Nowitzki.