Player Grades: Assessing the Mavericks’ 118-113 win over the Miami Heat

When we say it was all hands on deck, we really mean it in Dallas’ final game before the NBA All-Star break.

The Dallas Mavericks (30-26) turned in a complete team game with a thoroughly incomplete roster on Thursday, coming away with a 118-113 win over the Miami Heat (25-28) at American Airlines Center. Seven of the nine Mavericks who played against the Heat scored in double figures, and Dallas found a way to get the stops the team needed in the fourth quarter after a game that see-sawed back and forth all night. The Mavs and Heat exchanged the lead 32 times on Thursday, and there were 15 ties between the two teams desperate for a win going into the All-Star break.

The Mavs’ fourth win in their last five games was every bit as awkward to watch — perhaps even ugly, at times — as it was thrilling down the stretch. Here’s how the boys graded out — one last time before they can breathe a sigh of relief and kick their feet up over a well-deserved break.

Max Christie: A-

19 Points / 5 Rebounds / 5 Assists / 3 Steals / 1 Block (39 Minutes)

Cormac Karl Christie, everyone’s favorite Maverick, was inserted into the starting lineup of this Mavericks triage unit on Thursday, and he was nothing if not consistent. His only misstep was deferring a little to the chuckers on the roster — namely, Spencer Dinwiddie, for stretches in the first half. He hit a beauty of a 3-pointer from the left corner as the shot clock expired with 6:35 left in the second to tie the game, 37-37, though.

Christie turned the ball over on his first touch of the second half, and the loose ball led to a wide open jumper from Tyler Herro on the other end. He hit a tough runner in the lane over Duncan Robinson later in the third to inch the Mavs in front 84-80. He nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing after an offensive board from Kessler Edwards to pull the Mavericks to within one, down 102-101 with under five minutes to play. He forced the issue and converted inside on a key bucket that gave the Mavs a 116-111 lead with 1:07 to play, but bobbled the ball and air-balled his 3-point attempt the next time down, resulting in a shot click violation. Luckily for Dallas, it didn’t cost any more than one empty possession.

Dante Exum: A+

27 Points / 3 Rebounds / 4 Assists / 2 Steals / 1 Block (24 Minutes)

Exum drained his first two 3-point attempts, late in the second quarter and early in the third. His second make from deep gave him a new season-high point total, with 17, and the third quarter was still young at that point. He connected on 11-of-13 shot attempts in the win, making him far and away the most efficient Maverick of the night. Exum was tenacious on the defensive end as well.

He secured a long offensive board that led to a nice drive from Dinwiddie with eight minutes left in the third to tie things up, 65-65. Exum was a revelation early in the fourth, scoring on strong drives on consecutive possessions. He took the steal that led to the second with an all-out sprint down the court, throwing himself at the basket with no regard for his own health or safety. You’ve got to salute the hustle, but even more than that, the clutch cojones. Two more big-time drives down the stretch extended the Mavs lead to 110-102 with 2:30 left to play.

Jaden Hardy: D-

2 Points / 5 Rebounds / 3 Assists (19 Minutes)

Hardy came into the game in the first quarter, got bailed out with a trip to the free-throw line on a play when he was wildly out of control with the ball and then bricked two free throws. Then, less than a minute later, he got hung on the rim on a dunk attempt. He was 0-for-8 from the field, but the ball continued to stop when it hit his hands. Why, Jaden, why?

Hardy and Dinwiddie combined for one of the costliest and most boneheaded turnovers of the game midway through the fourth quarter. Whether Dinwiddie overshot Hardy or Hardy just didn’t see the ball into his hands along the baseline, the end result was a Nikola Jovic lay-up in transition the other way that put the Heat up 100-96.

Olivier-Maxence Prosper: B-

10 Points / 3 Rebounds / 1 Steal / (23 Minutes)

O-Max was pretty solid overall, hitting 5-of-9 from the field. He missed a comically bad dunk attempt in the fourth quarter, though. Prosper was part of the undersized frontcourt that gave up 16 offensive rebounds to the Heat on Thursday, try as they might to limit the bigger Heat to one shot per possession.

Kessler Edwards: A

15 Points / 9 Rebounds / 3 Assists / (40 Minutes)

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Kessler Edwards… center? You betcha, I guess. Edwards turned the Heat on high and started to cook in the second half of Thursday’s win. He hit three big 3-pointers in the third quarter, including a run-stopper out of a timeout with 5:39 left in the frame to pull the Mavericks to within 72-68.

His third 3-ball of the quarter came from the left corner on a find from Jaden Hardy, to put Dallas up 78-72. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the third and all 15 in the second half. It was his first double-digit scoring game of the year. His leaning finish on a tough angle inside through Kel’el Ware moved the Mavericks in front 103-102. That was a big bucket.

Spencer Dinwiddie: B-

18 Points / 3 Rebounds / 6 Assists / (36 Minutes)

Dinwiddie missed his first four field goal attempts and then converted a scooping, driving basket early in the second that looked uglier than some of his misses. In the absence of any real on-floor leadership, Dinwiddie was left to his own devices — in other words, he was firing at will. But the blind squirrel found a nut with 8:51 left before halftime, when Dinwiddie flew down the floor in transition and completed a 3-point play on a nice find from Dante Exum to put the Mavericks up 30-25.

Dinwiddie banked in his first 3-pointer of the game, a soaring, ridiculous heave that somehow found a home early in the fourth to give Dallas an 87-85 advantage. He went 1-for-7 from deep against the Heat.

Naji Marshall: B

12 Points / 9 Rebounds / 4 Assists / 1 Steal (33 Minutes)

Marshall needed to be more aggressive offensively in the first half. He only got off two shots, subjecting fans to an onslaught of poor shot selection from Dinwiddie. What he lacked in volume, though, he more than made up for with one huge 3-point make with 3:43 to play. After connecting on the game-winning basket against the Warriors less than 24 hours before, he nailed a huge shot from beyond the arc as part of a 10-0 run that put the Mavs up 106-102.

Brandon Williams: B

11 Points / 1 Rebound / 3 Assists / (25 Minutes)

Save us, B-Will! He hit some big shots in some big moments, including one deep in the right corner with nine minutes to play that put Dallas up 94-92. His fifth foul, though, came on an Alex Burks 3-point attempt, one of the very few boneheaded plays we can lay at Williams’ feet in his eye-opening two-game run.

Kylor Kelly: B

4 Points / 2 Rebounds (3 Minutes)

Kelly did some good things, scoring twice inside in his brief stint in the first half. It was telling that Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd chose to go small for the other 45 minutes of the game instead of giving Kelly a chance to follow up with more, especially in the face of a big night from Ware, the Heat big man.

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