{"id":522106,"date":"2026-01-07T08:22:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522106\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:22:26","slug":"the-mavs-pull-out-the-100-98-win-over-the-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522106\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mavs pull out the 100-98 win over the Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> played a late game against the Sacramento Kings<\/a> on Tuesday night. Dallas was looking for a win after having lost the last four to the Kings and managed to stop the slide with a 100-98 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to the grades!<\/p>\n

20 PTS \/ 8 REB \/ 6 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK – 35 MIN<\/p>\n

So, the Flagg-as-point-guard experiment wasn\u2019t just a one-off against Houston. Of interest was how much better Flagg played when Anthony Davis was not on the floor with him. Flagg scored nine points almost instantly after Davis went to the bench, then didn\u2019t score again (in the first half) after Davis checked back in. Otherwise he had a solid game with some clutch play when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

11 PTS \/ 3 REB \/ 2 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK – 36 MIN<\/p>\n

Christie has been something of a revelation of late. Bringing a more versatile game has been extremely enjoyable to watch and is starting to make me feel like he could be a meaningful part of the future alongside Flagg. He actively rebounds, doesn\u2019t exclusively live at the three-point line, and makes some good drives which often result in fouls. His shooting was nowhere near as hot as we\u2019ve seen, and this was unfortunately the worst game he\u2019s had in recent days, yet he somehow still showed flashes rather than disappearing at the three-point line.<\/p>\n

15 PTS \/ 7 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 0 BLK – 32 MIN<\/p>\n

Marshall had a strange game, with his first shot attempt coming with about three minutes remaining in the first half, after he had already turned it over twice. The best description of his game was \u201cmeh\u201d in the first half, then quite solid in the second half with good shooting and a couple of nice putbacks, a bone-headed turnover, a game-tying three pointer with two minutes remaining, and then two bricked free throws in the waning seconds that could have iced things. Strange indeed.<\/p>\n

10 PTS \/ 13 REB \/ 0 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 1 BLK – 22 MIN<\/p>\n

Gafford probably had the consistently best game of anyone on the team. It was nothing especially flashy, but he hit his shots (5-for-8), rebounded well and generally had a positive impact, earning all of his double-figure rebounds.<\/p>\n

19 PTS \/ 16 REB \/ 2 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 2 BLK – 36 MIN<\/p>\n

Davis was a mixed bag. As the biggest big man on the court most of the game, he bullied on offense early. Defensively, he allowed a handful of three-pointers to hoist right in his face (though covering wings will do that) and easily could have had a few more rebounds \u2013 token box outs and mistimed jumps were too frequent. An early double-double wasn\u2019t enough to help his grade, especially after his offense disappeared and after a stretch where he missed three straight shots that derailed a Mavs\u2019 run in the third quarter. 7-for-23 overall sunk his grade.<\/p>\n

18 PTS \/ 2 REB \/ 2 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 0 BLK – 27 MIN<\/p>\n

Williams had a couple of nice plays and even a few nice defensive efforts that earned him steals. His turnovers and fouls hurt, though he had a great sequence of grabbing a hard-fought rebound, then scoring and drawing an and-one to tie the game. With a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, he stroked a shot to put the Mavs up by two. Then he canned a three-pointer with 30 seconds remaining to put the Mavs up two again. 7-for-13 from the floor and being a huge reason the Mavs won gives Williams a grade boost.<\/p>\n

6 PTS \/ 2 REB \/ 0 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK – 27 MIN<\/p>\n

Klay could not find his shot. Thursday is a new game. That is all.<\/p>\n

After watching this game, I\u2019m somewhat hopeful that the Mavs are quietly tanking. To get this badly outplayed by an eight-win team is concerning, unless they were ok with taking an L. Yes, I realize the Mavs won, but with six players in double-figure scoring and trailing the majority of the game only to pull out a two-point victory (that came down to a Kings miss at the buzzer), there are some questions. For now, we take the win and look forward to Thursday.<\/p>\n

I invite you to follow me @_80MPH<\/a> on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball<\/a> for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks played a late game against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. Dallas was looking for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,39459,52332,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-522106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-mavericks-game-coverage","14":"tag-mavericks-scores","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115852852863642532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}