Klay Thompson did something in Thursday’s season-opening win that no other Maverick has done in their debut with the team.
The Dallas Mavericks (1-0) executed well in stretches but left some meat on the bone in Thursday’s season-opening 120-109 win over the San Antonio Spurs (0-1) at American Airlines Center. The Mavericks knocked off some rust in the first quarter before they built their lead in the third and fourth quarters.
It wasn’t dominant, but the win offered a glimpse in stretches into the offensive firepower Dallas has at its disposal. Luka Dončić came alive in the second half to lead all scorers with 28 points, grab 10 rebounds and dish eight assists. He led six Mavericks scorers in double figures after starting the game on a pronounced cold streak from the field. Dereck Lively II came off the bench to fill up the stat sheet with 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in 28 minutes.
Victor Wembanyama finished with 17 points and nine rebounds on 5-of-18 shooting from the field, while Jeremy Sochan and Julian Champagnie each tallied 18 for the Spurs in the loss. There was at least one even more remarkable performance along the way. Here are six stats that stood out from the Mavericks’ season-opening statement over San Antonio.
6-of-10: Klay Thompson’s record-setting Mavs debut
Who said Klay Thompson was washed? Who said adding Thompson wouldn’t work? He chucked those notions out the window Thursday like so many made 3-pointers (he ended the night with six of them). Thompson eased his way into the revamped Mavericks’ offensive flow like a freight train, hitting 6-of-10 3-pointers in his Dallas debut. Thompson found himself open enough on Thursday to settle into a new offense in short order.
With his sixth, which came with 8:14 left to play, Thompson broke a team record for made 3-pointers in a Dallas Mavericks debut. The short-term returns are impressive, but there’s still a potential bonanza on our hands in the long-term, Mavs fans.
With his 3-pointer at the 8:14 mark of the fourth quarter, Klay Thompson set a franchise record for most 3-pointers made in a Mavs debut with 6 3s, per @EliasSports. pic.twitter.com/nNHJUbRcB8
— Mavs PR (@MavsPR) October 25, 2024
“Couldn’t ask for a better start. To see it all come to fruition was awesome,” Thompson said in his postgame interview on TNT. “This was just a small step toward where we want to go, but it’s something we can build on. … Mavs blue looks good on me. I’m having a great time.”
Thompson finished with 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, but he did more than just shoot. He nabbed three steals, grabbed seven rebounds and made his presence felt on both ends of the floor in his 26 minutes.
Klay drills his 6th 3 in his first game as a Mav! (New Team Record) pic.twitter.com/ALmHRDuOv7
— MavsHighlights (@MavsHighlights) October 25, 2024
5-for-5: Harrison Barnes’ first-quarter shooting
Former Maverick forward Harrison Barnes, who was traded to the Spurs in a three-team deal this July with the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls, shot the lights out to start the game. He scored 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting in a span of about 3:30 in the middle of the first quarter.
His midrange floater with 8:17 left in the opening frame gave San Antonio an early 8-4 lead, and then he drove through the teeth of the Dallas defense with just seven minutes to play in the first to tie the game at 12-12. Then he hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions, and a pull-up in the midrange on the next, to give him a game-high 12 and the Spurs a 20-15 lead with 4:41 to play in the first.
It was vintage HB in the game’s first moments, which I’m sure you all had on your season-opening Bingo cards, while Luka Dončić was tepid at best from the field to start the game, and so was Victor Wembanyama. San Antonio led 22-20 after one, and Barnes would finish the game with 17 points.
3-of-15: Luka and Wemby’s combined shooting start
Speaking of Dončić and Wembanyama’s slow start, the numbers do a pretty good job of quantifying the combination of rust and first-game jitters on display for the game’s first quarter and change. Wemby started the game just 1-of-6 from the field, with three rebounds and four turnovers through the game’s first 17 minutes. Dončić bothered him on defense early on, and so did Lively and even Thompson on one possession.
To the same point in the game, Dončić shot just 2-of-9 from the field, including 0-for-3 on his first 3-point attempts of the year, as he shook off the rust from missing all four preseason games with a calf injury. He hit his next two attempts from the midrange out of a Mavericks timeout taken with 6:57 left in the second quarter, then missed two more 3-point attempts before the break. Most of Dončić’s misses were short to start the game.
Dončić went 4-for-14 from the field and 0-for-5 from 3-point range in the first half, while Wemby shot 2-of-8, including 0-of-2 from deep. San Antonio led 49-47 at the break.
6-of-8: Dallas’ 3-point shooting out of halftime
Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images
When Thompson, Dončić and Kyrie Irving start to collectively heat up from the perimeter, this Dallas bunch is going to be tough to keep up with. The first evidence of this unfolded right out of halftime, when that trio turned the 49-47 deficit into an 11-point lead with the quickness in the first 4:30 of the third. Thompson hit two rhythm 3-balls and Dončić and Irving each manufactured their own deep balls with perfect step-back looks. Then Irving hit a spot-up 3-pointer for his third of the game to put Dallas up 66-55 with 7:30 left in the third.
When P.J. Washington joined the party with his first made 3-ball just 20 seconds later, the Mavs were up 69-55, forcing Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to take a timeout. Dallas had responded to a 6-for-23 3-point shooting performance in the first half by canning six of their first eight to take control of the game out of halftime.
Dallas ended up making an eye-popping 13-of-21 3-point attempts as a team in the second half Thursday.
13-2: Spurs’ third-quarter run in response
The 14-point lead late in the third marked the Mavericks’ first chance of the season to put away an inferior opponent with a decisive run or shut-down stretch. It was somewhat disappointing, then, that they just didn’t get it done.
The Spurs responded with a 13-2 run late in the third to stay within reach. Jeremy Sochan keyed the run with driving buckets on back-to-back possessions before Wemby and Chris Paul hit big 3-pointers two minutes later to bring the Spurs back to within three, down 71-68 with 4:17 left in the third quarter.
Dallas took a 77-70 lead into the fourth, offering the Mavs a second opportunity to put San Antonio away.
19-to-9: Mavs dominate the turnover game
Thompson and Dončić hit 3-pointers early in the fourth that helped grow the Mavs’ seven-point lead to 17 less than three minutes into the fourth. Dončić’s third of the game was a running pull-up with 9:44 left to play that put the Mavs up 100-83 and forced another San Antonio timeout.
“Luka makes the game easier for not only myself but everybody,” Thompson said. “His passing ability is second to none. I’m just here to help him be one of the greatest. The show runs through him, but it takes a whole squad to go where we want to go.”
Whether the Mavs were in a cold or hot stretch, the Spurs had a ball-control problem all game long, and that’s ultimately what kept them from mounting a more serious comeback attempt. The Mavericks scored 17 points off the Spurs’ 19 turnovers in a game they ultimately won by 11 points, so, enough said.
San Antonio coughed it up seven times in the first quarter alone and committed five more turnovers in the second. Dallas didn’t commit its seventh turnover until midway through the third quarter. The Spurs were 27th in the NBA last season at more than 15 turnovers per game, and that penchant for letting go of the ball didn’t help them one bit on Thursday.
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