Wesley Matthews put on a shooting performance for the ages last night in Washington, knocking down 10 three-pointers and giving the Mavericks a sorely needed scoring boost en route to a 116-104 road win.
He matched his personal career-high scoring mark with 36 points and tied the Mavs’ franchise record for made treys in a game, matching George McCloud’s total set on Dec. 16, 1995. McCloud was 10 of 12 from beyond the arc that night. (It should be noted, however, that the three-point line was two feet closer to the basket from 1995-97.)
Matthews’ 17 three-point attempts tied for second-most in a game in Mavericks history, matching McCloud’s 17 in 1996 and trailing his 20 attempts that same year. But Matthews hit 58.8 percent of his attempts, while the former Maverick didn’t shoot higher than 41.2 percent from deep in either of those contests. By volume, then, this was one of the most impressive shooting displays in Mavs’ regular season history.
| Player | Date | 3-PT Made | 3-PT Attempted | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dirk Nowitzki | Jan. 27, 2004 | 8 | 11 | 43 |
| Rodrigue Beaubois | March 27, 2010 | 9 | 11 | 40 |
| Wesley Matthews | Dec. 6, 2015 | 10 | 17 | 36 |
| George McCloud | Dec. 16, 1995 | 10 | 12 | 36 |
| Michael Finley | March 26, 2005 | 8 | 8 | 26 |
According to Basketball-Reference, Matthews became the first player to hit double-digit longballs this season, and he joined Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson as the only NBA players with a 10-trey game since the start of the 2014-15 campaign. Mavs forward Chandler Parsons drained 10 of them himself on Jan. 24, 2014 and is one of just 10 players to reach the 10-three mark since 2013-14.
The 2-guard also became just the second player since at least 1985-86 to reach the following milestones in a single game: 10 three-pointers, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. The other is Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson, who did it on Dec. 16, 2013, according to Basketball-Reference.
Matthews finished with 12 made field goals in the game, becoming the first Maverick to reach that mark all season, if you can believe it. In fact, he’s the first Dallas player to knock down at least 12 shots in a single game since Monta Ellis hit 16 shots against San Antonio on March 24, 2015. The last time Dirk Nowitzki hit a dozen shots was April 16, 2014 against Memphis. That stat is as much a testament to the Mavs’ well-balanced offensive approach as anything else, as the Mavs have long had a deep attack. Heck, Mark Cuban even expressed his desire before last season to not have a single player average at least 20 points, at that wish came true.
The shooting guard finished the game with a sizzling 75.4 true shooting percentage and a 73.9 effective field goal percentage. Unfortunately for Matthews but fortunately for the Mavs, the rest of the Mavericks were also so red-hot that the wing couldn’t even crack the top-five in true shooting percentage among his teammates. That played a huge part in the Mavs’ victory, but it knocks Matthews down a list that on most nights he’d find himself atop.
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