The Pacers continue to be a puzzle for the Mavs and have won five of the last six games in Dallas.
The Dallas Mavericks (4-3) fell down to the Indiana Pacers by 13 points early in the first quarter and by 15 points again in the second quarter but battled back both times, but couldn’t hang onto a lead in Monday’s 134-127 loss at the American Airlines Center.
Myles Turner and Rick Carlisle love to stick it to the Mavs, and they both did again in the teams’ first meeting of the 2024-25 season. Dallas didn’t defend the 3-point line well enough on a hot shooting night for the Pacers, and the Mavs didn’t have a game-changing run in them on the second night of a back-to-back.
Let’s see who scored well and who deserves detention. It’s hard to identify who on the floor was directly responsible for a lot of the leak-outs and easy buckets the Pacers got in transition, so some of these individual grades may seem a little inflated.
Luka Dončić: B
32 points, 7 rebounds, 15 assists
Luka Dončić kept the Mavs afloat all night long, hitting timely 3-pointers and getting to the line against any defender the Pacers threw at him. He had it going from the line, hitting 12 of his first 13 attempts until he missed two in a row early in the fourth with a chance to go back in front. It wasn’t an efficient game on the second night of the back-to-back set, as Dončić shot just 9-of-24 from the field and 4-of-10 from 3-point range.
This was not one of his better defensive games, as he was weak on some closeouts on Indiana’s 3-point shooters, but a 15:2 assist-to-turnover ratio absolves a lot.
Kyrie Irving: A-
27 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists
Kyrie Irving hit an off-balance 3-pointer on a nifty dribble handoff at the top of the key with just 2:39 left in the first half to give the Mavericks their first lead of the game. Then he hit a running pull-up 3-pointer less than a minute later to put the Mavs back in front, 57-55 before Indiana took a 63-59 lead into the break. He scored 17 of his 17 points in the second half on 5-of-8 shooting.
Naji Marshall: A+
20 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists
Naji Marshall hit his first 3-pointer of the season with 2:44 left in the first quarter after missing his first nine attempts of the season over six games. He drove for a contested leaner in the lane on the next possession to pull the Mavs to within two, down just 27-25 at the time. He scored 11 points in the first quarter (matching a career-high for points in a quarter) when the Mavs desperately needed someone to give them a spark to start the game.
He was effective in minutes playing small-ball power forward in that lineup that Dallas had to go to for longer stretches at a time, with Daniel Gafford in foul trouble and Dereck Lively II out with a shoulder injury. Monday’s loss was Marshall’s sixth career 20-plus point game.
Klay Thompson: B-
16 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists
Klay Thompson hit 4-of-8 from 3-point range and was generally solid in the loss. He was also one of several Mavericks who couldn’t consistently keep guys in front of him.
PJ Washington: B-
8 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks
P.J. Washington’s blocked shot on Andrew Nembhard’s drive with 48 seconds left in the third left to the fast break that led to the Spencer Dinwiddie 3-pointer that gave the Mavericks a 95-94 lead. His shot wasn’t falling, as he hit just 2-of-9 from the field and 0-of-5 from 3-point territory, but he found ways to make plays on both ends of the court.
He brought Dallas back to within five points, down 130-125 with 1:03 to play, on a tough drive through contact, but the Mavericks couldn’t get any closer than that in the end.
Daniel Gafford: C+
8 points, 4 rebounds
Early foul trouble kept Daniel Gafford from putting much of a stamp on the first half. He definitely has trouble defending big men like Myles Turner, who led the Pacers with 30 points and 11 rebounds on Monday. He scored his first bucket of the game in the third quarter, a tough diving bucket in the lane on a pass from Kyrie Irving to keep the Mavs within striking distance, down 77-70 at the time.
Spencer Dinwiddie: A-
14 points, 3 rebounds
Spencer Dinwiddie made the most of his 23 minutes and hit big buckets for the Mavs in the fourth quarter when the Pacers defense forced the ball from the hands of Dončić or Irving. He shot 6-of-8 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point land in the loss.
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