The Dallas Mavericks got back on track with a 114-108 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday night. This was a much-needed win for Dallas, and while it wasn't always pretty, they played well enough down the stretch to get the win. In a rare development, the Mavericks didn't win through finesse, but simply by being tougher and more aggressive than the Heat.
Luka Doncic led all scorers with 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. Blah, blah, he's a 30-point triple-double again, just another routine night for Doncic. Kyrie Irving had a quiet 23 points and Terry Rozier led the Heat with 27 points.
The three stats for the game are:
10: Mavericks offensive rebounds
Dallas held the offensive glass tonight. They outscored Miami 10-2 in offensive boards. P.J. Washington recorded four of his offensive rebounds himself. Derek Lively II and Daniel Gafford both had two. The Mavericks just made the Heat look small and passive all night, but it paid off in the end.
+11: Mavericks have an advantage in second chance points.
All this activity on the offensive end gave the Mavericks an advantage in second-chance points tonight. They aren't usually good at that, ranking just 20th in the NBA rankings, scoring just 13.4 points per game. Tonight they had 16 and held the Heat to just five. This was a big deal considering the game ended up being a mere 6 point difference. In fact, the Heat outscored the Mavericks 44-39 percent from deep. However, the Mavericks were able to overcome that by crushing the Heat on the boards and on defense.
6: Number of blocks by Dallas
The Mavericks' big teams patrolled the lanes aggressively tonight. They ended up with six blocks, which wasn't a ton but was indicative of how well they controlled the paint against the Heat. As mentioned above, Miami looked small and passive as the game progressed. It was refreshing to see Dallas being a more physical team, and blocking seemed like a big part of that. Kleber seemed a little squeamish but had two of them.
