With less than a minute to go, it looked like the Dallas Mavericks were looking at yet another unfortunate defeat in New Orleans.
Then everything changed.
The Mavericks scored the last eight points of the game in less than 45 seconds to come back with a 104-100 win over the Hornets.
Now 2-0 since the All Star Break, Dallas jumped over Portland in the standings but still trails Houston by 4 1/2 games for the West's final playoff spot.
Still, the Mavs are playing like they still believe, as evidenced by not selling off any players at the trade dealing. With only minutes to go on Thursday, they grabbed shooter Anthony Morrow from Atlanta for Dahntay Jones.
Morrow was not yet available for the Mavs on Friday, but they still got 25 points from Dirk Nowitzki and seven blocked shots from Bernard James. Even O.J. Mayo made up for a poor shooting night with nine assists.
Still the Mavs trailed for almost the rest of the game since the Hornets went up 47-45 witless than five minutes to play in the first half, and Ryan Anderson's three pointer put New Orleans up 100-96 with 55 seconds left in the game.
But James came back with his own long shot to bring the Mavs within one. Then, with less than seven sends left, Vince Carter capped off his 22-point night with a three-pointer that gave Dallas the lead.
New Orleans could not get a shot off as Ben Gordon lost the ball out of bounds, and Darren Collison hit two free throws to put the game away.
The Mavericks will have another shot to leapfrog another opponent in the standings when they host the Lakers this Sunday.
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