DALLAS — J.J. Barea last started a playoff game when he helped boost Dallas’s run to a championship four years ago. Al-Farouq Aminu had never been on the floor for the opening tip in a postseason game.
They helped give the Mavericks at least one more game in a first-round series with Houston.
Barea and Aminu recorded their first career postseason double-doubles to go with 31 points from Monta Ellis, and Dallas avoided elimination with a 121-109 victory over the Rockets on Sunday night.
”We weren’t ready to go home,” Ellis said after the Mavericks cut Houston’s series lead to three games to one.