The Dallas Mavericks (11-17) survived a basketball game played by prison rules on Thursday night, escaping with a 116-114 overtime win over the Detroit Pistons (21-6) at American Airlines Center. The Mavericks blocked
14 shots in the win, the most in a game since 2013, and Dallas knuckled up in the game’s waning minutes despite getting killed on the offensive glass for most of the night.
Cooper Flagg was one of four Mavericks who blocked three shots and led the Mavs with 23 points and 10 boards in the win. Anthony Davis shrugged off a horrible start to the game to come up with a couple big plays down the stretch as well and finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds in the win. Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 29 points, 10 boards and nine assists in the loss.
The Mavericks started the game with a certain gusto, going 8-of-14 from the field in the game’s first five minutes on their way to an early 18-9 lead over the best team in the Eastern Conference. P.J. Washington slammed home a putback dunk just 3:30 into the game to pull the Mavs ahead 8-7 to ignite a 12-2 Dallas run, which featured a one-handed rim-rocker from Cooper Flagg and a rhythm 3-pointer from Washington on back-to-back possessions to force an early timeout from Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
The Pistons responded with an 11-2 run of their own, capped by Cade Cunningham’s running alley-oop finish in transition, as turnovers reared their ugly head for the Mavericks as the first quarter rolled on. Dallas bounced back in the final few minutes of the frame as Washington and Naji Marshall scored nine points apiece to lead the Mavericks to a 35-30 lead after one.
Pistons’ forward Ausar Thompson was thrown out of the game with five minutes left in the second quarter after running up on official John Goble, who had just called Thompson for an off-ball foul as Thompson battled with the smaller Ryan Nembhard for a rebound. Thompson brushed up against Goble while letting his feelings be known about the call in the exchange, and the letter of the law gave Goble the grounds to not only add a technical foul to his ledger but to send Thompson to the locker room early as well.
The Mavs were already in the midst of what would blossom into a 22-6 run when Thompson was sent off. Klay Thompson hit a wide open 3-pointer to give Dallas a 44-42 lead before Cormac Karl “Max” Christie hit two of his own on back-to-back possessions a minute later. Flagg’s banking runner in the lane gave the Mavs their first double-digit lead of the game, 57-46, with four minutes left before halftime, and Washington found a cutting Daniel Gafford for a big-man slam with 2:13 left before halftime to put Dallas ahead 63-48.
Cade Cunningham picked up a technical with 24 seconds left in the second after arguing for a foul call against Anthony Davis, who appeared to make contact on Cunningham’s follow-through on a 3-point attempt, but Christie missed the free throw after Cunningham got heated with officials. Christie led the Mavs with nine points off the bench in an eventful second quarter, and the Mavericks took a 66-57 lead into halftime.
Raise the Flagg
Did Flagg not set the world on fire his last time out, with a record-breaking 42-point performance in the Mavericks’ 140-133 overtime loss at the Utah Jazz? Is he not carving the league up 25 games into his NBA career? Did he not provide a couple of highlight reel buckets at the rim when the ball came his way on Thursday? At what point does his dominance command at least one single solitary play to be drawn up for him?
There is no excuse for this team to ignore Flagg like they did in the first half on Thursday — especially not on a night when Anthony Davis was little more than a doormat in the lane for the Pistons to run over on their way to the basket. Flagg shot the ball four times in the first half against Detroit. He made three of them.
Somehow, Dallas got away with it against one of the best teams in the NBA, but it’s just maddening to see this team lose sight of the nuclear talent at its disposal for long stretches at a time. Flagg did what he could in his 18 first-half minutes, scoring eight points and grabbing six boards in a half when Detroit out-rebounded the Mavs 32-28.
Flagg took matters into his own hands in the third, though. He saw the sea parting before him and rose up for his second highlight dunk of the game with 7:06 left in the third to put Dallas ahead 79-63. Two minutes later, Flagg showed his prowess on the other end of the floor, blocking an alley-oop attempt from Jalen Duren at the rim. He scored nine points in the third as the Mavericks extended their nine-point halftime lead to 12, fending off a flurry from Detroit’s bench unit late in the frame to take a 91-79 lead into the fourth quarter.
