A valiant effort from Dallas ends in defeat
The short-handed Dallas Mavericks lost to the Sacramento Kings 110-100 Monday night in Sacramento. Dallas was without four starters, and a fifth key rotation player — Luka Doncic, Dereck Lively, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson were all out due to either injury or illness, while Marshall served the second game of his four game suspension after his fight in the loss to the Suns last week.
Missing that much firepower, the Mavericks were behind the eight ball, but they managed to make the game competitive till the final minutes. Dallas shot out of the gate to build an early 18-point, but slowly allowed the lead to slowly dwindle lacking the juice from all the missing starters. Once the Kings took the lead in the fourth, they controlled the game and put the Mavericks away.
Spencer Dinwiddie led the Mavericks with 30 points, De’Aaron Fox led the Kings and all scorers with 33 points.
Here are the numbers to know:
25: Kings points scored off Mavericks turnovers
Dallas defensively actually did a decent job — the Kings shot 42 percent from the field, 31.3 percent from three. The Kings only got to the free throw line for 19 attempts, and scored 48 points in the paint, a manageable number for the Mavericks. So what gives? Well the turnovers.
The Maverick had 18 turnovers compared to the Kings 16, and while that difference isn’t vast, the quality of the turnovers was — the Mavericks had significantly more catastrophic, live-ball turnovers that resulted in Kings offense. It’s no surprise that Sacramento also had 21 fastbreak points, compared to the Mavericks 12. Without its top offensive creators, the Dallas offense struggled for most of the game after the hot shooting start in the first quarter.
18: Kings offensive rebounds
Turnovers and rebounds are things a team can directly control that can influence the result of a game and the Mavericks failed at both. The Kings had 18 offensive rebounds, compared to the Mavericks meager two.
Luka Doncic and Dereck Lively’s absence were hugely felt in this area, as the lineup coach Jason Kidd had to put on the floor just couldn’t secure the finish of a defensive possession. Daniel Gafford was particularly brutal, grabbing only six defensive rebounds in 28 minutes. In continues a larger trend where the Mavericks are getting bullied on the glass when Gafford plays, and injuries or not, Gafford is a major rotation piece for the Mavericks. They have to figure out ways to rebound the ball better when Gafford is on the floor.
2: PJ Washington points after the first quarter
PJ Washington had a brilliant, near-perfect first quarter to give the Mavericks an 18-point lead. He scored 19 points, was 6-of-8 from the floor and 4-of-4 from three. He even got to the free throw line five times, although he only made three.
Washington showed off the aggression and assertiveness that we at times saw when he was in Charlotte, and the Mavericks got him good opportunities in a variety of ways — spot up threes, post-ups against De-Aaron Fox, and quality drives off closeouts. Unfortunately that all went away when the first quarter ended, and Washington scored two points for the remainder of the game on 2-of-12 shooting.
Dallas could only keep up with Sacramento when Washington was scoring, and as Washington slumped to finish the game, so did the rest of the team. It was still a helluva effort from Washington, and it’s always fun to see him bust out the scoring chops now and then, but it’s no surprise Dallas’ chances faded in this game as Washington’s shooting cooled off.