Final: Magic 95, Mavs 87
Box Score | Highlights
Behind the Box Score
What a difference a change of quarter can make. The Mavericks scored just 0.667 points per possession in the first quarter, suffering through an 0-of-11 start from the field en route to just 16 points in the frame. But in the second, Jonathan Gibson’s hot shooting led the Mavs to 29 points on an average of 1.318 PPP. That is a remarkable improvement. Dallas has had several hot quarters in recent games, but it’s the inefficient frames they’ve got to avoid.
Dallas made a concerted effort in this game to push the pace, not necessarily in terms of transition and fast breaks, but more the speed with which they got into their offense. The Mavs have averaged just over 42 possessions per game this season in “Pace 21,” times when the ball crosses the halfcourt line in three seconds or less. Tonight, the Mavs recorded 69 such possessions. That is obviously a significant uptick in tempo. Sometimes playing the slow game is good because it allows the offense to get set, but on the flip side pushing the tempo can be good because it prevents the defense from doing so.
Notebook
The Mavs hung around in this thing for the entire 48 minutes, despite not only being severely shorthanded but also playing on the second night of a back-to-back against a well-rested Orlando team. Eventually, though, depth and fatigue may have caught up to the Mavs down the stretch, as the jumpers stopped falling while the Magic kept finding the bottom of the net. Dallas put together another very good defensive showing tonight, however, which is hopefully something the club will carry forward throughout the season. The Mavs have a top-10 defense as it stands now, so the hope is they can maintain that quality and eventually solve some of the offensive issues that have hurt them so far. (Many of those, of course, could be solved with the return of Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the injured players.) Credit to the Mavericks, though, for putting up a fight for the second night in a row.
Jonathan Gibson enjoyed a red-hot shooting night from the field, finishing with 26 points in just the second NBA game of his career. He’s the first Mavs rookie to score 20 in a game since Rodrigue Beaubois during the 2009-10 season, per Basketball-Reference. Gibson’s ability to create shots for himself makes him a very valuable piece to this offense while three of the top Mavs guards are out due to injury, and his long-range shooting is equally important. Needless to say, Dallas can use all the scoring it can get, and this was a night when Gibson was able to provide instant offense off the bench. Similarly, D.J. Augustin had a huge game off the bench for the Magic. Who could have ever guessed this game would come down to a battle of backup point guards?
The Mavericks made it a point to get to the free throw line, taking 27 on the night, one off the team’s season high of 28. When shots aren’t falling, as has unfortunately been the case in several games this season for the shorthanded Mavs, the best solution to creating offense and generating points is to relentlessly attack the basket, and more often than not, doing so will also lead to plenty of free throw attempts. Dallas has been one of the best free throw-shooting teams in the NBA basically since the turn of the millennium, so it only makes sense that the club would do whatever it could to get to the charity stripe as often as possible.
That dribble penetration was coming from several different directions, too. The Mavs offense is at its best when multiple players can attack during the same possession. Watch the example in the gif below. The defense moves and scrambles so much that it’s much easier for offensive players to get open.
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What’s Next
The Mavs (2-10) play the San Antonio Spurs (10-3) on Monday at the AT&T Center at 7:30 p.m. Central.
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