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DALLAS -- Brandan Wrights season debut just happened to come on a night when Dirk Nowitzki was home sick. The trade-off worked out just fine for Dallas. Wright led the Mavericks with 19 points, Jose Calderon got the offence going early and finished with 18, and Dallas shrugged off the absence of Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 106-93 Saturday night. Nowitzki and Carlisle missed the game with an undisclosed illness. Carlisle has been fighting an upper respiratory problem since before a four-game road trip that started last week. Wright, who missed the first 23 games with a shoulder injury, scored seven straight points in a 19-5 run that put Dallas in control, 43-26, early in the second quarter. "Im going to be aggressive either way it goes," said Wright, who was 9 of 10 from the floor and added six rebounds in 19 minutes. "If Dirk plays or Monta (Ellis) plays or none of those guys play, Ive got to play the same way. Ive got to play hard." John Henson had 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Bucks, who fell behind by 34 late in the third quarter before rallying in the fourth to make the final score respectable. O.J. Mayo, who played despite the recent death of his grandmother, had four points on 1-of-6 shooting in his first game in Dallas against his former team since signing with the Bucks as a free agent last summer. "We came in here and laid an egg," Milwaukee coach Larry Drew said. "We didnt play well. We had very low energy, which was disappointing." Nowitzki and Carlisle missed the shootaround earlier Saturday and werent at American Airlines Center for the game. The Mavericks dont play again until Wednesday, so they should have plenty of time to recover. Even without their star and their coach, the Mavericks were never in much trouble with assistant Monte Mathis in charge. Dallas didnt even need much from Ellis, the teams leading scorer. He had seven points and five assists and essentially deferred to Calderon, who had 16 points at halftime on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. "Very important, especially with Monta kind of feeling things out and not getting some of the opportunities that he typically has, its good for another guy to step up and be aggressive," Mathis said. The biggest decision for Mathis was whether to bring back any other starters after the Bucks went on a 13-0 run in the fourth quarter and eventually got within 13 in the final 2 minutes. Mathis did reinsert DeJuan Blair after Wright had returned, and the Mavericks kept the lead in double digits. "One or two more baskets," Mathis said of how tempting it was to go with Ellis and Calderon again. "We didnt want to get them in there. We wanted our other guys to finish it out." Shawn Marion had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Mavericks. Vince Carter had 15 points and a game-high nine assists. Brandon Knight scored 16 for Milwaukee, but only four after the first quarter. "We came out flat," Henson said of the Bucks, who lost by a point to Chicago at home a night earlier and have played five sets of back-to-back games in their last 10. "The combination of these games and the travel, I think we kind of hit that wall." Wright grabbed two quick rebounds after coming in midway through the first quarter and finished the first half with 11 points and five rebounds in 10 minutes. The highlight for Wright was a putback dunk for a 79-51 lead in the third. Just 3 minutes later, Blair gave the Mavericks their biggest lead at 90-56 on a jumper. Blair had 11 points and nine rebounds. Samuel Dalembert, signed in the off-season to be the starting centre for the Mavericks, was the only Dallas player who didnt get off the bench. For Dalembert, it was something of a replay of his one season with Milwaukee, when he went through a long midseason stretch without playing and got into just one of the last 11 games. NOTES: Bucks G Carlos Delfino had surgery on his right foot performed by Dr. Donato Villani in Argentina. There is no timetable for the 31-year-olds return. ... Carlisle missed a game for the first time since the franchises only championship season of 2010-11. He missed a Dec. 27 victory at Oklahoma City a day after having arthroscopic knee surgery. Assistant Dwane Casey, now the head coach in Toronto, filled in then. ... Bucks G Gary Neal left late in the second quarter with plantar fasciitis and didnt return. Cheap Jordan 9 Free Shipping . - Novak Djokovic beat John Isner 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-1 on Saturday to reach the final of the BNP Paribas Open, where hell resume his longtime rivalry with Roger Federer. Cheap Air Jordan 9 . The rest of the team was already on the field stretching before batting practice while Puig was getting dressed in the clubhouse. He had been slated to start in right field for the afternoon game against the San Francisco Giants, who beat the Dodgers 8-4. http://www.cheapairjordan9.com/ . Then again, he really was at his home away from home. "It was nice to sleep in my own bed last night," Shields said after pitching Kansas City past the San Diego Padres 8-0 Wednesday. Cheap Jordan 9 Shoes . Howard hit a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Philadelphia Phillies to a 6-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night. Air Jordan 9 Online Store .com) - Klay Thompson is quickly proving he is worth every penny of his recently signed four-year contract extension.TORONTO - The game, according to DeMar DeRozan, was the kind that players live for. The ending was not. Kevin Durant calmly drained a three-pointer with 1.7 seconds left to lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 119-118 victory over the Toronto Raptors in double overtime on Friday. The buzzer-beating bomb from 31 feet out capped a 51-point performance by Durant, the leagues top scorer. Still, DeRozan said there was plenty to take from the game that almost became the Raptors second win this season against one of the best in the