DALLAS (AP) – Dirk Nowitzki scored 21 points while playing only 20 minutes and the Dallas Mavericks had their largest victory ever, 123-70 over the winless Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night.
The 53-point margin for Dallas surpassed its 50-point win over the New York Knicks in January 2010.
At 0-8, Philadelphia is the only NBA team without a victory. The only time the 76ers have gone deeper into a season before winning a game was 1972-73, when they lost their first 15 games, according to STATS.
The 76ers, who scored the last five points to avoid their largest loss ever, matched Utah’s 0-8 start from a year ago. The last NBA team with a longer losing streak to begin a season was the New Jersey Nets, who opened 0-19 in 2009-10, the worst start in NBA history.
Dallas jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first 2 minutes. That ballooned to 27-9 and eventually 38-10 by the end of the first quarter – the largest margin ever by the Mavericks through one quarter.