Pelicans-Mavericks Preview

By JEFF BARTL

(AP) -- The loaded Southwest Division has as many .500 teams as the entire Eastern Conference combined, and the young New Orleans Pelicans are simply trying to keep pace with the rest of the contenders.

Ending a long run of futility against one of their division counterparts would be a good step in that direction.

New Orleans can win a season-best third straight by avoiding a ninth consecutive loss to the host Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night.

The 10-10 Pelicans have won back-to-back games after dropping five of their previous six, but they're still bringing up the rear in the Southwest and are 4 1/2 games behind the fourth-place Mavericks (16-7).

Jrue Holiday had 22 points and eight assists and Anthony Davis went 11 of 15 from the field as New Orleans ended a four-game road losing streak with a 104-87 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, then Tyreke Evans went 11 of 15 and finished with 27 in Tuesday's 104-93 victory against New York.

The Pelicans improved to 6-2 at home, but they're just 4-8 on the road and will finish a stretch of playing 10 of 13 away from home with this contest.

"I think our guys are feeling good about what we're trying to do," coach Monty Williams said. "We just want to keep getting better. We've only got a few hours to enjoy (the win) and then we have to get ready for a tough team (Wednesday)."

Davis had 31 points and 15 rebounds against Dallas on Nov. 1, but the Mavericks pulled out a 109-104 road victory. New Orleans' last victory in the series was a 99-96 overtime win at Dallas on Jan. 5, 2013.

The Mavericks shot 51.7 percent in the first meeting with the Pelicans but connected on just 34.9 percent in the second half of Tuesday's 114-105 loss to Southwest-leading Memphis. The Mavericks have dropped two of three following a five-game winning streak.

Dirk Nowitzki went 4 for 17 from the field while Monta Ellis shot 1 of 11 and finished with two points, though he played through nagging pain in his shooting arm. It's unclear if he'll play in this contest.

"You know, most guys in this league wouldn't even attempt to play," coach Rick Carlisle said. "We've got to see how he's doing (Wednesday). It's just a very tough situation for him, so hopefully it's more of a day-to-day thing and hopefully he's feeling a lot better (Wednesday). But we'll have to wait and see."

Chandler Parsons had season highs of 30 points and six 3-pointers after shooting 11 of 14 from the field and scoring 28 in Sunday's 125-102 win over Milwaukee. He had been shooting 32 percent from 3-point range prior to the last two after hitting 37 percent from downtown with Houston last season.

The Mavericks went 18 of 40 from 3-point range against Memphis, tying their most attempts from behind the arc since hoisting a franchise-record 49 against the Nets on March 5, 1996.

Dallas entered the game 5-1 when attempting at least 30 from long range, but it allowed at least 102 points for the ninth straight game.

"We have to have a balance when we are rolling, when we're hitting shots and it's flowing offensively," Parsons said. "We have to get stops. We can't keep trading baskets, because (good teams) will stay around.

"We want to consider ourselves an elite team, and we've got to beat elite teams."

Dallas has held New Orleans to 95.4 points per game during its winning streak in the series.