Stats Rundown: 5 numbers to know from the Mavericks 129-128 overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings

DeMar DeRozan torched the shorthanded Mavs as the injury train keeps rolling for Dallas.

The Dallas Mavericks (28-26) started Monday’s 129-128 overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings (27-26) shorthanded, and they were completely debilitated by the time it was all said and done at American Airlines Center.

Daniel Gafford was the latest Maverick big man to suffer an injury, as the last remaining legitimate piece in the Mavs’ frontcourt went down with a sprained knee early in the second quarter. Somehow, the much bigger Kings couldn’t put the Mavs away, but finally got the job done in overtime.

Forward DeMar DeRozan piled up 42 points on 15-of-22 shooting, and Zach Lavine and Malik Monk chipped in 17 points apiece in the win. Kyrie Irving scored 22 of his 30 points after halftime and grabbed nine boards, while Spencer Dinwiddie scored 12 of his 20 points in the first quarter of the loss.

Here are five stats that tell the tale of the latest tale of woe in Dallas Mavericks canon.

22-5: Mavs run to end first quarter

The Dallas bench fueled a huge 22-5 run to end the first after the Mavs fell behind 22-13 on Keon Ellis’ corner 3-pointer midway through the quarter. All 12 of Spencer Dinwiddie’s first-quarter points came during the run. He canned three of his four 3-point attempts and scored on a nifty, leaning 3-point play with 2:29 left in the first to tie the game, 25-25.

From there, Naji Marshall hit a 3-ball, Daniel Gafford slammed home an alley-oop, Jaden Hardy got in on the scoring act, and Dinwiddie made good on his third 3-pointer of the quarter with just 30 seconds left in the frame, giving the Mavericks a 35-27 lead after one.

The Dallas bench scored 19 of the team’s 35 first-quarter points.

21: DeMar DeRozan’s first-half scoring

DeRozan came into the game averaging fewer than one 3-pointer made per game this season, and that’s not an outlier statistic. He’s never had a season in which he’s made more 3-point makes than games played. That’s why it was so maddening to see him go 3-for-3 from deep against the Mavs in the first half on Monday.

DeRozan scored a game-high 21 points in the first half on a sizzling 8-of-9 shooting from the field. Domantas Sabonis went 4-for-6 and even Zach LaVine was efficient on offense for the Kings throughout the first half, shooting 6-of-12 from the floor. Sacramento went 26-of-43 (60.5%) from the field in the first half, including 13-of-19 after Gafford went out with a sprained knee with 10:46 left in the first half.

DeRozan rose up for a pull-up 3-pointer from near the top of the key with just three seconds left in the first half, and it was pure, sending the game to halftime tied, 61-61. DeRozan would score 21 more across the second half and overtime for a game-high and a new season-high mark for the forward in his 16th season.

22: Seconds in between Max Christie 3-pointers on his 22nd birthday

Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images

As the lead see-sawed back and forth throughout the third quarter, young Cormac “Max” Christie was having a tough go of it on his 22nd birthday. He was shooting just 1-of-7 from the field and 0-of-4 from 3-point range before he found it in a big way late in the third.

He hit his first 3-ball with 51 seconds left in the third, along the right wing on a find from Marshall, to break the 86-86 tie. Just 22 seconds later, after Christie cleared the defensive board on the other end, Marshall found him wide open again, this time a little closer to the top of the key, for a 3-pointer that gave the Mavs a 92-86 cushion with 29 seconds left in the third. Christie scored eight points in the frame after scoring just two in the first half.

It was one of those poetic statistical anomalies that his first two 3-point makes of the game on his 22nd birthday came exactly 22 seconds apart. Christie finished with 15 points in the loss.

At least 3: Heroic Mavericks fans who fought the power

The tyranny of the Mavericks Gestapo has been on full display since the team returned home from their recent five-game road trip — the same road trip during which Luka Dončić was disappeared in the dead of the night, coincidentally. On the same night that Dončić would make his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers, images of fans inside the American Airlines Center were once again being preemptively censored by the down-feather-soft Mavericks and their wrong-headed crisis PR effort — at least that’s what we thought through Monday’s first half.

In the third quarter, they did a fun little karaoke cam thing, set to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” and the rebel alliance scored an important moral victory when one brave soul shouted “Fire Nico” when the cameras focused in on him. What a hero. What a legend.

He was later escorted out of the AAC by totalitarian Adelson regime Stormtroopers, it appears from social media posts from intrepid fans on the scene.

In the fourth quarter, boos rang out once again as two more heroic young martyrs got themselves kicked out by whipping out their “FIRE NICO” signs.

These young men are the embodiment of not going gentle into that good night. They are living reminders that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that we must FIGHT THE POWER when corruption reigns. Mavs Moneyball salutes you all for your service to the Republic.

22/6: Kyrie Irving scoring and rebounding after halftime

After getting out to another slow start on Monday, Irving took over in the second half, scoring seven in the third and 11 more in the fourth quarter to bring the shaky Mavs home. He split two defenders and scored on a tough twisting drive inside with 15 seconds left in regulation to put Dallas up 116-114.

But the Mavs had no answer for DeRozan all night long. He scored over Christie on a fading mid-range jumper with just 11 seconds the next time down. Irving got his shot blocked by Malik Monk the next time down on a drive when the double-team came, and the Kings forced overtime. There were 21 lead changes and 15 ties in regulation on Monday.

But the Mavs shot themselves in the foot down the stretch in the overtime period. A pitiful effort blocking out on a missed Domantas Sabonis free throw, an awful exercise in shot selection by Irving and a bone-headed foul by Marshall on a DeRozan jump shot appeared to sink the Mavs’ hopes in the final minute. That is, until Klay Thompson nailed a big 3-pointer to put the Mavericks back in front, 128-127, with nine ticks left.

On the Kings’ final possession, DeRozan stepped through the worst attempt at a double-team ever along the baseline and swished home a little middy to put him at 42 points for the night and put the game away. It was a sickening loss, but one this team and this organization deserved in the end.

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