The Dallas Mavericks (23-50) dropped their fifth game in a row, losing to the Denver Nuggets (44-28) on Wednesday, 142-135.
It was a game that threatened to be close on a handful of occasions, mostly for those moments to be quickly erased by a red-hot Jamal Murray, who had 29 points at half and finished with 53. Nikola Jokic finished one assist shy of the ultra-rare triple-20, with 23 points, 21 rebounds and 19 dimes.
For Dallas, Naji Marshall continued with his dependable output, contributing 22 points
on seven-of-16 shooting. Cooper Flagg put up 23 points to go along with seven assists and seven rebounds on another solid night for the rookie.
0: Dallas turnovers in the first half
Dallas kept this thing close nearly all night, and they stayed that way by keeping an extraordinarily clean turnover sheet for the game.
They finished with only 4 combined turnovers, a season low, and had zero during the first half; the first team in the league to play a first half without a turnover since these Nuggets pulled it off two months ago on January 25th.
It was Nemhard starting at the point, so for him and fellow rookie Cooper Flagg to handle much of the offensive initiation in a close game with a contending-caliber team like Denver (who, admittedly, is on the second night of a back-to-back), instills confidence. Nembhard entered Wednesday’s game with an absurd 48-7 assist-to-turnover ratio in the seven games prior to Wednesday night’s.
2: Guys being dudes
A big reason to tune into games at this point in the season is to try and catch a glimpse of someone interesting. A two-way guy or 10-day player who pops for a night, or looks like he maybe, just maybe, could stick in the league. So you can say, “You know, I was watching JJ Barea during his rookie season.”
Dallas has two guys like that now — the 21-year-old native Texan, Tyler Smith, and John Poulakidas, the 23-year-old Yale man. Pouliakidas has shown promise before — he got pulled after playing too good over 11 minutes against Golden State and making three of his five 3-point attempts.
Against the Nuggets, Smith took five beautiful shots in just eight minutes, went 2-of-4 from deep, and grabbed a rebound. Poulakidas came to play, too, if only for nine minutes. Still, he took four threes and made one.
This team needs shooters, especially shooters under the age of 25. Smith and Poulakidas keep showing just enough to keep fans interested and fantasizing about what could be.
15: season-high rebounds for PJ Washington
PJ Washington turned in a strong double-double performance, scoring 19 points and grabbing a season-high 15 rebounds.
His previous high was a 14-rebound mark back in December against Utah. He did most of his work tonight on the defensive glass, hauling in 11 of his 15 rebounds on the defensive end.
He did much of that work in the second half. 11 of his boards came after halftime and were a big part of Dallas clawing their way back into the game, getting within just one point after being down by 13 at one point, and notching yet another clutch game.
It was a great performance that was only slightly overshadowed by Nikola Jokic putting up his absurd 23/19/21 stat line.