West. "Thats a helluva Western Conference team right there, and we fought with them to the end, we were blow for blow," DeRozan said. "It came down to the last shot, those are the types of games you live for. "We cant win every game and we wish we would have got that one, but it still was a helluva game." DeRozan scored 33 points to top the Raptors (38-30) in just their sixth loss at home in 22 outings. Kyle Lowry added 25 points, including a three-pointer that forced a second overtime period, while Amir Johnson had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and Greivis Vasquez finished with 21 points. Reggie Jackson added 25 points for the Thunder (51-18), while Russell Westbrook had 15 points before leaving the game in the third quarter with yet another knee injury. Durant extended his scoring streak — of at least 25 points a game — to 34 consecutive games. Its the leagues longest scoring streak since Michael Jordans 40-game run in 1986-87. "Straight up, that was the craziest game Ive ever been a part of," Durant said. With the capacity crowd of 19,800 fans on their feet, and a playoff vibe palpable at the Air Canada Centre in the game that saw 23 lead changes, the Raptors dominated the second overtime period to nearly secure the hard-fought win. DeRozan pumped a victorious fist when he scored on a pullup jumper with 2:37 left to put Toronto up by five. Fans chanted "M-V-P!" when Lowry stepped up to the line to sink two free throws that gave Toronto an eight-point lead. But the Thunder rallied to pull within two on a three by Derek Fisher with 15.7 seconds left, then John Salmons missed on two free throws that surely would have sealed the victory for Toronto. Then, with Johnson on Durant, the Thunder superstar pulled up and calmly launched his second three of the games final minute to send Torontos fans home unhappy. "Yeah, yeah. . . I thought we had it," DeRozan said. "Just give us one of those threes and the game is ours." Added coach Dwane Casey: "Great players make great plays and (Durant) made a great shot." DeRozan said that during a third-quarter timeout, Johnson had asked Casey if he could guard Durant. "It means a lot, man," DeRozan said of his teammates request. "Ive got the utmost respect for him. . .That takes a lot of guts to go out there and play great defence. Got to give it to K.D., he made a lot of tough shots." Johnson said he thought he might be able to throw Durant off with his height. Both Johnson and Durant are six foot nine. "It was tough, hes my height out there shooting from halfcourt, theres not too much you can do but double team that," Johnson said. "It just came down to the stretch where he hit one off the glass (with 47 seconnds left) and then that last shot was a tough shot.dddddddddddd What can I say about that? It was just a tough shot." The game had gone into a second overtime tied 107-107 thanks to a three-pointer by Lowry with seven seconds left. The game might have been bad news for Westbrook, who sprained his surgically-repaired right knee and with 7:37 left in the third quarter. Lowry had inadvertently bumped into the same knee the Thunder player had undergone his third surgery on in late December. Lowry apologized to Westbrook, as he was being helped to the locker-room by teammate Hasheem Thabeet. Westbrook had sat out the Thunders 102-95 win at Cleveland the previous night to rest his troublesome knee. Westbrook insisted afterward that he didnt expect to miss any time. "Well just see how it goes," he said. "It was fun," he added on the game. "I was in the back wishing I could go out there and help them out but as you see, Kevin took care of that." The Raptors trailed Oklahoma City 72-71 going into the fourth quarter in a scrappy see-saw affair that saw 22 lead changes. The Thunder stretched their lead to seven points when Jackson chucked up an alley-oop to Durant for a dunk with 9:14 left to play. Toronto chipped away at it, eventually taking a 90-89 lead with 3:08 left after a thrilling 30-second segment that saw five points and a steal from DeRozan, and a basket by Johnson. The Raptors were trailing by three with just under a minute to go when Johnson hit one of two free throws then a layup with 17 seconds to go to send the game into the first extra period 96-96. The Raptors had beaten the Thunder 104-98 on Dec. 22 at Oklahoma, ending the Thunders 13-game unbeaten streak at home. That victory was one of the Raptors first significant wins after they overhauled their roster in a seven-player deal, and their solid play has continued as theyre poised to make the post-season for the first time in six years. Durant and the Thunder got some revenge Friday. Asked about Durants game-winning shot, Westbrook said: "Just letting it all hang out. Hes been doing that all season and tonight it was a win or go home. Hes playing at an MVP level as hes been doing all season." Durant and Westbrook scored eight points apiece in a first quarter that saw the lead change hands several times and neither team lead by more than five. Durant scored on a stepback jumper with seven second to go to send the Thunder into the second half with a 22-20 lead. The Raptors held their visitors to 24 per cent shooting in the second quarter, and a stepback jumper by Vasquez put the Raptors up by eight about four minutes into the frame. Westbrook drained a three with 1.9 seconds left to cut Torontos lead to 46-42 at halftime. Durant had 14 points in a third quarter that saw the lead change hands nine times, and the Thunder led by one heading into the fourth. NOTES: The Raptors had won six of their previous seven games against Western Conference teams. . . The Thunder have won 12 of 14 games on the road against Eastern Conference competition. . . Three-time world figure skating champion Patrick Chan was at the game. He was presented with a No. 14 Chan jersey. . . The Raptors host the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, a game that marks the return of The Raptor. The team mascot ruptured an Achilles tendon during training camp. ' ' '