When Precious Achiuwa, Maxime Raynaud and Dequon Plowden come to town, Katie bar the doors. You’re in for a tough one.
Achiuwa’s career-high scoring night spelled doom for the Dallas Mavericks (21-37) on Thursday at American Airlines Center, as the Sacramento Kings begrudgingly (14-47) took the 130-121 win in the battle of who wanted it less. Achiuwa led the Kings with 29 points and 12 rebounds in the win, while Raynaud scored 22 and Plowden added a season-high 19. Frequent Mavs killer DeMar DeRozan
scored just seven points, in a weird one.
Naji Marshall tried to will the Mavs to a third straight win but had no one riding shotgun with him through wide stretches of the game. Here are six numbers that tell the tale of the Mavs’ latest loss to pile on the heap that has become the 2025-26 season.
5-of-5: Naji Marshall’s shooting start
The Mavericks fell behind 28-15 in the game’s first seven minutes, but Naji Marshall dragged the Mavs along, sparking the ailing Dallas offense into an 11-2 Mavs run to stay connected early. He macheted his way through the trees for a strong driving hoop with 4:51 left in the first before finding Klay Thompson with a nifty cross-court pass for an open 3-pointer in the corner two possessions later to bring the Mavericks to within 30-24. Marshall’s pair of free throws with 3:08 left in the opener put him at 13 points in the game’s first nine minutes.
Marshall didn’t miss from the field in the first quarter and dished two assists when the Sacramento defense caved in around his dense center of gravity as the only Maverick contributing anything of substance to the cause. He came into the game scoring 15 or more points in 17 of his last 20 games. He promptly missed four of his next five attempts to start the second quarter, but still eclipsed the 20-point mark before halftime for the fourth time in his tenure with the Mavs.
42: Kings’ first-quarter scoring
Unfortunately, the Mavericks’ defense allowed the Kings to shoot 57% from the field in the first, and the offense turned it over six times in the quarter. It was the perfect recipe for allowing the worst team in the NBA to score 42 points. Ineptitude at its finest.
Precious Achiuwa nullified Marshall’s 13 first-quarter points with 14 of his own, on 6-of-8 shooting, including 2-of-2 from downtown. Center Maxime Raynaud, who has filled in admirably for most of the season as Domantas Sabonis’ year has been lost to a knee injury, added eight in the quarter on 4-of-7 shooting against a paper-thin Dallas frontcourt.
The Kings took a 42-28 lead after one. When the team sitting in 29th in the NBA in scoring lays 42 on your head in the fourth quarter, you’re in the bad place.
11-0: Dallas’ early third-quarter run
After trailing 68-56 at the half, finally, someone joined Marshall at the party early in the third. Dallas was down 72-58 when Max Christie woke up. He drove through the teeth of the Kings’ defense to bring the Mavs to within 72-60, before canning his second 3-pointer of the game three possessions later to make it 72-69 with 8:47 left in the third.
But Dallas, ever-prone to the live-ball turnover, gave it all back in the next three minutes. The Kings answered with a 14-2 run of their own to extend the lead to 86-71 midway through the third. Devin Carter scored on three put-back buckets during the Sacramento run.
The Mavs and the Kings battled to a stalemate in the third, sending it to the fourth quarter with Sacramento holding onto a 100-88 lead.
20-of-33: Dallas free-throw shooting
The little things bit the Mavs in the ass against the Kings. In a game where Dallas struggled to catch up after falling down by 18 points early on, the Mavs didn’t help themselves at the free-throw line. For a team that can’t hit from the outside, living in the paint and converting at the stripe becomes crucial. When guys don’t hit the free ones, trouble piles up on trouble, and it makes a comeback almost impossible.
As the Mavericks tried to come back late in the fourth quarter once again, it was the missed free throws that made the hill just a little too steep to climb. The 17 turnovers didn’t help, either. They led directly to 21 points for the Kings.
36/10/6: Marshall’s stat line in the loss
Marshall finished with 32 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in the loss on Thursday, becoming just the second Maverick this season to finish a game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Cooper Flagg did it in the team’s 111-107 loss at the Houston Rockets on Jan. 31, when he poured in 34 points, pulled down 12 boards and dished five dimes.
Only three other Mavericks players have ever finished a game with at least 30, 10 and five. Dirk Nowitzki did it 29 times, current co-general manager Michael Finley did it once and Luka Dončić did it 88 times in a Mavs uniform. Remember that guy?
Marshall’s 36 points on Thursday set a new season-high mark and were just two points shy of his career-high scoring mark of 38 points, which came last season at the New York Knicks.
4-of-4: An AJ Johnson sighting
Mixed in with all the ridiculousness Thursday’s game provided was an AJ Johnson sighting. The 21-year-old second-year end-of-the-bench enigma scored 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting in 15 minutes, easily his best performance since coming over to the Mavs seven games ago from the Washington Wizards in the Anthony Davis trade.
The Mavericks sent one diminutive long-term project of a point guard out in that trade in Jaden Hardy. Does the team want to take on another in Johnson by holding onto him this offseason?
