It’s an unflattering commentary on any NBA team’s season to deem November games must-win, but that is the Mavericks’ reality.
Fortuitously for Dallas, it rallied from a woeful first half behind rookie Cooper Flagg and pulled out a 118-115 victory over 2-14 New Orleans on Friday night in American Airlines Center.
Nonetheless, Saturday’s quick-turn home game against Memphis also looms as important. Why? Because the cushy home-heavy schedule Dallas (5-12) has failed to exploit is about to get road-onerous.
Flagg led the Mavericks with a career-high 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists, but it was ex-Pelican Naji Marshall’s 3-pointer with 30.7 second left that gave Dallas a 116-115 lead.
Mavericks
After P.J. Washington Jr. (24 points, nine rebounds) blocked a 3-pointer by Pels rookie Jeremiah Fears, Max Christie sank two free throws with 10.8 seconds left, his 22nd and 23rd points. The Mavericks forced New Orleans into a pair of 3-point misses to hold on for just their fourth clutch win in 13 attempts.
“The character of this group is that they’re going to compete,” said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, whose team once again played without a slew of injured players, and this time without D’Angelo Russell, due to illness.
“They’re never out of the game, this group,” he said. “Illness, injury, they trust each other, and you saw that again at a high level.”
Flagg’s previous career high was 26 points, on Nov. 10 against Milwaukee. He missed Dallas’ last game, a two-point loss to the Knicks, with an illness.
Although Flagg’s 12-of-19 overall shooting and team-high 12 fourth-quarter points were impressive, Kidd commended the 18-year-old for his patience. Without Russell, and with Brandon Williams shooting 1 for 12, Flagg ran the offense down the stretch.
Kidd said he spoke to Flagg at halftime and emphasized that he needed to be more assertive and go to the basket.
“I think also having my teammates, guys like Max, when they get everyone involved like that, it just spreads the court so much more and gives more lanes,” Flagg said. “So I think just listening to what J-Kidd said, he knows the game at such a high level, gotta listen to him.”
Six of Flagg’s points came in the final five minutes and two of his assists occurred in the final 2:40, including on Marshall’s game-winning 3.
“You can say that was a no-point-guard lineup or you could say Cooper was the point guard,” Kidd said. “However you want to write it, I’ll leave that to you guys.”
The Mavericks trailed by as much as 53-38, but roared back with a 26-11 run to start the third quarter, taking their first lead since the opening minutes, 75-74, on a Flagg dunk.
The score was tied at 85 entering the fourth quarter and the lead pingponged down the stretch.
With New Orleans leading 107-105 and Flagg at the free throw line, Fears goaded Marshall into an ill-advised technical foul, which the Pelicans turned into a 3-point margin.
“He felt the ‘T’ was needed to get the defense in gear,” Kidd joked of Marshall. “He’ll tell you that helped us get three stops in a row, so we can go with that. But I love his competitiveness.”
The Mavericks persevered, never mind that this was a matchup of two Western Conference bottom-dwellers. Any win is welcome at this point. Entering Friday, Dallas was 3-8 in AAC, where it had lost five of its last six.
The Mavericks had been outscored at home by an average of 117.8 to 112.9, but at least they could tell themselves that many of this season’s losses were winnable.
They are now 4-9 in clutch games, which the NBA defines as games in which the margin is five points or fewer during the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.
“We’re getting better and better each game,” Christie said. “The encouraging part is we’ve lost our lost games by one or two possessions, for the most part. Obviously, not winning is never fun, but we’re right there.”
The Mavericks were coming off a 113-111 Wednesday home loss to the Knicks in which Williams was controversially called for an offensive foul in the final seconds as he seemingly hit the tying shot.
“Sometimes this league can be cruel, or you lose some games that you felt that you could have won,” Kidd said. “But it has shown that we can stay together through a tough time and find a way to win.”
It hasn’t helped that the Mavericks haven’t gained meaningful traction in American Airlines Center. After Saturday’s game against Memphis, 13 of Dallas’ 17 games will have occurred in AAC.
The Mavericks likely will rue their home failures when the schedule dramatically flips starting Monday night, with a game at Miami to start a four-game road trip.
That trip also begins road stretches of seven of the next 10 games, and 10 of the next 14.
Perhaps even more formidable is the step-up in competition, upcoming opponents that include the 11-4 Lakers, 11-3 Denver (twice), 15-1 Oklahoma City and 13-2 Detroit.
Dallas’ next 11 games are against opponents that entered Friday night with a combined 93-55 record (62.8%).
Sloppiness also continues to be an issue for Dallas, which entered Friday night averaging 17.6 turnovers at home. On Friday they surpassed that total with four minutes left, with a one-point margin at the time.
“Turnovers, obviously, not even at the end of the game, but just throughout the game,” Christie said. “We’ve got to be able to value those possessions a little bit more.”
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