Short-Handed Mavericks dominate Wizards at home, 130-108, sweep season series

The Dallas Mavericks have an important three-game stretch against winnable teams coming up, which started with Monday's home contest against the lowly Washington Wizards. Nine players were missing combined between both teams, including Luka Doncic, Dereck Lively II, Naji Marshall, and Malcolm Brogdon.

With those players out, the Mavericks started Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington, and Daniel Gafford, while Washington went with Jordan Poole, Bilal Coulibaly, Kyshawn George, Kyle Kuzma, and Alex Sarr as their first five.

It was a near-perfect start for the Mavericks, as Klay Thompson had six early points as they took an early 13-2 lead. Thompson continued that hot start, as he had 15 points midway through the quarter, forcing two timeouts by the Wizards. As Washington started to key on him more behind the arc, he showed off elite playmaking, then continued to light it up from three. By the time he checked out of the first quarter with about 1:30 to go, he had 21 points, two assists, and two rebounds on 7/10 three-point shooting, tying a team-record for most threes made in a quarter.

That was the main story of the first, as Dallas took a 42-16 lead into the second, with Klay outscoring the Wizards by himself.

Washington would get the offense rolling in the second quarter, getting a few early points from Jonas Valanciunas and Bilal Coulibaly. Unfortunately for them, Klay Thompson's hot start spread to the rest of the team.

Jaden Hardy knocked in a couple of threes, PJ Washington scored nine points in the quarter, Olivier-Maxence Prosper scored, and Daniel Gafford scored six, and Daniel Gafford scored five to give Dallas a 30-point advantage, 73-43, heading into halftime. The Mavericks shot 13/26 from three in the first half compared to Washington's 4/18, easily the biggest reason they had such a large lead heading into halftime.

Daniel Gafford stayed in attack mode in the second half, scoring nine points and blocking two shots in the first seven minutes to help stretch Dallas' lead. Jonas Valanciunas started the second half for Washington in place of Alex Sarr, who rolled his ankle in the first half, and while Valanciunas was giving the Wizards some offense, he was a no-show on defense, letting Dallas get whatever they wanted in the paint.

After Dallas nearly pushed the lead to 40, Washington scored eight straight for their longest run of the game toward the end of the third quarter. Despite that run, which saw former Maverick Richaun Holmes get some burn for the Wizards, Dallas was still able to take a 101-76 lead into the fourth quarter, though Jordan Poole did hit a logo three to shrink the gap a little as the quarter was coming to a close.

With the game mostly out of hand, Jason Kidd started to use some more of the bench, with Markieff Morris and Kessler Edwards getting some extra use, but that allowed Washington to get the lead down to 22 in the first four minutes.

Kylor Kelley then made his NBA debut after the Mavericks signed him to a two-way contract on Sunday due to all of their injuries in the frontcourt. With Kelley in the game, Dallas was able to cruise to a 130-108 victory.

Dallas dominated this game from the three-point line, shooting 20/45 (44.4%) from behind the arc compared to 11/37 (29.7%) three-point shooting from Washington.

Klay Thompson didn't score a single point in the second half, yet still led the Mavericks in scoring with 23. He only played 24 minutes, speaking to how efficient of a beatdown this was. Olivier-Maxence Prosper was hot on his tail, as he continued his hot stretch of play recently by scoring 20 points, tying a career-high. P.J. Washington (19 points, nine rebounds), Daniel Gafford (18 points, eight rebounds, five blocks), Kyrie Irving (13 points, five rebounds, five assists), and Jaden Hardy were also in double figures for the Mavs.

Bilal Coulibaly (16 points, 6/15 FG shooting), Jordan Poole (15 points, 6/15 shooting), and Corey Kispert (15 points) were the only Wizards with 10+ points.

The Mavericks will travel to New Orleans to take on the Pelicans on Wednesday night.

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