The Dallas Mavericks (4-10) sorely needed this one. After putting together a game-changing 13-2 run in the fourth quarter to take a late lead against the Portland Trail Blazers (6-7) on Sunday at American
Airlines Center, Dallas had to fend off one more late Portland rally to even get to overtime, two days after falling in double-OT to the Los Angeles Clippers.
But Cooper Flagg, P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford led a franchise record seven Dallas Mavericks who scored at least 12 points on Sunday with some big-time plays in the overtime period as Dallas found a way to snap its three-game losing streak with a 138-133 overtime win.
Let all the pent-up frustration melt, if only for a night, Mavs fans. Pulling this one out felt good, even if it didn’t always look good. Here are eight stats from a long night at the office and a much-needed Mavericks win.
7: First-quarter Mavericks’ turnovers
The Trail Blazers came into the game third in the NBA in forced turnovers, at 17.5 per game. Dallas came into the game turning it over 17.1 times per contest, third worst in the league. Dallas coughed it up 22 times in Friday’s double-overtime loss to the bottom-feeding Clippers.
The Mavs turned the ball over an appalling seven times in Sunday’s first quarter, all in one span of 4:17 after playing with good relative ball security for the game’s first five minutes. Washington was especially careless with the ball in that span, giving it away four times. The Mavericks were able to keep it close despite the giveaways for most of the opening frame, though. They were down just 34-29 going into the first quarter’s final possession, but Toumani Camara rattled in a corner 3-pointer at the horn to give the Blazers a 37-29 lead after one.
Dallas did a much better job with the ball in their hands in the second quarter, when they turned it over just twice. The Mavs committed just five turnovers over the final three quarters and the overtime period.
4: First-half 3-pointers from Klay Thompson
Klay Thompson caught fire in the second quarter to bring the Mavs back, though. He made three of his four 3-point attempts in the first five minutes of the second to get Dallas back within 46-43 when he rose up and poured one in from the right wing with 7:35 left in the half. He scored a game-high 14 points in the first half on 4-of-8 shooting from behind the arc. Deni Avdija, who came into the game averaging 25.8 points per game, and Jerami Grant led Portland with 13 apiece at the break.
Even if all Thompson is accomplishing with his recently awakened touch from the outside is incrementally increasing his value on the trade market, we’ll take it. He came into Sunday’s game shooting 10-of-26 (38.5%) from deep in the Mavs’ last two games after beginning the season on a 16-for-60 (26.7%) cold stretch.
Moving Thompson to the second team appears to have allowed him more freedom to find his stroke. The Mavs’ starters, however, are still hurting on the offensive end. Daniel Gafford led the starting five with eight points in the first half.
Thompson connected on his first attempt from deep in the second half as well, taking a dribble-handoff from Dereck Lively II near the top of the key for a longball that brought the Mavericks back to within 77-75 with 6:40 left in the third.
3: First-half shot attempts for Cooper Flagg
The Mavericks have to do a better job of getting their future all-everything rookie Cooper Flagg involved in the offense. Flagg can do so many things on both ends of the court, but he was virtually invisible on the first-half stat sheet, after getting off just three shots in 16 first-half minutes. He shot the ball just once in the first quarter.
Again, Flagg’s quiet first half wasn’t cataclysmic in the flow of Sunday’s game, as Portland clung to a 61-57 lead at the half, but it speaks to this team’s lack of direction to begin the season. The Mavericks are a little bit all over the place to start the season. There are few, if any, playmakers on this roster who can consistently start the teams’ engine. They’re rudderless, and the first half against Portland was another example of that.
Flagg was more assertive to start the third quarter, though. He made a strong drive to the hoop for a scooping lay-in on the team’s first possession, then made a pull-up near the free-throw line the next time down to tie the game at 61-61. Unfortunately for the Mavs, those two hoops immediately preceded a quick 9-0 Portland scoring run to take control back, up 70-61, and force the first Dallas timeout of the second half.
Flagg took a steal coast-to-coast, weaving through four Portland defenders on his way to the hoop in transition with 7:50 left in the third. After completing the 3-point play at the free-throw line, all of a sudden the rookie was the second Mavs’ scorer in double figures with 12, 10 of which came in the first 4:10 of the third quarter.
5-of-7: P.J. Washington 3-point shooting
The Blazers found a run-stopping bucket every time the Mavs made a little run to get within one possession in the third quarter and took a 91-85 lead into the fourth. Washington cleaned things up and turned the ball over just once in the final three quarters, but he also got hot from 3-point range to start the fourth. His wide open corner 3-ball with 10:35 to play pulled Dallas to within 91-88, then Washington pulled up from the left wing the next time down to make it 94-91.
