{"id":538035,"date":"2026-01-15T09:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/538035\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:37:27","slug":"player-grades-recapping-mavericks-vs-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/538035\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades: Recapping Mavericks vs. Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> were on the first night of a back-to-back Wednesday when they hosted the Denver Nuggets<\/a>. The Mavs have had success against the Nuggets this year, but took a 118-109 loss<\/a> in this one.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll keep this Grades piece concise. The game was abysmal, featured multiple injuries, and we have a quick turn-around to a game tomorrow. Let\u2019s get to the grades!<\/p>\n

8 PTS \/ 4 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK – 28 MIN<\/p>\n

Hardy tossed bricks for most of the night and couldn\u2019t quite leave his finger prints on the game. He took care of the ball, but largely because he didn\u2019t pass all that much, as evidenced by his assist total.<\/p>\n

24 PTS \/ 5 REB \/ 3 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK – 38 MIN<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to imagine what this game would have looked like without Marshall. His rebounding and assist total weren\u2019t off the charts, but his shooting was excellent and he was the only player that could score with regularity.<\/p>\n

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

Flagg shot poorly (3-for-9), which was a theme for Dallas in this one. He rolled his ankle for the second game in a row, returned to the floor, but then sat out the second half. It might be worth it to give him a night or two off at some point, and tomorrow\u2019s game is an ideal opportunity to do just that.<\/p>\n

12 PTS \/ 6 REB \/ 2 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK – 31 MIN<\/p>\n

Washington gets a bit of a break on his grade since he\u2019s coming off an injury, but there was really nothing pretty about his game. There was rust on his shot and he was largely ineffective in somewhat limited minutes.<\/p>\n

6 PTS \/ 10 REB \/ 0 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK – 18 MIN<\/p>\n

Gafford had a nice game, highlighted by double-figure rebounds, yet didn\u2019t have a material impact. This is especially true relative to his lack of steals or blocks and not being able to capitalize more against an undersized Nuggets team. He played through an injury, but went to the bench for good in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

20 PTS \/ 7 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 1 BLK – 25 MIN<\/p>\n

Williams put up good numbers, but couldn\u2019t hit layups or three-pointers. His strength is a quick first step to blow by opponents, but not being able to finish negates that.<\/p>\n

15 PTS \/ 4 REB \/ 3 AST \/ 3 STL \/ 0 BLK – 23 MIN<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not often we get to grade Martin. He joined Marshall as really the only other player that put up decent numbers relative to minutes, with an effort that actually impacted the game. He was a huge part of a big third quarter run to keep the game interesting before it fell apart again. He couldn\u2019t miss and his steal total was impressive.<\/p>\n

The game was a mess, accentuated by some of the worst three-point shooting imaginable. Then Caleb Martin of all players led a huge comeback to keep things interesting going into the fourth quarter. The Nuggets woke up and put things to bed.<\/p>\n

There was very little redeemable about this game and even less that was memorable. The biggest story is the status of Cooper Flagg after rolling his ankle. The injury didn\u2019t seem serious, but it won\u2019t be surprising to see him get a rest on 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 were on the first night of a back-to-back Wednesday when they hosted the Denver Nuggets.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,39459,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-538035","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-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115898446207257277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538035","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=538035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}