WASHINGTON — Staying home usually is the epitome of a depressing Saturday night, but no one could blame the fans who opted to leave roughly 6,000 Capital One Center seats empty on this evening.
Staying home or going elsewhere definitely was more prudent than paying to watch Eastern Conference cellar-dweller Washington host last-in-the-West Dallas.
Someone, though, had to win, and it was the Mavericks who pulled out a 111-105 victory, no doubt to their immense relief. Naji Marshall’s 30 points led five Mavericks in double figures, including P.J. Washington, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Dallas outscored Washington 29-19 in the fourth quarter, ended its four-game losing streak and “improved” to 3-7. This is the Mavericks’ worst 10-game start since the 2018-19 season, when they also began 3-7.
Mavericks
But, hey, at least they averted a second loss this season to Washington (1-9), which dropped its eighth straight game since beating the Mavericks by 10 in Dallas.
“I think it started with our defense,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said of the fourth quarter, adding “and I thought we did a really good job of executing the plays down the stretch.”
One of the primary executors was rookie Cooper Flagg, who scored only 12 points, but grabbed six rebounds. Of his six assists, two came in the final five minutes.
This also was perhaps Flagg’s most physical performance, as he repeatedly attacked the basket, especially in the fourth quarter.
“He was great,” Kidd said. “Some of his attacks to the rim, I thought he got fouled on and so we’ll go look at the tape. But I thought he was aggressive.
“I thought there for a while he just took control of the game with the pass, with the tempo, being able to find teammates. I thought he did a high level of that when we needed it, his trust of making a play for a teammate.”
On one of his fourth-quarter drives, Flagg banged his shooting hand on the rim, but after the game he said he was fine. Just another night of 18-year-old Flagg learning about the increased physicality between college and the NBA.
“You have to use physicality,” he said. “You know everybody’s gonna be physical with you. So if you’re not ready to kind of use your bump and play with physicality yourself, you can’t really get anywhere.
“So I’m just learning that. It’s been great being alongside guys like PJ and Najee, two dynamic wings that use their bodies so well get into the rim and using that physicality. I’ve just learned so much from them already in those areas.”
Marshall grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, playing at five different high schools. He returns home to train every summer and has immense pride in being part of the rich heritage of Washington, D.C.-area basketball talent.
“Just comfortable,” he said of playing in Capital One Arena. “I know a lot of people out here in the stands and working at the arena.”
Marshall sank 9-of-14 shots from the field and 9-of-11 on free-throws.
“Taking what the game gives me, being free, having fun,” Marshall said. “I think a lot of us just had in our head, trying to be perfect and not mess up. It’s caused us to look out of whack sometimes.”
The Mavericks understand that to fans what matters is the bottom line – not that on Saturday Dereck Lively II missed his sixth game; Anthony Davis missed his fifth despite being upgraded to questionable; and Klay Thompson was a late-afternoon scratch due to an illness.
The pressure to win, and the growing external noise surrounding embattled Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, will ratchet all the more during this week’s four-game homestand, starting against Milwaukee on Monday.
Both teams were playing the second-night of back-to-backs and coming off humbling defeats. The Mavericks trailed by as many as 35 points at Memphis, while Washington fell by 34 to Cleveland.
The difference is the Wizards’ loss was here in Capital One Center, while the Mavericks didn’t arrive at their Washington, D.C. hotel until 3 a.m. — following a late flight and lengthy delay in the chartered bus picking them up from Dulles Airport.
It wasn’t a surprise, then, that for the third straight game Dallas fell into an early hole, 16-9.
The difference this time was the Mavericks dug deep and summoned a 19-0 run en route to taking a 35-24 lead after one quarter.
Perhaps most notably, 10 of the 11 Mavericks who played in the first quarter scored.
The Wizards, though, gradually pulled ahead by outscoring Dallas 29-22 in the second quarter and 33-25 in the third, limiting the Mavericks to 18-of-46 (39%) shooting.
Washington carried an 86-82 lead in the fourth quarter and took as much as a 94-87 lead, but the Mavericks fought back and took a 96-94 lead on a Brandon Williams 3-pointer with 6:40 left.
Williams finished with 14 points and six assists. Mavericks bench players outscored Wizards counterparts 59-44. Backup center and two-way player Moussa Cisse had his second straight energetic performance, with five points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes.
“That’s my boy right there,” Marshall said. “We’re hard on Moussa because he has a lot of potential. We want him to be great and he played unbelievable for us tonight, blocked shots, rebounding and ran the floor.
“That’s the stuff that don’t show up in stats, but he was a major factor in what we did tonight.”
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