After P. J. Washington scored a season-high 26 points in Friday’s 112-100 triumph over the Utah Jazz, coach Dusty May made no bones about the eight-year veteran forward’s importance to the Dallas Mavericks.

“We need P. J. to be a three-point shooter for us,” May said. “He’s got a beautiful shot.

“He’s one of those guys that we played him at the five against San Antonio (on Wednesday), we played him at the four, we played him at the three when we want to go big.”

Wherever the Mavs played Washington against Utah, he made the Jazz pay dearly. That was particularly true in the first half when Washington scored 16 of his 22-first half points in the second quarter.

In the first half which ended tied at 57-57, Washington was 6-of-7 from the field, including 5-of-6 from behind the third-point line.

“I love him shooting with that amount of confidence, because we need it,” May said. “But overall, just a really good game by P. J., especially in the first half.

“We won the hustle plays in the first half, but without his shots we’ll have a deficit.”

Overall, Washington was 7-of-14 from the floor, including 6-of-10 from downtown against Utah.

“When anybody has the hot hand you just want to feed them,” Washington said. “That goes with anybody on the team. When you get the feeling of it’s your night, you want the ball to come to you and you just want to shoot openly.

“Obviously shots were falling, so it made my game a lot easier. But in general I just try to be the glue guy for everybody and just to clean up everybody’s messes and just make everything stick.”

Washington said Mavs shooting coach, Rob Fodor, has been working judiciously with him on improving the mechanics of his shot. And the improvements have been very noticeable.

“It’s been huge,” Washington said. “He’s done a lot with my shot so far.

“I just trust everything he’s been telling me, and it’s been doing wonders for me so far.”

Washington also admits that with opponents trying to limit the touches Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving receives, he’s finding himself more wide open than he can remember.

“I don’t know how that happened,” Washington said. “It just kind of happened like that.

“Obviously, when you’ve got Kyrie and Cooper they’re going to draw a lot of attention and you got a lot of guys that share the ball. I just try to find myself, get my feet under me and just try to shoot it with confidence.”

But it wasn’t just Washington’s offense against Utah that drew praise from May. He was also impressed with his performance on defense.

“He may have told on himself tonight,” May said. “He really sat down and guarded a couple of quick fast point guards and stayed in front of the ball and got some deflections.

“So, he was really, really good.”

Washington noted that backup center Santi Aldama was also really, really good in his debut with the Mavs. In 13 minutes against the Jazz, Aldama scored eight points and collected nine rebounds – with four of them coming off the offensive glass.

“I love hm,” Washington said. “I’ve been telling everybody I didn’t realize he was this tall. He’s all of seven feet.

“I think he’s a great player for us. Obviously, he was killing it on the offensive glass (Friday), he can shoot, he can stretch the floor (and) he can play multiple positions on the defensive end. I think it was a great addition for us and I’m super excited to have him back.”

May also is super excited to have Washington coming off his best game of the season.

“Because each game looks so different now, we have to play the game in front of us,” May said. “Some nights it’s going to be up and down, some night it’s going to be a slugfest, some nights we got to defend the three better.

“(Washington) just gives you so much versatility offensively and defensively because he’s able to get to the rim and finish. His spacing now is going to give us a whole other dimension because he’s being so aggressive shooting the three. He just has to continue to stay hungry and get better.”

Here’s what else to look for:

*This is the front end of a back-to-back for the Mavs, who will finish this quick three-game homestand with a Monday night game against the Indiana Pacers. The Mavs are 1-0 on the first leg of a back-to-back, having won in Indiana, 121-105, on Oct. 23.

*Michael Porter Jr. (21.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg), Plano native Julius Randle (21 ppg, 7.1 rpg), Mikel Brown Jr. (12 ppg), Nolan Traore (12 ppg) and Moritz Wagner (10.4 ppg) are the primary production players for the Nets.

*The Mavs knew they had a secret weapon waiting in the wings to show up in center Santi Aldama. And after not playing since undergoing surgery on his right knee last March while he was playing for the Memphis Grizzlies, Aldama played his first game for the Mavs on Friday against Utah and responded with eight points and nine rebounds in just 13 minutes. “He’s a mismatch nightmare,” Mavs forward P. J. Washington said. “Obviously, being seven feet, there’s not a lot of guys who can guard him. He can play on the perimeter, he can play inside, so I think he’s just a mismatch nightmare for us and I can’t wait to utilize him in a lot of different ways. He’s a great player, he’s smart out there as well, so it’s definitely fun playing with guys like that.”

*The Nets will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back after playing in Atlanta on Saturday. Porter contributed 26 points and 10 rebounds in Wednesday’s 114-104 win over Charlotte, and Randle added 22 points in that game.

Brooklyn Nets (2-6) vs. Dallas Mavericks (5-4)   

WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 8 | 6:30 p.m.   

WHERE: American Airlines Center, Dallas   

TV: KFAA-29, MavsTV+   

RADIO: 105.3 The Fan, 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)