Washington had been mired in a 5-of-33 shooting slump from beyond the arc across his last eight games, but his timely shooting kept the Mavs connected against Portland. He was 4-of-5 from 3-point land through the first three quarters and change, and then beat the shot-clock with a prayer from four feet behind the top of the arc with 4:20 left to pull Dallas in front 108-106. Washington scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds in the win.
The next time down, Flagg found Kormac Carl “Max” Christie open in the left corner with a nifty little pass to give the Mavs their biggest lead of the game, up 111-106, with less than four minutes left.
13-2: Dallas’ game-changing fourth-quarter run
Both of those last two 3-pointers were part of a 13-2 Mavericks run that swung the game in Dallas’ favor late, after Portland went up 104-98 on Grant’s third 3-point make of the game. It was the Mavs’ first lead since the game was 15-14 with 6:53 left in the first quarter.
The Mavs buckled down on defense and allowed the Trail Blazers just one bucket in the next four minutes to finally get their hands on the lead. But the Blazers made one last push in the game’s last two minutes. Flagg fouled Grant on a 3-pointer with 1:17 remaining, and the ensuing free throws put Portland back in front, 117-115.
Then Flagg made a strong move in the post the next time down to tie the game at 117-117. He had a chance to put Dallas in front at the free throw line in the final seconds of regulation, but converted just 1-of-2 at the stripe to send the game to overtime instead.
32-10: Portland’s second-chance points advantage
Make no mistake. Portland didn’t play a good or clean game against the Mavericks. They shot 40% from the field in the win and 33% from 3-point range. The fact that the Mavericks couldn’t manufacture a lead at all for most of regulation is symptomatic of everything you think is wrong with this team. But that doesn’t make the end result any less of a relief.
The one part of the game the Trail Blazers absolutely did dominate against the Mavs was on the offensive boards. They bludgeoned the Mavericks 22-13 on the offensive glass and beat Dallas 32-10 in second-chance points. Starting center Donovan Clingan nabbed a ridiculous seven offensive boards on his way to a 16-and-11 night, while Camara corralled four more on the offensive glass en route to his own double-double (11 points and 10 boards).
The Blazers led the Mavs 17-4 in second chance points in the first first half and by a 27-6 margin through three quarters. The Mavericks’ bigs combined for just one defensive rebound in the first half. The Blazers were absolutely pummeling Dallas underneath for most of the night.
118-118: Back-to-back overtime games for the first time since Oct. 2022
Flagg and Shaedon Sharpe each made just 1-of-2 from the free-throw line in the final seconds of regulation, and the game went to overtime, two days after the Mavericks dropped Friday’s 133-127 decision to the Clippers. It marks the first time that the Mavericks have played back-to-back overtime games since October 2022, when they beat the Brooklyn Nets 125-119 on Oct. 27 before dropping a game two days later to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 117-111.
Flagg, Gafford and Brandon Williams made the winning plays the Mavs needed in the final two minutes of Sunday’s overtime period to help the Mavs pull out the win on Sunday they so desperately needed. Flagg corralled a long rebound on Sharpe’s missed 3-pointer with 1:27 left to play and found Washington alone in transition for a dunk that gave Dallas a 132-129 lead. The next time down, Gafford fought Clingan off inside for a tough bucket to extend that lead to 134-129. After Grant’s driving score brought the Blazers back to within one possession with 49 seconds remaining, Williams drove past Sharpe for a running teardrop that gave the Mavs a five-point cushion with just 30 ticks left on the clock.
Gafford left the floor limping with an apparent ankle issue after fouling Grant on the previous possession but finished the game with 20 points and six boards. Flagg led Dallas with 21 points, eight boards, five assists and two blocked shots in the win, and Washington matched Flagg with 21 and seven after those four early turnovers.
Dallas went 7-for-7 from the field and did not turn the ball over in the overtime period to preserve the win after losing seven of the team’s previous eight.
91: Combined scoring from Deni Avdija, Jerami Grant and Shaedon Sharpe
The Mavs survived a 91-point explosion from the Portland trio of Avdija (29 points, seven rebounds), Grant (26 points, five rebounds) and Sharpe (36 points, six assists). Avdija fouled out of the game with 1:39 left in overtime and just a minute after his 3-point play that gave Portland its last lead of the night, 126-125, after Williams fouled him on a made jumpshot along the baseline.
After Thompson came off the bench hot early on to lead the Mavs before the offense got going, Flagg, Washington and Gafford brought the win home as seven Dallas scorers contributed 12 or more points in the win over Portland.
