When it’s one of those nights, it’s one of those nights.
Too often this season that phrase generally suggests a tough situation became even tougher for the Mavericks, but that wasn’t the case in Saturday’s win against the Bulls, when the Dallas offense finally erupted. The club surpassed the century mark in scoring for the second time in almost in a month.
Everything worked well. The ball was flying, the shots were falling, and the defense came up with big plays. Mavs fans even got some good news after the game, as Dirk Nowitzki said he hopes it’s a days, not weeks timetable with his Achilles.
Here’s a recap of some of the most eye-popping numbers from Saturday. It was certainly one of “those” nights for the Mavericks, and hopefully for the players in that locker room there will be more like them to come.
– Deron Williams recorded a season-high 15 assists, his most in a regulation game since February 2015. He became the first Maverick to dish out at least 15 in a regulation game since Jason Kidd did so in October 2010, per Basketball-Reference. More impressively, Williams turned the ball over just once. It was his first game with at least 15 assists and only one giveaway since that same 2010-11 season. (On his big assist night in 2010, Kidd handed out 18 dimes and turned the ball over just once. Thirteen times in his career he recorded a 15/1 game, including five for Dallas. What a player.)
– As a team, the Mavericks recorded a season-high 31 assists, their most in a game since March 2016. “I thought we got a lot of swings, got some open looks, got movement and easier shots, as opposed to just straight isolations,” said Harrison Barnes, who finished with only one dime but was the beneficiary of his teammates’ passes, Williams in particular. He shot 4 of 7 following a Williams pass, per NBA Stats. (Barnes, by the way, was also a season-high +32 in 37 minutes.)
– Wesley Matthews drained a season-high seven 3s on 11 attempts. He’s been absolute money from deep lately, now shooting 44.9 percent from beyond the arc in his last 11 games. During that time, he’s averaging 16.6 points per game on just 12.8 shot attempts with a 56.0 effective field goal percentage. Those are elite-level numbers for a shooter in this league. His hot shooting might eventually simmer down at least a little bit, but he’s more than bounced back from his slow start to the 2016-17 season.
– Dwight Powell and Dorian Finney-Smith both registered career-high scoring nights, tallying 17 and 11, respectively. Meanwhile, Andrew Bogut scored a season-best eight points. The extra production from the bench players in particular was very important for Dallas, as all of the non-starting groups registered a cumulative positive plus-minus for just the fifth time all season, per Mavs analytics. The Mavericks are now 4-1 in those games. Injuries have truly decimated the starting lineup and much of the bench as the season has gone on, which has forced backups into starting roles and deep reserves into significant backup minutes. That has a domino effect on the back end of the rotation, which has been getting beat by healthier opposing second units. But on this night the Mavs’ reserves were more than capable of keeping up with the Bulls. (The starting group’s plus-minus of +12 also tied for the best in a game this season.)
– The Mavs defense allowed just 0.77 points per possession on trips when the Bulls were unable to get the ball into the lane, per Mavs analytics. That isn’t a season-high mark (0.40 against the Pelicans was) but it continues this trend: Dallas is 4-0 when allowing 0.83 PPP or better against opposing offenses in those situations, while the Mavs haven’t won a game when opponents score 0.84 or higher.
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