The kid is a highlight reel. He wills himself to become unstoppable, even when his own teammates are the ones slowing him down. Flagg scored 15 of his team-high 23 points in the second half against the Pistons and did everything he could down the stretch
Just enough Davis
There is no joy in wrapping a signature win with a wet blanket, but Anthony Davis was an eyesore against the Pistons. So was Thompson, for that matter. Davis let Jalen Duren run roughshod through the lane on his way to 17 points in the first half. He missed his first eight attempts from the field, fading away on his post-up attempts and exuding an air of cautious passivity all night long. Davis finally rattled home one of those fading post-up attempts midway through the third quarter over Duren for his first bucket of the game to put the Mavericks in front, 81-66. He got posterized on a vicious slam by Cunningham the next time down before connecting on his first 3-pointer of the night on the other end.
Davis opened the fourth quarter by giving up yet another offensive rebound to Detroit reserve big man Paul Reed and surrendering two more second-chance points on a baseline hook. Detroit was bullying the Mavericks on the offensive glass, outscoring Dallas 25-7 on second-chance opportunities to that point.
Davis has made a career of feasting on also-ran teams and no-showing against tougher competition. If the team wants to cry “calf contusion” after the fact, then sit him for another night. God knows this team has grown accustomed to playing without him in the lineup.
Davis finished with 15 points on 7-of-18 shooting and 14 rebounds in the win. He went 7-of-10 from the field after missing his first eight attempts.
Things fall apart … or do they?
The Mavs’ 12-point lead evaporated in a hurry as the Pistons decided enough was enough to start the fourth quarter. Reed abused Davis on the opening possession of the fourth to ignite a little 12-2 run fueled by Reed and fellow second-teamer (and Dallas Hillcrest High School’s own) Daniss Jenkins, who scored on a baseline 3-pointer and a pull-up mid-range jumper to cut Dallas’ lead to 93-89 with 9:47 left to play.
Flagg stopped the bleeding two possessions later with a pull-up of his own to keep the Mavs in front, 95-91, but Jenkins dropped in a creative little tear-drop over Davis to tie it up, 95-95, with 7:45 left in the game. The officials swallowed their whistles as the fourth quarter wore on, and the Pistons continued to bludgeon the Mavericks on the offensive glass. Isaiah Stewart’s rough-and-tumble putback dunk midway through the fourth gave Detroit its first lead of the second half, 99-97.
You could see the wheels coming off and the Mavs’ liabilities inside coming home to roost, but the Mavs had one last gasp in them. Marshall finished a baby hook in transition over two Pistons’ defenders with 2:39 left to play to pull the Mavs back in front, 104-103. Davis tipped home Flagg’s driving miss inside on a play that looked like he touched the ball while it was still in the cylinder, but it went un-called, and the Mavs suddenly held a 106-103 lead.
But Cunningham, whose jersey number was retired at nearby Arlington Bowie High School one night earlier, scored on back-to-back possessions in the final 90 seconds of the game to swing things back in Detroit’s favor. Jenkins hit a pair of free throws with 59 seconds showing on the clock to extend the Pistons’ lead to 109-106. Flagg threw two more late punches in the final minute, with a clutch floater in the lane to bring the Mavericks back within 109-108 just seven seconds later and a pull-up jumper with 19 ticks left to pull Dallas in front 110-109.
Davis fouled Stewart with 3.4 seconds remaining, sending Stewart to the line for two free throws. Stewart bricked the front end, but tied the game on the next one, setting the Mavs up with one last chance to pull out an unlikely win. With the Detroit defense blanketing Flagg on the inbound pass after a timeout, the ball went Thompson’s way. Thompson’s baseline runner hit rim, backboard, then rim again, but wouldn’t go down, and five minutes of free basketball would have to decide things.
Flagg found Davis for a dunk along the baseline with 1:35 left in the overtime period to give Dallas a 116-114 advantage, and Davis won a rugby scrum for a defensive rebound against Buren with 15 seconds remaining, showing a glimmer of toughness for the first time all night when the Mavericks needed it most.
Mavs Trivia: Block party
For the first time in Dallas Mavericks’ franchise history, four players each recorded three or more blocked shots in the same game against the Pistons. Flagg, Washington, Davis and Gafford each recorded three blocked shots against the Pistons on Thursday. Little Brandon Williams blocked a pair of shots as well in the win.
The Mavs were given every chance to block shots inside on Thursday, given the volume of offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities the Pistons manufactured on the glass. Detroit beat Dallas up on the offensive glass, 25-11 on the night, and outscored the Mavs 30-15 in second-chance points in the loss.
There were no shortage of statistical anomalies in the Mavs’ latest win, but Dallas will take this one any way they could get it in the end.
