The Dallas Mavericks defeated (21-36) the Brooklyn Nets 123-114 at Barclays Center on Tuesday, nabbing just their seventh road win of the season.<\/p>\n
In a game that came together a bit helter-skelter after both teams had to fly in on the day of because of the blizzard conditions along the East coast, Dallas built enough of a lead to weather a fourth quarter comeback attempt from Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Dallas had six players in double digits as the team shot 59% from the floor, and did enough in the end to overcome a 23-point night from Michael Porter Jr.<\/p>\n
That it even got close enough to register as a clutch game speaks to the up-and-down nature of this Dallas team in its current state. After scoring a season-high 76 points in the first half, the Mavs did just enough to close it out down the stretch and secure a back-to-back win after their 10-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
With Khris Middleton, the team\u2019s high-scorer from their win against the Pacers, leaving mid-game with a shoulder injury and big man Daniel Gafford playing only 17 minutes because of foul trouble, a perfect, Marvin Bagley-shaped hole opened up in Dallas\u2019 rotation, and the big man stepped up.<\/p>\n
Marvin Bagley scored 22 points off the bench in just 20 minutes to lead the Mavs in scoring. As the Mavs navigate the rest of this season with an eye firmly on the future, the idea of locking down Bagley is looking better and better. He\u2019s on an expiring contract, so if Dallas likes what they see, it\u2019s never too soon to add a little stability to a roster in flux.<\/p>\n
Since the end of last season, when Brandon Williams was getting minutes on an injury-ravaged Mavericks team that was limping across the finish line, Dallas has cycled several potential replacements \u2014 none of whom have stuck quite like Williams has.<\/p>\n
Dante Exum\u2019s return never materialized, Jaden Hardy never stuck in the rotation, the D\u2019Angelo Russell experiment never showed life, and the early momentum of rookie Ryan Nembhard has slowed dramatically. Through it all, the once and future \u201cplaceholder until Kyrie gets back\u201d remains Brandon Williams.<\/p>\n
Against the Nets (15-42), Williams notched his third career double-double with 19 points and 10 assists while shooting 9-for-11 from the floor. There\u2019s something admirable about a guy who really takes the smallest of opportunities and makes hay.<\/p>\n
On one hand, there\u2019s something admirable about simply being who you are, and if you are the Mavericks, you are not good at shooting 3-pointers. On Tuesday, the team attempted only 23 \u2014 a far cry from the league average of 37 per game \u2014 and made a respectable eight, good for 35% on the night. It should be said, though, that five of those eight came courtesy of Klay Thompson, who went 5-for-10. Dallas\u2019 only other true outside shooter, Max Christie, is in something of a slump. After opening the season as one of the best in the league from the corner, he\u2019s shooting just 31% from deep in the month of February, and tonight\u2019s 1-for-5 effort won\u2019t help that math.<\/p>\n
In Christie\u2019s defense, his big two-handed dunk in the fourth was functionally the dagger that ended any comeback hopes Brooklyn may have been harboring. Still, so long as Christie remains in the starting lineup, and especially if Cooper Flagg remains out, there\u2019s going to be plenty of shots to go around, and he shouldn\u2019t let an off night like tonight (or an off month) prevent him from letting them fly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks defeated (21-36) the Brooklyn Nets 123-114 at Barclays Center on Tuesday, nabbing just their seventh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,35518,36012,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-144502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-mavericks-game-coverage","tag-mavericks-scores","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}