{"id":634252,"date":"2026-03-02T11:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634252\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T11:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:05:27","slug":"player-grades-recapping-the-mavericks-vs-the-thunder-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/634252\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades \u2013 Recapping the Mavericks vs. the Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> started the month of March hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. Still without Cooper Flagg as they closed out their homestand, Dallas fell 100-87<\/a> to the league\u2019s best team.<\/p>\n

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

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Brandon Williams: B14 PTS \/ 3 REB \/ 3 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 24 MIN<\/p>\n

Williams wasn\u2019t exactly hot on 5-for-12 shooting, but did some nice things to drive and break down the defense a bit (though some of his misses were point blank). He put up a generally solid game against a very good team.<\/p>\n

Max Christie: B14 PTS \/ 7 REB \/ 0 AST \/ 2 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 35 MIN<\/p>\n

Christie quietly had himself a good night. He knocked in five of his 11 shots including going 4-for-8 from deep. He turned it over twice relative to zero assists, but did have two steals and did some of the little things you like to see. He didn\u2019t get to the line at all, and it would be nice to see him driving a bit more to earn those free throws. He has been at his best this season when not exclusively camping out on the perimeter.<\/p>\n

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Caleb Martin: B+18 PTS \/ 3 REB \/ 0 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 31 MIN<\/p>\n

Martin was Dallas\u2019 shining star, which should tell you all you need to know. That\u2019s not intended to be a dig, as he did have himself a nice game, however Martin as your leading scorer is indicative of an odd night indeed. He was 6-for-11including a hot 3-for-5 from downtown. Oddly, his 3-for-6 on free throws were the worst aspect of his shooting.<\/p>\n

Khris Middleton: D4 PTS \/ 2 REB \/ 3 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 25 MIN<\/p>\n

Middleton is significantly better than what he showed tonight. This is a \u201ctoss it away and start fresh\u201d type of game. He was 2-for-10 shooting overall including 0-for-3 from deep and somehow committed five fouls.<\/p>\n

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Daniel Gafford: C8 PTS \/ 7 REB \/ 2 AST \/ 1 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 22 MIN<\/p>\n

It\u2019s coming to a point where maybe I have to accept what was heretofore unacceptable to me \u2013 that Gafford is not a natural rebounder. However, in exactly six more minutes, Gafford pulled in five fewer rebounds than Moussa Cisse, his backup. Shooting only 3-for-9 from the floor didn\u2019t help things. Gafford is too big and too athletic to not be doing more with the opportunities he has.<\/p>\n

Klay Thompson: N\/A7 PTS \/ 0 REB \/ 1 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 15 MIN<\/p>\n

Thompson doesn\u2019t qualify for a grade in only 15 minutes of play, though his shooting was likely trending toward lower marks as he was 3-for-8 from the floor and 1-for-5 from deep. The real story for Thompson tonight was an adductor contusion<\/a> that caused him to check out and not return. Time will tell how long he will remain sidelined.<\/p>\n

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Moussa Cisse: B0 PTS \/ 12 REB \/ 0 AST \/ 0 STL \/ 0 BLK \u2013 21 MIN<\/p>\n

Cisse was a rebound machine, grabbing nine in his first nine minutes of play and ending with 12 total. In one of the most bizarre stat lines you will ever see, Cisse did one thing spectacularly well, while doing nothing else. He turned it over twice while committing a single foul and was impossibly only one of two players with a plus\/minus in the black, joining Ryan Nembhard with a plus-1.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/p>\n

The Mavs faired much better than could reasonably have been expected against OKC, but that was largely because the Thunder played with their food rather than stepping on the gas. At any moment, the Mavs could have, and did, roll out a lineup nearly exclusively of two-way or former two-way players against the team with the best record in the league. As always, Dallas played hard, but it was ultimately for naught against a much healthier and much more seasoned and experienced defending-champion team.<\/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 started the month of March hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder. Still without Cooper Flagg as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[6071,20309,7,10823,6461,225,686,149,4057,2619,568,2039,498,166,7139,25746,6,179,59567,9856,1928],"class_list":["post-634252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-mavericks","tag-american-airlines-center","tag-ast","tag-basketball","tag-brandon-williams","tag-caleb-martin","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dallasmavericks","tag-daniel-gafford","tag-getty-images","tag-khris-middleton","tag-klay-thompson","tag-mavericks","tag-max-christie","tag-moussa-cisse","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-reb","tag-ryan-nembhard","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116159258659912656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634252","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=634252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}